Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves says youth funding gap will see ‘chaos’ in Yuendumu

Kids in Yuendumu ‘have got nothing and they’re bored so they go on a rampage’ in Alice Springs after further funding cuts to the community’s youth services, Warlpiri Eldes have warned.

Warlpiri elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves outside the Alice Springs Local Court last year during the inquest into Kumanjayi Walker’s death. Picture: Jason Walls

Yuendumu residents fear local kids left with nothing to do during the school holidays will “go on a rampage” after the federal government pulled funding for the community’s remaining youth programs.

Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves said the Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation had had the rug pulled from under it after its funding was diverted by the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

“In the media, they’re saying the problem is domestic violence or it’s alcohol,” he said.

“The truth it’s their decision to shut down these youth programs that is the problem.

“Now the kids have got nothing and they’re bored so they go on a rampage.”

Mr Hargraves said there would be “chaos” in Yuendumu without the vital services provided by WYDAC, which also provided services to the surrounding communities.

“(WYDAC is) running Nyirripi, Lajamanu, Yulara and they’re going to miss out,” he said.

“Right now we are really, really worried about our kids, we are really, really concerned about this.

“They go and start these new programs and everything, they’re just doing their own thing with no consultation, things are going downhill.

“Problems are coming up with petrol sniffing and boredom and vandalism and all these issues because there’s nothing for the kids to do because they took the programs away.”

Fellow Elder and former WYDAC director Otto Jungarrayi Sims said youths from Yuendumu would end up running amok on the streets of Alice Springs if there was nothing for them at home.

“The community’s in dire straits because we have the holidays and we have a footy match on the weekend which all our kids will rock up to in Alice springs and create another workout for the night patrol and the police — there’ll be chaos and we don’t want that to happen,” he said.

“They’ll be sniffing glue, sniffing spray, you name it and we don’t want that, we want our kids out bush.

“If there’s a program they’ll just chill out during the holiday break and just enjoy the good vibes living in a remote community with a successful program like WYDAC.”

It comes after the ABC reported the Central Land Council terminated its almost $2m contract with WYDAC last year, with chief executive Les Turner telling the broadcaster its youth programs had failed to deliver quality services.

“We made … expectations in relation to program governance, delivery and reporting very clear but WYDAC has proven unwilling or unable to deliver the contracted services,” he said.

Last year an inquest into the death of Warlpiri-Luritja teenager Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu in 2019 heard the Centrelink hold music was the soundtrack to the daily “humiliating grind” for families trying to make ends meet.

Institute of Postcolonial Studies director Melinda Hinkson told the inquiry the phasing out of the federal government’s Community Development Employment Projects program had been disastrous for Aboriginal communities.

Dr Hinkson said while the CDEP focused on creating meaningful employment for local Indigenous people in Yuendumu and elsewhere, the Community Development Program which replaced it was far more punitive.

“CDP only applies to remote living Aboriginal people and people are forced to work to receive their welfare payments, five hours a day, five days per week or suffer cuts to those base welfare payments, they get breached,” she said.

“Which might mean, for any number of reasons, not turning up to work on a particular day or a number of days, and for that they can receive a penalty of up to eight weeks in their welfare payments being cut.”

The NIAA was contacted for comment.