As part of the Yuendumu Youth Program, Wanta has introduced an exciting new cohort of activities that kicked off in the January 2025 holiday break, designed to continue into each of the holiday periods in 2025 and even into 2026. While fun and engagement will always be an important cornerstone of such programs, extra focus has been placed on learning, growth, sustainability and empowerment….in other words, impact focused.
These activities include an amazing music program and an incredible youth-led art and story-telling project, both of which seek to offer Yuendumu youth the opportunity to nurture and develop creativity, learn and embed leadership and team-building skills, create connection and build cultural learning and pride. Each of the programs will engage local yapa with the skills and desire to assist these youth achieve their goals, and hence the programs will have a long-lasting impact, not simply the ‘sugar hit’ of a once-off visit.
Despite extreme heat and important cultural business taking place during the opening stages of these programs, interest and positivity grew across our time with the project leads. The specific programs were able to develop frameworks, led by the youth outlining what they wanted to achieve and how this may look.
Art and story-telling, supported by Kaff-eine (renowned street artist, who has previously worked with Wanta and Yuendumu overseeing and creating incredible local street murals), is forging a path of creativity in which our amazing young people have said they wish to tell their colourful and varied stories via short films. Some of these films have already commenced with a basic script, while others are still finding their respective ways beyond the concept stage. Either which way, all participants are learning that making a short film can and does involve a lot more than simply holding an iPhone, and this thought has them very excited. Already they realise the benefit of working in small teams, with different members offering different skills and energies, will help achieve their end outcomes, and so we look forward to a stunning end of year short film festival, focused on imagination, creativity and youth-story-telling,
The music program, an exciting project being delivered in conjunction with PAW Media, and supported by Cal (teacher and accomplished, passionate musician) also has long-term goals, ones which go well beyond the delivery of a community-based, year end concert. Thoughts around a ‘Yuendumu Has Talent’ show are so exciting, and so too is the thought of local musicians engaged to help teach youth how to play particular instruments, how to put on a concert, how to create and distribute merchandise, how to record music, and so on. This is a program that seeks longevity, that seeks to build on an already strong musical culture in community and that seeks to offer these youth a range of potential employment pathways in a vibrant and exciting music industry.
At the end of the day, our focus on youth activities is more than simply offering something that occupies time, it offers safety, social and emotional wellbeing, connection, creativity and self-expression, and pride in community and culture. To then overlay activities such as aerial yoga (delivered by Gabrielle from Invert You), as part of our health and wellbeing program, reinforces this.
As always, programs such as these cannot be delivered without necessary community support and financial assistance, and to that extent Wanta thanks both the local Granites Mine Affected Area Aboriginal Corporation (GMAAAC) Committee and the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) who have seen the benefits our programs can deliver and therefore provided the necessary resources to make it possible.
Written by Neil Mackenzie – Social Enterprise Manager
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