Article: We were controversial and challenging

We were controversial and challenging

Have we stopped domestic & family violence in remote communities? No. But we have made women much safer.

Kunbry Peipai (pictured) sat alongside staff and listened to women talking about domestic violence at early NPYWC meetings. The women were upset about police response to violence and the small jail sentences for offenders. Kunbry became a key founder and driver of the Domestic & Family Violence Service in the early years…

In 1993 several women went to a Domestic Violence Conference in Sydney, inspired and knowing they needed to do something in their own community. A a pilot program was first set up in Mutitjulu. The goal was to give women greater protection from violence…

aboriginal domestic violence

Many senior women in Mutitjulu were very supportive of the new service. What they were doing at the time was controversial and challenging. They encountered a lot of resistance from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men.

At the time, police did not believe Anangu women wanted to face the court system. The new service offered women support and confidence through the system. The Service and the police also worked together to improving how the criminal justice system responded to Anangu women in the region.

The service importantly gave voice and awareness to conversations on domestic and family violence in remote communities.

domestic violence aboriginal indigenous

The Domestic & Family Violence Service now works across the region, conducting casework, taking referrals, providing legal advice and education.

Women’s groups across the region gather together and share ideas about:

how violence occurs in the community and how it is being challenged;
the importance of culture to people in the community;
about trauma and healing;
about narrative approaches to working with communities’ own efforts to resist and challenge violence;
ways to grow community resilience.

Find out more about the NPYWC Domestic & Family Violence Service

Child & Family Wellbeing

Beating Failure to Thrive

The child nutrition team began in 1996 with the mandate of teaching young mothers how to cook…why then did the team begin running a massive career conference? At the time, new research indicated that even 1 extra year of schooling for young women, had a 3 fold effect on the health outcomes of their children. This, and seeing there were no big events for young women in communities …an idea was born to create an event that would encourage girls to stay in school and look at careers opportunities for themselves.

The first conference was really nerve wracking, we were never sure if anyone was going to show up…but in the evening before the conference dust heralded bus and car loads of young women arriving. 250 eager young women arrived.

Kungka Career Conference recruited high profile successful Aboriginal women to tell their story and share their skills. Some were successful health workers and some were Aboriginal leaders like Christine Anu and Evonne Goolagong.

goolagong aboriginal

Senior women attended the camps for authority and to support the young women, some of whom were inspired to continue their support of young people by becoming teachers and mentors.

aboriginal health career youth

Over 12 Kungka Career Conferences have been run and we can now look back and see how many of these young women have grown into community leaders and some taking flight with successful careers.

Find out more about the Child & Family Wellbeing Service

Tjanpi Desert Weavers

I was so proud that day!

Winning hearts, prizes & income for remote artists

Made beside the Blackstone Ranges, the tjanpi Toyota drove itself all the way to Darwin where it came right at the top of the 2005 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Mrs Benson (dec)

The Toyota celebrated the significance of peoples’ ability to travel big distances, to sustain customary practices like hunting, visiting relations and undertaking ceremonial responsibilities.
10 years earlier Tjanpi Desert Weavers had just begun with a series of fibre weaving workshops and the hope that that weaving could provide a “bread and butter” income for women in remote communities….

tjanpi aboriginal art

I was so proud that day! It was wonderful to be recognised and to be able to represent all the other weavers, especially the young ones who had helped. We had worked as a team and made group decisions. That’s what made it so enjoyable. It was a team effort. All the younger ones were very participatory ad has listened to our advice, and taken our suggestions on board. We enjoyed that part of it and that is what made the whole thing so special.’ – Mrs Benson (dec.)

Tjanpi Desert Weavers Women wanted meaningful and culturally appropriate employment on their homelands to better provide for their families – money saved from their work could provide meals, travel and vehicles of their own.

Building upon a long history of using natural fibres to make objects for ceremonial and daily use, women took quickly to coiled basketry and were soon sharing their new found skills with relatives and friends on neighbouring communities.

Now, in 2021 Tjanpi has provides income for over 400 Anangu women, it has exhibited and been acclaimed in public and private art institutions across Australia and the world.

tjanpi desert weavers aboriginal art

Rene Kulitja and some of the Tjanpi work featured in the Venice Biennale

Find out more about the TJanpi Desert Weavers

NPY Women's Council is grounded in, and continues to live and work on, the sovereign Lands of the Arrernte people, and the Aṉangu and Yarnangu people - the rightful custodians of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Lands.

We were controversial and challenging

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