Ngurrawaana Booklet

SNAPSHOT

NGURRAWAANA GROUP ABORIGINAL CORPERATION

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Ngurrawaana is the only permanent residential community for Yindjibarndi people in their ancestral country.

Seventy kilometres south as-the-crow-flies from Roebourne on the Yindjibarndi tableland, Ngurrawaana is sheltered and private—nested in a catchment that feeds Yarndanyirranha (Fortescue River) via Coondinar Creek and the Portland River—in the most beautiful country on earth.

It has deep historical and cultural associations for all Yindjibarndi people, and owes its existence to the proudest and most venerated of Yindjibarndi elders.

Ngurrawaana will never die. It’s greatest power and opportunity stirs like a giant under its feet, embodied in the traditional lands and spirits it keeps company.

HISTORYNgurrawaana ‘out-camp’—a place a long way from the troubles of The Village in the 1970s and early 80s—was pioneered in 1982 as an occupation of tribal country and an alcohol rehabilitation camp by Woodley King, Long Mack, Greg and Alma Tucker, and Len and Desley Norman amongst others. The name, Ngurrawaana, means a place of homecoming.The battle to get Government approval to establish a community at Ngurrawaana was a tough and long one, fudged and pushed away by the Government of the day—and on the other hand—helped by dedicated champions—Robert Hart and Carol Lockyer, long-time welfare officers in Roebourne; Bruce Duncan; Rob Mitchell, a DCW project officer; and members of the Catholic mission in Roebourne, Sister Bernadette, Sister Bernadine and their Perth-based comrade, Father John Gherardi.After being refused first options at Millstream Station and Daniel Well, King thought of a place he had regularly visited as a stockman, a place where he took his leisure and mustered cattle with Long Mack and Gordon Lockyer. On the fateful reconnaissance that once and for all finalised the choice, King told Bob Hart, “I smell that old well Bob”, Howlett’s Well. This was far enough away from Millstream Station operations not to worry the resident pastoralists. Soon after, King, Hart and fellow pioneer, Greg Tucker, took two boys who were on bail out of Roebourne town, up to Ngurrawaana. This demonstrated a purpose for the camp that the Government could understand—a camp for diverting Roebourne youth from detention at the horrendous Longmore juvenile detention centre in Perth. The urgency for such respite was sharpened by the fact that some 25 young Roebourne men and teenagers had died in Roebourne in recent years because of alcohol fuelled trauma following on the ill-planned and disastrous social impact of mining development.

A mass move by people to Ngurrawaana occurred on 2 March 1983. This move was supported by the good offices of the local DCW with some money for food, which, along with kangaroo meat the men hunted, kept the initial settlement going for 6 months. In the mean time Father John and the Sisters secured a grant from Australian Catholic Relief to buy the community’s first truck. This truck was vital to the survival of the community and enabled others seeking to get away from grog to move there. When a new well was sunk at the site of Howlett’s Well, a reliable, sweet source of water was confirmed, and the viability of the community was beyond doubt. In the early 1980s the State decided on Lockyer’s Gorge for their new Dam, and construction was underway in 1984. As part compensation and ‘good neighbour policy’ for massive damage to sacred sites in the area of Lockyer’s Gorge, the Roebourne community demanded compensation, which finally resulted in the grant of 21 year leases for Ngurrawaana Community and a much larger area running down to the Fortescue River (the Ieramugadu Lease); and Public Works graded a road to Ngurrawaana. The first houses were built by a ‘pommy’ contractor who drove in from the PWD camp at Millstream each day. DCW project officer Rob Mitchell gave valuable advice on how the community might reduce running costs by incorporating appropriate sustainable technologies—solar power and batteries; waterless toilets; special sealed-unit fridges. Greg Tucker was trained to maintain and monitor the energy system.


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Later development, influenced by the DAA, moved away from this approach and resulted in the construction of less efficient houses and an energy system dependent on a diesel powered, water cooled generator.The Ngurrawaana community block of 200 hectares is the only land in their tribal area to which Yindjibarndi have secure title.

