We Are Yapa

Synopsis

(Note: Yapa is the Warlpiri word for “people”, specifically meaning Aboriginal people) It’s been several months since the Australian Federal Government announced a national emergency and a drastic intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. On the edge of the Tanami Desert, one community that has found success creating its own programmes and organisations reeled in shock as the Government and the media broadly painted them as drunks, gamblers and child abusers. We Are Yapa examines the impact of the intervention in Yuendumu, a large Warlpiri community 300km northwest of Alice Springs. It will follow Peggy Nampijinpa Brown OAM, a co-founder of the internationally recognised Mt. Theo Substance Misuse Programme, as she struggles against the newly imposed bureaucracy which assumes control of community organisations. The new Labor Government has said that it will maintain the Community Development Employment Programme and the permit system, earmarked for scrapping under the original intervention, but Peggy and others are worried about the impact of the welfare reforms. Assuming no Aboriginal people spend their money responsibly, the welfare reforms are applied as a blanket measure. This means that people like Peggy, a woman who has dedicated her life to helping young people (and spending her own money to do so) will now have 50% of her pension quarantined. The Warlpiri are also worried that the changes to welfare will push more people in to Alice Springs, where problems with alcohol and violence are prolific and where language and culture are quickly lost. We are Yapa will follow one young man – Clayton Jampijinpa Sampson, a client of the Mt. Theo Programme, as he negotiates the perils of life in Alice and tries to get back on track at home in Yuendumu. Clayton is struggling, but for Peggy and others in Yuendumu, the initial shock and confusion of the intervention has been replaced by a gritty, fiery resolve to fight for their Warlpiri lives.