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Voice over -- Introduction In this program we will look at the problems
caused by substance abuse and the way in which Central Australian communities have turned
around an addiction, that destroys the life and culture of so many of Australia's Indigenous
youth.
Narrator - Ryan Liddle Hello, I'm Ryan Liddle, the Indigenous community
of Australia is a very complex community indeed, the customs and life style of these varied
groups stretch back over 40,000 years. From what seems to be a simple existence of a hunter
gathering nation to a culture that combines the most complicated set of laws and values,
sometimes this traditional way of life becomes distracted and people seek alternative ways
of managing everyday living.
Voice over - Ryan Liddle Yuendumu is situated 290 kilometres west of
Alice Springs and is a thriving community of eight hundred people.
The people of Yuendumu face the same problems of living in remote Australia as other communities
do, the isolation, the boredom, domestic violence, alcohol abuse and of course petrol sniffing.
In early 1994 the community of Yuendumu was facing a crisis with over half the community's
young men and women in danger of serious health issues.
Johnny Miller an elder of Yuendumu saw the terrible situation that confronted his community
and became one of the driving forces in breaking the sniffing cycle.
Grab - Johnny Miller - Elder of Yuendumu They were really lost no one ever did care,
father or mother, grandfather nobody did care. They let them go to sleep, they were just
lost. They use to come back to the parents house. Out! Out! Get away you're sniffing
too much, that's the wrong way round. They were going round and round trying to get a
feed from the parents or someone else. They get a little bit but not much. Then go back
down and start sniffing again.
Voice over - Ryan Liddle Andrew Spojanovski (Stoi en off ski) was working
at Yuendumu in the early nineties when petrol sniffing reached crisis point.
Grab - Andrew Spojanovski - Worker - Mt Theo Project
In 1993 the year I first lived in Yuendumu there were 70 young people sniffing petrol
in our community. In our community 70 young people is like half the teenage population
was sniffing and so for young people back then, because there wasn't much of a youth
program, the cool and groovy thing to do was to go and sniff petrol. But petrol kills people.
So Yuendumu people they were really worried about the petrol sniffing, but still the kids
kept sniffing and sniffing and sniffing.
Well a lot of Aboriginal people and a lot of white people tried really hard to stop
petrol sniffing, all through that year of 1993 and by the start of 1994, you know people
were saying there's nothing you can do, we've tried our best, there is nothing you can do
-- let them die. People actually said that, it was really sad.
This is not a problem that is going to be solved if Yapa (Aboriginal people) look at
white people and say white fellows can solve it, and it's not a problem that is going to
be solved if white people look at Aboriginal people and say it's just an Aboriginal problem.
And it's not a problem that's going to be solved if we wait for the government, because
no government person is going to come to Yuendumu and sit down day after day and care for petrol
sniffers. This problem is only going to be solved if everyone in this community works
together.
Now this one woman, Peggy Brown, she wanted to move back to Mt Theo which was her husband's
country where she had been living before and she said that she would look after any kid
from Yuendumu, if the community would support her to live at Mt Theo. So we started taking
petrol sniffers from Yuendumu out to Mt Theo -- you know and not because those kids were
like I'm really sick of sniffing petrol or I want to get rehabilitated, no it was because
our community said we do not want you to die from petrol and we are forcing you, forcing
you to go to Mt Theo.
So yeah this working party we were resolved that we would work everyday and we thought
yeah three months no worries petrol sniffing would be finished - three months? It took
eight years and some of those kids we took them to Mt Theo twenty times. Eventually because
they couldn't hold onto that petrol sniffing culture, it finished. You know there was no
leadership in it. And you know people and kids started to think I don't want to sniff
petrol, I'll get sent out to Mt Theo -- you know. I don't want to you know, it's humbug,
I want to be free if I don't sniff petrol.
Voice over - Ryan Liddle Isolating the petrol sniffers at Mt Theo only
partially stopped the problem, so the community looked for an alternative program to continue
their fight.
Grab - Susie Low - Program Manager Yuendumu/ Mt Theo
In Yuendumu at the same time we have a huge youth program with one hundred hours of activities
every week, all activities are completely run by young people.
