Aurukun

OPPORTUNITIES

• Cape York Employment • Cape York Leaders Program • Homelands • Mayi Market • MPower • O-Hub • Pama Language Centre • Pama Platform • Student Education Trust (SET) • Wise Buys

At the 2021 NAIDOC Awards, Keri Tamwoy was awarded 2021 Person of the Year.

July to December was a challenging period for Aurukun residents due to continuous bouts of community unrest. In a display of resilient leadership Mayor Keri Tamwoy worked closely with the community to increase safety and restore peace. Despite the challenges, the community shared a number of successes.

At the 2021 NAIDOC Awards, Keri Tamwoy was awarded 2021 Person of the Year. Keri has been making enormous changes in her community with her hard work and dedication. She is of the Putch Clan, Wik Mungkan people of remote western Cape York Peninsula, Chair of Aak Puul Nganta (APN), a qualified mediator and culturally recognised thaa’ punt (peacemaker). She has led campaigns with national headlines fighting for the retention of the Indigenousdesigned-and-led Family Responsibilities Commission, for the safety of children and their education. We congratulate Mayor Tamwoy on this great honour and look forward to watching and supporting her progress in the years to come. This October, Mayi Market held its first pop-up market in the Aurukun community. The arrival of Mayi Market was highly anticipated, as it offered an affordable alternative to the higher price of food within the community. Since its launch residents have purchased $5,800 worth of fresh produce packs of meat, fruit, vegetables and eggs. Later in October, Aurukun Shire Council officially opened its new airport terminal offering increased safety and airconditioned comfort for the more than 10,000 passengers a year that travel to and from the remote Cape York Peninsula Indigenous community for business, health and tourism. In November, WWASP (Winchanum, Wanum, Apalech Sara, Puch)—supported by Pama Futures— held a series of meetings in Aurukun to start building a local decision-making voice to negotiate directly with federal government and have a say on community priorities and service delivery. WWASP brings together the five clans of the Wik Nation. It’s tagline: Man Thayan means strong fearless voice. The meeting, led by a Wik Senior Backbone Officer and supported by council members and community representatives, discussed plans to ensure all the voices in the community are involved in planning priorities and designing the programs and services that affect Wik people. In December, the cumulative Aurukun Student Education Trust (SET) balance reached $612,480 across 363 accounts with a total of $1M in contributions to date. Aurukun are the second SET community to reach this impressive milestone. These funds were used to purchase laptops, accessories and education supplies for students. These significant figures show that Aurukun families are prioritising education expenses for their children. During July–December, there were 1,118 MPower members in Aurukun, 28 of whom were new to the service, which is the highest six-monthly increase since January–June 2019. These assessments show significant improvements in the material wellbeing of community members. Data shows that they also improved their financial behaviour and their ability to meet their family’s basic needs. The community feedback for services has been positive, with 100 per cent of surveyed MPower members saying they were treated fairly and felt listened to. The self-service facilities were used 2,652 times by 420 members, which is significantly higher than the same period last year (1,824 uses). After the launch of Pama Platform earlier in the year, Aurukun recorded 51 Pama members at the end of December, six of whom joined between July–December. During November, Cape York Employment (CYE) hosted Joint Services, an event where CYE staff assisted locals with services usually provided by the Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, and Blue Card Services. They also welcomed every attendee and referred them to the other services present as required, including the Indigenous Driver Licensing Unit, Services Australia, or Queensland Health who were providing COVID-19 vaccinations.