November update: Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership

The Yuwaya Ngarra-li team presented to the Australian Social Policy Conference in November about what it takes for universities to work in a genuinely community-led way, distilling and communicating to a broad audience what we’ve learnt after working in collaboration over many years. Facilitated by UNSW’s Peta MacGillivray and introduced by Dharriwaa Elders Group Secretary, Virginia Robinson, this presentation centred DEG reflections and knowledge and explored key threads of our work.

Vanessa Hickey and Trish Sharpley both spoke about the experience of working within a community to which they are deeply connected, and how the Yuwaya Ngarra-li community led focus empowers the work they do. Vanessa described the urgency of working in a community led way.

“We can’t just give up on what our Ancestors fought for such a long, long time. You are listening to the community - it’s not you coming in and saying, you do this, no, communities are saying, this is the issue…. we are out in the field, with our community, asking the important questions, taking it back to our team and you are listening and taking the community’s worries, concerns on board, and we are trying to fix it to suit our needs, our way.”

Yuwaya Ngarra-li team presentation at Australian Social Policy Conference: ‘What does it take for universities to genuinely support community-led efforts to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people?’ Joint DEG-UNSW presentation to the Australian Social Policy Conference, November 2021.