Spotlight on

Since the late seventies, Aunty Rose Richards welcomed sick Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children into her far north Queensland home. Today 25 years on, Mookai Rosie Bi-Byan (Aunty Rosie’s Place) is Australia’s first Indigenous community-controlled organisation with twelve beds for women during childbirth.

The organisation was incorporated with ORIC on 10 September 1986 and has successfully seen hundreds of women and children pass through the health centre doors since 1983.

The preservation and documenting of culture have turned into a worthwhile and successful venture for the Yindjibarndi people in Australia’s northwest.

The Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation is located at Roeburne, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The corporation was registered in 2000 as a not-for-profit Indigenous community organisation. Over the past nine years it has developed a wide-ranging program of documenting, recording and preserving Yindjibarndi stories and culture, resulting in a living cultural resource and employment opportunities for locals.

Bowraville isn’t just known for producing great footballers!

The football feats of one of Bowraville’s great sons, Greg Inglis, are very well known. Well, now there is also MiiMi Mothers Aboriginal Corporation putting this small NSW mid-north coast township on the map!

MiiMi, as it is affectionately known in the community (it means ‘mother’ in the local Gumbaynggirr language), is now your one-stop shop for community support services. Not just for Bowraville, but also for the bigger nearby towns of Macksville and Nambucca Heads.

Over the last decade Marra Worra Worra, in partnership with community organisations in the area, has been at the forefront of the push for Aboriginal economic independence for the region. The result of this is that a large portion of the economy of Fitzroy Crossing is now controlled by Indigenous interests.

Based in Fitzroy Crossing, Marra Worra Worra is the oldest and largest Aboriginal resource agency in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Coffs Harbour in New South Wales is known as one of Australia’s popular holiday destinations; it is also home to the thriving Kulai Pre-School Aboriginal Corporation.

You don’t have to spend very long at Kulai preschool to realise that the little ones are very well looked after. The preschool has been caring for and educating Coffs Harbour Aboriginal children since 1961. In fact some of the previous management committee members are former students of Kulai.

It has been a very busy and very successful 2009 for Ungooroo Aboriginal Corporation—and it looks like the coming year is going to be even busier. Ungooroo, located at Singleton in New South Wales, provides essential services to the Aboriginal community in the Upper Hunter Valley region, including resumé help and training workshops for job seekers and computer literacy courses.

Girringun Aboriginal Corporation is located at Cardwell, half-way between Townsville and Cairns in north-Queensland. The corporation represents the interests of traditional owners from nine tribal groups: Bandjin, Djiru, Girramay, Gugu Badhun, Gulnay, Jirrbal, Nywaigi, Warrgamay and Warungnu. Girringun is the name of the ancestral creator of the Warangnu, Jirrbal, Warrgamay and Girramay people. This ancestral creator is responsible for the marriage and hunting lore.

Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) is the native title representative body for traditional owners of the Pilbara, Murchison and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia. There are over 25 traditional owner groups represented by the corporation, which protects the interests of the people and their country and provides them with a range of professional services, such as legal representation for native title claims and heritage protection services.