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Catch up with a recording of a discussion of the newest Yuwaya Ngarra-li Policy Paper, Making government finances make sense for communities.

A long-term priority for the community-led partnership between the Dharriwaa Elders Group and UNSW is for Aboriginal children and young people in Walgett to learn, work, be safe, supported and thrive within a robust sense of belonging to their families, community, culture and Country.

For too long, Aboriginal children and young people have been failed by government systems of education, care and justice that are meant to serve and protect them.

Like many Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), the Dharriwaa Elders Group has for many years requested and advocated for more information and accountability from governments around resources allocated for their community.

Despite commitments through Closing the Gap and evidence about the greater impact of ACCO-led change for Aboriginal children and young people, government processes and resource allocation continues to happen far away from community control.

Through research for this Policy Paper, we have seen that there is currently no way for Indigenous communities to track where Closing the Gap and other government funding is going, nor any way for communities to validate what outcomes have been delivered from this funding. However, it does not have to be this way.

In this webinar, Yuwaya Ngarra-li’s Vanessa Hickey and Loretta Weatherall from the Dharriwaa Elders Group and Peta MacGillivray from UNSW were joined by Policy Paper co-author Mel Flanagan to discuss the findings of Making government finances make sense for communities, and how governments could work differently to enable community-controlled approaches to improving outcomes for children and young people in Walgett and elsewhere.