NGURRAWAANA REMOTE COMMUNITY

SCHOOL: In March 2005 the Ngurrawaana Remote Community School opened. The Ngurrawaana school featured an art program; a Cultural Program; health clinic visits by a Doctor; a library open to all community members; media and computers; and employed community. The school was closed just a few years later when numbers of children living in the community fell away, however the buildings, which are owned by the Education Department, remain in place. With the growth of the community, and when there are once again enough children living there, the Ngurrawaana Community will bid for reopening of the school. It is a serious lesson for us all that the school did not survive more than a few years. The dream for Yindjibarndi education in home country lives on.

THE GENIUS OF NATURE/CULTURE: Fortunes at Ngurrawaana have risen and fallen over the thirty one years of its history, but its existence has never been in doubt. What is the reason for Ngurrawaana’s willful survival? Country. Culture. Keeping a foot in paradise.The creeks and rivers that run through the tableland, where, on every trip out we find the things belonging to the old people—grinding stones, stone quarries, spearheads, knives, axes, trees bearing the shape of a thardu or shield, pools, engravings, ochre, paintings, dinner camps, pathways and all the healing and nourishing animals and plants—connect us to cycles of life, to our songs, stories, dances, to our Law and language.

THE PAY-PACKET IS COOL—BEING ON

COUNTRY IS COOLER: YAC has been working with the Ngurrawaana community, Rangelands NRM and Juluwarlu on the Caring for Our Country program, which has been sponsored by the Commonwealth and the State (DPAW), and which aims to foster “an environment that is healthy, better protected, well managed, resilient and provides essential ecosystem services in a changing climate”. Management programs under the Caring for Our Country program protect biodiversity, including threatened species and biological/zoological communities, and combat feral animals and weeds.The success of this program relies—front and centre—on the participation of the Ngurrawaana Community, whose members make up all but one of the Ranger workforce. We employ five permanent rangers and three casuals. There are two women in the team, and two Ngaarda from other country. We welcome anyone who wants to have a go.We are starting from a strong position, and we intend to keep it this way. The country covered by the Ngurrawaana lease is in good condition. Spinifex communities are healthy and there are no severely eroded areas. Historical grazing pressure has been low and this has protected vegetation form any significant impacts.

EXCELLENCE & SUSTAINABILITY: The Ngurrawaana Community is determined to improve its viability and sustainability at the same time as looking after our natural resources.We want to develop a strong management structure that can work closely with the NRM Rangelands projects and finish them properly so the Ngurrawaana lease area is healthy in itself, and the Ngurra can help our people to be healthy too.With the Ngurrawaana Caring for Our Country program, our vision is to build a strong business in Conservation and Environmental management—to pass on traditional values of managing country as well as world class conservation management techniques—and foster a sense of pride, and dedication and belonging, giving maximum benefit to the ecosystem, and at the same time bringing more work.

CURRENT PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS


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NRM Rangelands Caring for Country Ranger Program

BUILDING KNOWLEDGE BASE: Internationally agreed principles recommend that conservation programs should include Community, Country and Economy. Our project will succeed only if it works to uplift and restore of the social web amongst our people. It will do this not just by creating employment and opportunity in the economy of the Pilbara (through Conservation and Tourism), but by involvement in study and research, collection of samples and surveys of Fauna and Flora, and the steady creation of a body of knowledge about our country, which will in turn foster respect and care from external users—both academic and recreational.

CULTURAL TOURISM: In the future our Ngaarda Rangers will work to build rich and faithful interpretation and educational trails teaching visitors about fauna and flora, dreaming stories, art, and love for country. This is the recipe for a Meaningful Tourism that uplifts both tourists and our community—culturally, spiritually, economically and most of all, by creating a healthy environment, and healthy, prosperous people.Eventually we intend to block all other roads to Gregory Gorge, make a new road running south from Ngurrawaana, and build a dedicated camping area with toilets, so heritage and country is protected, and it is not a four wheel drivers’ free-for-all. We aim to engage with our Gregory Gorge visitors, explaining the Cultural and Traditional history, while collecting overnight and day fees. Early response to this plan has been positive, with more than 90% of our visitors responding warmly to the knowledge that this stunning area will be managed properly.


