Central Land Council

Moving ahead: The Warlpiri Education and Training Trust

Royalty payments to Aboriginal people from mining on their country have attracted more than their fair share of negative publicity. But for the last four years, Warlpiri people from the CLC region have been using some of that money to educate themselves and their children.

Several years ago, the CLC made an agreement with mining giant Newmont Gold to make extra payments to the Kurra Aboriginal Corporation specifically for training and education.

The Warlpiri Education and Training Trust (WETT) was set up by the CLC to advise Kurra on suitable programs.

Educator Marlkirdi Napaljarri Rose from Lajamanu in the north west of the CLC's region, sits on the WETT advisory committee with members from Willowra, Yuendumu and Nyirripi and other education stakeholders.

“WETT is about using royalty money for further education and training for Warlpiri communities,” Ms Rose said.

“We have been talking about a lot of things that people have wanted to see, like a Warlpiri early childhood program, a Warlpiri youth and media program and a Warlpiri Learning Community Centre where we could go and do night school in our own community.

“There are other things we are funding which are very important, like secondary support for our children going to both our local schools and to boarding schools,” she said.

Funding has been approved by Kurra to support Warlpiri secondary students for the next three years through rewards, trips to and from boarding school, holidays away or family visits for boarding school students.

Last year Lajamanu students went to Melbourne for a school excursion.

WETT has engaged the Mt Theo Substrance Abuse Program to work on the youth media program and training has begun.

In partnership with World Vision, and with some Australian Government funding, WETT has also set up an early childhood program.

And access to library books and the internet are now possible through Community Learning Centres at Lajamanu. Willowra is still in the planning stage but money has been allocated for a new building.

Ms Rose said it's important that senior Aboriginal people now get paid with a small WETT allocation for their long, and often unrecognised, contribution in schools

She says these are projects that Warlpiri have wanted for years and the benefits of community ownership will be enormous.

“People are supportive because they want to see things happening in their communities.

“Some people don't understand what it's is all about. So we need to go in there and say ‘we're doing it for ourselves, for yapa (Warlpiri) people'. Not look at kardiya (non Aboriginal people) all the time,“ she said.

“It has taken the Government a long time to do what people have been asking for in education.

“With WETT because its yapa money, and its yapa saying ‘we want all these things happening in our community', some of it can happen now.

“I think it is really important that people come up with something like this that benefits the whole community. I think it has really helped people decide and think about how they want to spend their money.

“Education is important for Aboriginal children – it helps them become part of Warlpiri society and part of Western society, to learn to read and write in our own language as well as English,”

“Having something like WETT for our community really will make a difference to our children growing up and how they receive their education. We have community mentors involved and the programs are programs that people ask for themselves.” Ms Rose said.