Yuwaya Ngarra-li – ‘Vision’.
"The Dharriwaa Elders will lead a collaboration with UNSW and other supporters to grow our individual and community strengths and assets. We aim to restore a robust belonging to thriving families, community and country, while making our place in the nation and sharing our learning with other communities". Dharriwaa Elders Group, Walgett.
The purpose of Yuwaya Ngarra-li is for the Dharriwaa Elders Group (DEG) and UNSW to work in partnership to improve the wellbeing, social, built and physical environment and life pathways of Aboriginal people in Walgett through collaborating on evidence-based programs, research projects and capacity building, and to evaluate this model of CommUNIty-Led Development as a way of working with other Aboriginal communities.
Yuwaya Ngarra-li is an initiative that will promote two-way learning between Walgett's Dharriwaa Elders Group and a range of UNSW faculties, with long term academic leadership by ASsoc. Professor Ruth McCausland and keenly supported by the Vice-Chancellor
Warning: Images of deceased persons may appear. Yuwaalaraay / Gamilaraay pronunciation guide.
The Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership between Walgett's Dharriwaa Elders Group and the UNSW has a governance structure and process that is led by the Elders Council of the Dharriwaa Elders Group in Walgett.
Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service & Walgett Shire Council is being supported by YN to improve public access throughout Walgett to chilled high quality drinking water.
Yuwaya Ngarra-li hosted the Walgett Food Forum - "Food and Water is Life!" 8 April 2019. Read our statement here and report released 26 June 2019 here. The Dharriwaa Elders Group identified the need to improve access
Furthering our Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership with UNSW, DEG welcomed Professor Rebecca Ivers & Dr Mel Andersen
The Yuwaya Ngarrali partnership hosted a visit to Walgett of UNSW Education Faculty leader Professor Chris Davison, Dr Sue O’Neill and Honorary Professor Adrian Piccolli
DEG hosted collaborators in the UNSW Built Environment Faculty - Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard & Louise McKenzie
Elders inducted Assoc. Professor Jacqui Webster and Keziah Bennett-Brook to Walgett in February 2019
Dharriwaa Elders Group hosted "Impact Engineers" in Walgett in February 2019. DEG has long held concerns
Global Water Institute Engineers Greg Leslie, Martin Andersen and Melinda Wimborne who supports student-led projects were invited by Dharriwaa Elders Group to look at a range of Walgett water engineering challenges
Murat Dizdar, NSW Department of Education Deputy Secretary, School Operations and Performance,
On 9 August 2018 at Dharriwaa Elders Group Yuwaya Ngarra-li convened the first Walgett Youth Justice Working Group meeting, an idea from the Youth Justice Forum that community wanted included in the Action Plan for Children and Young People.
Yuwaya Ngarrali's Walgett project manager visited with the UNSW Science's Sm@rt Centre's Farshid Pahlevani
The Yuwaya Ngarrali team was very pleased to meet with Eva Lloyd and Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard from the UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment
Introducing May Miller-Dawkins and Kirsten Ridley. May is a researcher, advocate and coalition-builder
Read here about the Walgett Youth Justice Forum held 14, 15 March 2018.
Today (6 June 2018) we launched the Action Plan for Children and Young People. Read here about the Walgett Youth Justice Forum held 14, 15 March 2018 which informed the Action Plan.
UNSW honours student Aidan Alexander was invited to Walgett to work with DEG to scope energy needs of Walgett's Aboriginal community from early 2016.
While visiting Sydney to receive a NSW Justice Award in October 2017 DEG visited UNSW Science SM@RT Centre to meet with Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla and members of her team,
DEG's Project Manager and UNSW Dr Ruth McCausland, working for the DEG / UNSW Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership
Dharriwaa Elders Group invited its champion, Professor Eileen Baldry and her dedicated team at the University of NSW, to join with it in pursuing community-led, holistic approaches for Walgett's community development.
In August 2017, DEG's Wendy Spencer and UNSW Ruth McCausland met with the UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering team led by Anna Bruce, and Mike Roberts of Pingala, to discuss the next stages of Yuwaya Ngarrali's Walgett energy poverty relief projects.
This timeline summarises a history of some interactions between Walgett's Dharriwaa Elders Group and UNSW since 2006. Today in 2017, Yuwaya Ngarra-li employs two part-time staff who are working to build many ambitious outcomes for Walgett, an Aboriginal town in north west NSW.
On the 29th August 2017 Yuwaya Ngarra-li's Dr Ruth McCausland and Wendy Spencer met with Dr Martin Andersen, Director of the UNSW Connected Waters Institute and Dr Cameron Holley of the Faculty of Law to learn more about how they could work together.
Latest YN Publications
- Caring for Elders, Community and Culture: Briefing Paper
- UN Food Summit 2021 - Walgett Case Study
- Indigenous Community-Led Programs to Address Food and Water Security: Protocol for Systemic Review 2021
- CommUNIty-Led development: A partnership to realize Aboriginal Elders' vision for change 2021
- Statement 12 August 2019 re Walgett's Drinking Water
- Statement 12 August 2019 re Walgett's Food Security
- Yuwaya Ngarra-li Food Forum Report 2019
- Statement re enhancement of Walgett's water infrastructure 22 May 2019
- DEG's statement regarding findings of high salt levels in Walgett's drinking water 2018
- Walgett Action Plan for Children and Young People June 2018
- Walgett Youth Justice Forum Report June 2018
- Yuwaya Ngarra-li Youth Justice Forum Statement March 2018.
This logo shows the totem animals of the Dharriwaa Elders Group - Elders from three Aboriginal nations. The wayamba (short-necked turtle) for the Yuwaalaraay people, the dhinawan (emu) for the Ngayiimbaa people, and the bawurra (red kangaroo) for the Gamilaraay people. A gidjiirr (Acacia cambagei), an important hardwood tree for medicine and tools, is in the background
PO Box 174 Walgett NSW 2832 Australia