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SKILLS: The NRM Rangelands project has facilitated training programs for eight of our Rangers, in use of chemicals and power tools, chainsaws, and trapping of feral animals. All trainees have been registered to complete the Land Management and Conservation certificate course offered by TAFE. They will also complete 4x4 wheel driving, senior first aid, and search and rescue certificates. We are also pushing to be consulted and involved in Fire Management of our country—Ngaarda style.Our trainees received special training over six months so they could undertake a 6 week work-program of weed spraying along the Fortescue River. This project concentrated on the lower part of the Fortescue River where heavy and thick infestations of Parkinsonia were found, starting from the railway bridge, working up-stream 12.5km and 160 meters from the bank, into the flowing part of the River.This skills base, developing a joyful work ethic, and delivering high quality work is the key to bringing in more caring for country work—whether it is in the national park, along the Rio rail lines, or for the Shire. This kind of work will never dry up—that’s why the Rangers Program is a winner, and will take us beyond Commonwealth and State funding. And as our experience grows our contracts will get bigger, and more sophisticated.


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RELATIONSHIPS: The Ngurrawaana Caring for Our Country program is building strong relationships with Community Partners that will serve us well into the future. • With assistance from Juluwarlu and its archiving

system, we will capture and store data of the country covering both abiotic and biotic information to guide and inform management of the country.

• Again, with Juluwarlu and its Yindjibarndi history project, we will document Yindjibarndi culture, language, songs, stories and religion.

• With Cheeditha Aboriginal Corporation we will enable participation and training of Cheeditha Community members to become future Rangers.

• With funding from Ngarluma & Yindjibarndi Foundation Limited Pty Ltd (NYFL) we will fix up our Rangers Office in Ngurrawaana.

• With Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) we will make the NRM Rangelands project a long-running success.

• With Red Dog 4x4 club we will end bush-bashing and teach respect for country.

• With DPAW, Rio Tinto, Watercorp and other interested parties we want to deliver cultural heritage and traditional orientation workshops.

• With DPAW we will work to make an MOU to facilitate joint management of projects on country.

• With Rio Tinto we want to negotiate resources to build a 10 year Ranger Program, similar to the Murujuga and Woodside programs.

PARTICIPATION IN BIG PICTURE

PLANNING: In time, with the consolidation of the Ngurrawaana Caring for Our Country program, Yindjibarndi will have a stronger capacity for participation in big picture planning for our country. We aim to create a new Conservation Management plan that will vastly improve the management of the 47,000 hectare ‘Ieramugadu Lease’; and as our skills and successes grow, we want a say about water extraction from Millstream, and a solid role in the joint management of the Millstream Chichester National Park with DPAW.

BIG HORIZON: To sum up—we are looking forward to identifying on-going, sustainable projects that will:• create permanent employment for our team, such

as controlling feral cattle and horses that destroy river banks, by putting in fences and water points across the lease;

• implement a controlled burning regime to improve the health of spinifex communities as well as reducing the threat of uncontrollable wildfires;

• wage unceasing war on Parkinsonia to make healthier waterways and reduce the risk of Parkinsonia spread along the Fortescue River;

• close bad roads and open better ones; • collect seed and establish of a native Flora

nursery; • create a breeding program for scarce native

animals such as the emu and reintroducing them into country;

• build a cultural tourism and ecotourism base to share our knowledge with wider Australians; and

• establish strict protocols and operations for protection of all Yindjibarndi Heritage and Traditional sites, especially around Gregory Gorge.


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In June 2014 about eight artists were working regularly in the Ngurrawaana community in the Rosemary Woodley Art Centre. Their achievement has been recognised by acceptance of four of their works into the prestigious Cossack Art Awards. A special feature of the Rosemary Woodley Art Centre program—which will be administrated by the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation who currently support the art centre with basic operational funds and in-kind contributions—will be the development of a unique style of art using mud cloth techniques along with more traditional ochre painting. This knowledge will be passed on to the 12 emerging artists who vary in age from young mothers to the elderly; and will include workshops, field trips on country and to other Aboriginal Art Centres, and an exhibition based on the distinctive Yindjibarndi stories and ochres. With the assistance of an arts mentor, who has already worked with the art centre in both a voluntary and paid capacity, our artists aim to build their profiles, organise registration of their art work, and develop their techniques and marketing. Already, they have established a market in Perth.The arts project will benefit in many ways by growing in the bosom of the country—real places will inspire the telling of stories for country and the passing of knowledge on to the younger generation; other Yindjibarndi artists will be encouraged to visit and work in country, and to develop their own style and build their profile. Importantly, the Rosemary Woodley Art Centre will provide income for individuals in the community in an activity that can embrace the elders as well as the general community—including Cheeditha Community members—and work towards nourishing culture and building self esteem.

