Yipirinya School boarding house plans to go ahead with or without federal support

An Alice Springs school has submitted plans to build an 85-bedroom boarding house after decade-long debate.

An Alice Springs school is pushing forward with decade-long plans to create a safe place for its students and staff, with or without federal support.

The Yipirinya School, which has more than 300 students, has submitted plans to build an 85-bed boarding house to provide short stays for 20 staff and 65 children, expected to cost $5.8m.

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris, who is also an Alice Springs councillor, said the topic had become a political football and that they would fund the project themselves if the federal government wouldn’t back it.

“We’ve pushed forward with the proposal to get the boarding facility happening as quickly as possible because we just can’t be hamstrung by election cycles, all the to-ing and fro-ing in terms of whether this is gonna get funded or not,” he said.

“So many of our families and staff members are coming from absolutely dire conditions. “We’re dropping kids off in absolutely Fourth World conditions and you just have to take action - and that’s what we’re doing.

“The referendum which came and went in October made absolutely no difference to our day to day life. We are living in the ‘yes’, operationalising Aboriginal world views, putting forward Aboriginal community solutions based in community not parachuted in by well-intentioned white fellas from Canberra or well-intentioned Indigenous people from off country.

“So if the federal government wants to come out and say ‘no, we’re not going to deal with this’, please come out and say it, so we can move our attention to somewhere else because while we wait those costs will escalate and we will have students in harm’s way.”

Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris said the school would move forward with decade-long plans to build a boarding house for at-risk students. PIC: Grenville Turner

Mr Morris said the addition of on-campus housing would not only improve student engagement, attendance and educational outcomes but also reduce anti-social behaviour which has plagued the town in recent years.

“I have absolute belief that it will reduce crime threats in Alice Springs and increase employment opportunities in developing a generation of Aboriginal leaders with these kids who contribute to the community as opposed to destroying it,” he said.

“Because if we don’t create those leaders, and we don’t capture these kids now, they will be the next generation of Aboriginal community members who will destroy the community and we’re seeing that right across Alice Springs at the moment.”

As the only school in Australia to teach in four different Aboriginal languages alongside English, Mr Morris said Yipirinya was one of the nation’s “most important” with Aboriginal language and culture at the centre of the curriculum.

“We’ve got amazing language teachers who’ve got more than 100 years teaching experience between them, we’ve got the cultural equity on the ground, we’ve got Aboriginal community support and we’ve got a tripling in the numbers of enrolments and Aboriginal kids coming to school,” he said.

“We’ve addressed so many barriers and the last really big barrier that we need to attend to, to close the feedback loop in terms of providing holistic education is providing safe and secure accommodation.

“We are putting forward a very unique model which is backed by research which is backed by community and we will do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

The development proposal has been lodged with the Northern Territory Government and will now be considered for approval.