Our Aboriginal communities are resilient, proud, and iconic. The absence of Aboriginal designed programs in our area is startling and the time to change that is now!

Let’s meet our mob.

Eleven distinct communities comprise the Shire of Halls Creek: Wirrimanu (Balgo), Mindibungu (Billiluna), Kundat Djaru (Ringer Soak), Warmun (Turkey Creek), Paruku (Mulan), Yiyili, Nicholson Block, Lundja (Red Hill), Yardgee, Mardiwah Loop and Halls Creek township. Of Shire residents, over 76% of our community identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders, and the top five non-English languages spoken are Aboriginal.

We continue to honour our duty as custodians of the land and uphold our cultural beliefs. Still, we must come together and support our communities to raise the next generation to continue our proud traditions.

Halls Creek Tribal Groups

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Our Family System

Aboriginal kinship and robust family structures are as important today as they have ever been. The relationships we have with our families, and each other is a cohesive force, a bond that brings together Aboriginal people in all parts of Australia.

Traditionally the Aboriginal family was a mixture of clans. The modern world would go on to call that an extended family. We are lucky to have such comprehensive support to call on for physical, psychological, and emotional wellbeing.

Aboriginal family obligations mean we are honour bound to support our communities and offer help to those who need it.

What we need you to know is we can achieve anything through our family and kinship structures.

Respecting Our Elders

The respected men and women in our communities; otherwise known as elders have earned the trust of the wider community, and that trust should also be heeded by government agencies, and form a foundation for navigating service delivery and community engagement in our communities. It can take a lifetime to uncover the knowledge and wisdom needed to guide the community and improve our way of life and it is our elders who hold this knowledge and wisdom.

We all have a responsibility to take on board the lessons they teach us, to improve our communities by making them safer and more liveable for all.

In remote areas such as ours, young people need their elders and their culture more than ever before to walk in two worlds. The Olabud Doogethu project seeks to unite and provide these cultural supports in our communities and to ensure that our mob are proud of who we are and the work we do to support our families.

Our Land

Our cultural strengths stimulate the local economy and showcase our region. Our community has cultivated world-famous artists, musicians, and sporting talent. 

Our long-standing tradition of land stewardship equips us with the skills and knowledge to keep our country healthy. We can heal the scars of frontier agriculture with our extensive expertise as rangers and conservationists. We are the traditional owners of these lands and waters, and we carry the wisdom and sophistication of a society refined over tens of thousands of years.

Languages

Ancient languages are still spoken fluently, sophisticated cosmology, and our unique perspective still helps us to define our community’s relationship with our sacred environment. Tool making and bush craft skills are continuously passed on, and cultural dance and ceremony are always observed through the generations and all of this is still shared by our elders and family leaders in our languages today.