The next facet is very important within our program the Jaru Pirrjirdi program which stand
for strong voices and young people created that program themselves, it was a matter of
young people coming back from Mt Theo getting involved in youth programs, sporting activities,
discos, film nights and saying is this all there is? There must be more for my life,
so they actually asked for something deeper and more meaningful and that's how Jaru Pirrjirdi
was created.
Voice over - Ryan Liddle Maintaining connection with country at Mt
Theo has been ongoing and the continuation of these bush trips has proved to be the key
in retaining Warlpri culture.
As the strength of the youth of Yuendumu grew, the elders saw the dreams and aspirations
of these young people required a more formalised program.
A new approach evolved out of those needs and today six programs run under the umbrella
of the Jaru Pirrjirdi.
Grab - Susie Low - Program Manager Yuendumu/ Mt Theo
It's a progressive level of development, which starts with working in youth activities and
it's going right though to career options finding full time employment. But those ones
that come in at the first level are really considered to be quite high risk and it's
a chance for them to be surrounded by stronger young people and to have a sense of responsibility
in running activities for the youth program.
Grab - Brett Badger - Deputy Manager Yuendumu/ Mt Theo
Someone like Sebastian has come through this process and from all the things he has done
in that project, and just as much from cups of tea and just driving around and talking
story and being friends, we realised that he wanted to become a police officer. So we
helped him with that dream, it was really hard for him, he had to go away from his family
and do the training, and now he's a local police officer in Yuendumu.
Grab - Sebastian Waston What made me want to do that was just a want
to stay home and look after the community, with the help of the Constable, but what really
made me want to do that was just to do it for the people and see how they are and get
encouragement from them and the police as well.
Grab - Bruno Wilson - Health worker at Yuendumu They took me down the Mt Theo to stay there
for two months, and worked it out there, took my time there to think about it and not to
give up and to keep on going with my life, try to change things over.
Voice over - Ryan Liddle Bruno Watson is another positive role model
from the Jaru Pirrjirdi program.
Grab - Bruno Wilson - Health worker at Yuendumu When people see me walking or working at the
clinic and also I don't smoke or do bad stuff any more, just gave it up. I don't smoke anymore
and stuff and just became a good health worker from being nothing and being good, and I'm
a good example for others, it makes me proud when people - elders and little kids say you
have a good job.
Grab - Courtney/ Marla -- Yuendumu We look up to them as the leaders, yeah we
follow their way so we will get better and better and grow up older and what we learn
we teach the younger ones.
Voice over - Ryan Liddle Petrol sniffing has stopped at Yuendumu, but
for Mt Theo, the fight continues, the isolation and the ongoing connection with country plays
an important role for the people of Yuendumu and surrounding Warlpiri communities.
Grab - Susie Low - Program Manager Yuendumu/ Mt Theo
It was never a plan for it to be particularly spartan, it was certainly meant to be simple,
it was about taking people back to country, really so that young people who were getting
caught up with alcohol, drugs and at that stage sniffing that they could actually reconnect
with their culture because any type of substance they were abusing, was cutting then off from
their culture and they would become really quite weak. So it was a chance for them to
sit down really quietly away from the humbug of the community, away from peer pressure
and to be taught by elders who they really were inside and where they came from and how
they could be very proud Warlpiri young person and the simplicity of that lifestyle, I think
has been a key factor in the strength of young people coming out of there.
Grab - Courtney/ Marla - Yuendumu Family still loves you, and it's wrong that
you are hurting yourself inside, feeling that you are alone, but out there family do care
for you and they love you and they care about you.
Grab - Brett Badger - Deputy Manager Yuendumu/Mt Theo
That's what Jaru Pirrjirdi is all about, its being about creating the next generation of
leaders, generation of elders for Yuendumu. So that Yuendumu remains a strong place, Mt
Theo program remains a program that shows leadership, not just for Yuendumu but for
other communities, so it becomes a beacon of hope for all Aboriginal people so that
they know this can be done, this can be achieved and this was achieved by Yapa people, this
is a community based program, a community born program and this was something that didn't
have a lot of money, all it had was a lot of love, a lot of care and people caring about
each other.