Long-term priorities for Yuwaya Ngarra-li include supporting the capacity, governance, advocacy and leadership of Walgett Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), and the redirection of government funding towards strengths-based, holistic, community-led initiatives in Walgett. The building and centring of Aboriginal community capabilities and control in Yuwaya Ngarra-li's work is a key enabler of all other projects.
Advocating for long-term change
Yuwaya Ngarra-li is committed to supporting Walgett ACCOs' leadership, voices and priorities for long-term change in Walgett.
Our work has included:
- Data and support to enable meaningful participation by Walgett ACCOs in Closing the Gap processes
- Media training for Aboriginal leaders in Walgett
- Research to understand where government contracts and grants relating to Walgett are being allocated as a baseline and advocacy tool to enable increases in community control in coming years
- Producing resources that promote and teach the legacy, values and approaches of Walgett ACCOs
- Producing policy for Walgett ACCOs to advise NSW Parliamentary Inquiries, for example into food and water security and rural and remote health services.
Towards community-controlled budgeting and commissioning for better local outcomes
We have published two research and policy papers to assist public servants in meeting their Closing the Gap commitments in working with ACCOs:
- Creating Better Futures with Contracts covers how to improve access to information and participation in government procurements and grants
- Making Government Finances Make Sense for Communities covers how governments can improve information and participation around government budgeting and spending.
These papers provide insight into the experience of an ACCO trying to access information about government spending in their local community, shares case studies of positive practice in Australia and internationally and provides guidance on increasing government transparency and accountability, in line with Closing the Gap Priority Reform 4 commitments to operationalise Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles.
Publications
- Mel Flanagan & May Miller-Dawkins (2025) Yuwaya Ngarra-li Policy Paper: Making government finances make sense for communities.
- Peta MacGillivray, Virginia Robinson & Ruth McCausland (2025) 'An Elders-Led Response to the Criminalisation of Aboriginal Young People in a Remote Community', Chapter 31 in the Routledge International Handbook of Critical Policing Studies.
- May Miller-Dawkins, Wendy Spencer & Ruth McCausland (2024) Yuwaya Ngarra-li Briefing Paper: Processes to enable community-led, systemic and collaborative change.
- Dharriwaa Elders Group (2023) Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap Draft Report, submission to the Productivity Commission.
- Ruth McCausland, Peta MacGillivray, Sacha Kendall Jamieson & Virginia Robinson (2023) ‘The aged care system has failed Aboriginal people. Here's what Elders say needs to change’, The Conversation, 14 September.
- Mel Flanagan & May Miller-Dawkins in collaboration with Wendy Spencer & Ruth McCausland (2022) Creating better futures with contracts, Yuwaya Ngarra-li Policy Paper.
- Dharriwaa Elders Group (2022) Some responses to the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage (Culture is Identity) Bill 2022, submission to the NSW Planning and Environment Portfolio Committee.
- Virginia Robinson (2020) Yuwaya Ngarra-li Research Brief: Core Principles of our Partnership, Dharriwaa Elders Group.
- Ruth McCausland, May Miller-Dawkins, Peta MacGillivray, Rebecca Reeve, I Burton-Clark & Samantha Rich (2024) 'Research, Learning and Evaluation in the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership: How UNSW is Enabling Elders' Vision for Change', Transform: the Journal of Engaged Scholarship 8:17-43.
- Ruth McCausland, Sacha Kendall Jamieson, Virginia Robinson, Wendy Spencer, Peta MacGillivray & Melanie Andersen (2023) 'Elders' perspectives and priorities for ageing well in a remote Aboriginal community', Ageing & Society, 45(1): 31-54.
- Ruth McCausland, Wendy Spencer, Peta MacGillivray, Virginia Robinson, Vanessa Hickey, Eileen Baldry & Elizabeth McEntyre (2021) 'CommUNIty-Led development: A partnership to realize Aboriginal Elders’ vision for change', Community Development, 52(5): 573-591.
- Dharriwaa Elders Group (2018) Response to the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill 2018, submission to the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.
News