ROSEMARY WOODLEY ARTS CENTRE

DIRECTORS Bianca Dann, Chet Woodley, David Woodley, Davin Woodley, Jessica Allan, Kingsley Woodley, Lisa Allan, Michael Lockyer, Ricky Smith, Rosemary Woodley, Samantha Allan, Shannon Smith (Current General Report 2013)

MEMBERSHIP 27 (Current General Report 2013)

ICN 146

ABN 78789257258

ADDRESS Ngurawaana Community, via ROEBOURNE WA 6718

POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 95 ROEBOURNE WA 6718

TELEPHONE 0891845106

CHAIRMANRicky Smith

CONTACT PERSON/SECRETARY Philip Davies

EMAIL ADDRESS [email protected]

Ngurrawaana Group Aboriginal Corporation was incorporated in March 1982, and operates today under the terms of the CATSI Act. It has a management structure made up of a Board of 12 Directors representing 27 members (2013). Ricky Smith is the chairman of the community.

GOVERNANCE & MEMBERSHIP

JULUWARLU GROUP ABORIGINAL CORPERATION

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INFRASTRUCTURE & GOVERNANCE

INFRASTRUCTURE & ASSETS Buildings at Ngurrawaana include 12 houses, incorporating men’s and women’s quarters; the former school now used as a community centre; a Ranger’s office and arts centre; and power generation shed. The community is serviced around the clock with power by diesel generator; and good quality gravity fed water from bore and elevated tank.

NGURRAWAANA GROUP LEASE: There are two areas of land connected to Ngurrawaana Group. Firstly, Ngurrawaana Group Aboriginal Corporation (NGAC) holds leasehold title to 200 hectares in Reserve 40617 for the “Use and Benefit of Aboriginal Inhabitants”, with an option to lease for any length of time, subject to the consent of the Minister for Lands. Ngurrawaana has applied to the Department of Regional Development and Lands for a freehold title to the property.There is no public access to the community. Accordingly, the land is not connected to a road reserve with the only means of access being via an informal track to the settlement.

YAC LEASE: A greater area, of 47,900 hectares, called the “Ieramugadu Lease”, was also granted to Ngurrawaana Group by the WA State Government as compensation for the construction of the Harding River Dam in the mid-1980s. In May 2013 a new agreement was made between the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and the Department of Water (DOW), which transferred the management of this area and the lease to YAC, to be held in trust on behalf of the whole Yindjibarndi nation. The period of the lease is for ten years, ending on 30 June 2023, with option for a further ten years. The finalisation of this agreement is pending.

ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE: While residents of Ngurrawaana are employed by the Ranger Program, whose funding goes through YAC, no Government funding is currently received by NGAC itself—aside from limited subsidy of special remote essential services (power).The lack of care or interest shown by Government for any sustained and well planned development program for Ngurrawaana, highlights the necessity for the community to stand steadfastly on its own legs by extending and broadening community-friendly development initiatives such as the Ranger and Arts Programs—and inventing new ones.

HOUSING & INFRASTRUCTURE: In the absence of public funding, YAC is working with the Ngurrawaana Community to establish a housing program and to tackle serious housing maintenance problems. This program will establish a rent program, and emergency repairs and renovation strategy. Already, YAC has funded the maintenance of the septics at Ngurrawaana valued at $18,000, and is currently scoping housing repairs and maintenance requirements.In the future we must look at providing infrastructure that will make the Ngurrawaana community more attractive and viable for families—community transport; a local store for emergency supplies; upgraded road; excellent phone and internet communications; guest accommodation—plus regular community and cultural events that bring people from the coast up to ‘God’s country’ on a regular basis.

ASPIRATIONS & PRIORITIES


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Ngurrawaana Booklet

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