Yuendumu Community Update May 2016

Creating a safe place for children in school

Leaders of the Yuendumu Community are creating a safer school environment for students attending the Yuendumu School. Leaders held a community meeting at Peace Park in November 2014 to discuss the impact of bullying on school attendance and academic achievement. Jimmy Langdon, a community-based staff member of the WCE initiative stated:

It is important to make the school a safe place. If kids learn violence or if parents encourage violence then the kids will not get an education. This will not create a future for our children.

Community meeting at Peace Park develop the Community School Safety Program

Eddie Robertson, Indigenous Engagement Officer, Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) stated:

We believe that education is vital to our children’s future but we need to help the families whose children experience bullying at school. It is important to deliver the message that school is a safe place for every child.

Collaboration between the WCE initiative and the Yuendumu Mediation Centre, identified as the ‘home’ of community leadership in Yuendumu supports the development of the Community School Safety Program. WCE staff provides mentoring activities and the Yuendumu Mediation Centre provides a pool of experienced mediators, who assist families affected by community unrest.Mediators will work closely with teachers to manage bullying in the classroom and supervise the school yard during lunch hour.

It is anticipated that safer school environments will increase school retention rates and strengthen pathways from early childhood to higher education.

NAILSMA work in Yuendumu

In Yuendumu, NAILSMA is working on the Warlpiri Bird Dictionary Project with the Yuendumu School Bilingual Resources Unit, the Yuendumu School Council, and other community members and local stakeholders. This project employs local senior people and provides an opportunity for them to pass on local cultural and ecological knowledge. It will ultimately create a useful resource for school and ranger programs. NAILSMA is also developing an I-Tracker application for desert birds that will enable community members and rangers to digitally collect, monitor and manage information about birds and their habitats.

For more information on Yuendumu, visit the community page