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NAIDOC Week 2022

Posted: July 1st, 2022

NAIDOC Week begins this Sunday, 3 July.  This year’s NAIDOC Week theme is ‘Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!’ which must be a genuine commitment by all of us to continue to get up, stand up and show up every day. Whether it’s seeking proper environmental, cultural and heritage protections, Constitutional change, a comprehensive process of truth-telling, working towards treaties, or calling out racism — we must do it together.

During this week, YMAC will acknowledge, honour, and celebrate many of those who have, and those who continue to, Get Up! Stand Up! and Show Up! There are also many events in our regions celebrating this important week. Below are links to a few:

Perth

Carnarvon

Port Hedland

National NAIDOC Committee

NAIDOC week is a time to recognise the many who have driven and led change in our communities over generations, the heroes and champions of change, of equal rights and basic human rights. Check here for daily updates.

YMAC hopes others will join us this coming week in celebrating not only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s achievements, but the history, rich culture, and survival of the oldest continuing living culture on earth.

Gilghi wins second innovation award for 2020

Posted: September 9th, 2020

Gilghi has been awarded the Good Design Award Winner in the Social Impact category at the virtual Good Design Week awards ceremony held on 8 September 2020.

The annual Good Design Awards signify the pinnacle of Australian industry’s design and innovation. Pilbara Solar (PS) congratulates Gilghi project partners Ampcontrol  and Aurecon on their second award for this year. In February they won the NSW Water Infrastructure Project Innovation Award and in 2019 Gilghi won the Hunter Business Award for Excellence in Innovation and the Lake Macquarie Business Excellence Award for Innovation.

The off-grid water treatment solution is designed for remote applications for both industry and remote communities. The water treatment uses a standalone hybrid power supply consisting of solar photovoltaic panels, a back-up diesel generator and battery storage, and is a portable unit that can produce up to 28kL of potable water to above Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

The Good Design Awards jury praised Gilghi.

“A great solution and potentially a massive market across the globe. This off-grid containerised water treatment solution has the potential to make a significant impact on the lives of people who rely on groundwater for their main water supply……This is such a beautiful example of good design that makes our world better. Well done.”

PS is the sole distributor of Gilghi in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of West Australia  –  for more information click here.

Wangka Maya celebrates book launch

Posted: November 17th, 2016

Filed under: Ngarla, Wangka Maya

An event to celebrate the launch of Partulyayimarta: Ngarla Birds will take place on Monday 28 November at Wangka Maya’s South Hedland office from 10.30am to 1.00pm.

Partulyayimarta: Ngarla Birds documents an Aboriginal way of identifying, naming, and classifying birds. It also provides additional cultural and linguistic information alongside scientific and common English names for 117 different birds found throughout traditional Ngarla Country.

For more information about the event, you can contact Wangka Maya at 9172 2344 or Larissa Brown at 0488 773 143. RSVP’s are welcomed until Thursday 24 November. The book is $40, and it is available for purchase at the event and on the Wangka Maya website here.

Red Dust in Her Veins: Women of the Pilbara now available in ebook

Posted: February 8th, 2016

Filed under: Melva Stone, Pilbara

The E-book version of Lisa Holland-McNair’s, Melva Stone’s and Erica Smith’s Red Dust in Her Veins: Women of the Pilbara is now available through Amazon, iTunes and Kobo.

The 2007 work details the stories of 12 women and their lives in the Pilbara, and feature 25 full colour pages of pictures, maps and historical information to “show the Pilbara at its remote and ruggedly best.”

The book, dedicated to women of the Pilbara past, present and future, is donating all proceeds to the Flying Doctor Service.

In the foreword, Ms Stone writes that her work offers a glimpse into the multitude of ways the land and Country shapes the lives of its inhabitants, and becomes core to their identity.

“[This book] provides a window into the lives of four indigenous women who were born and have lived most of their lives there, and eight non-Indigenous women travelled to the region for work or with their families,” writes Stone.

“All of these women offer an insight into how they have found ways to meet the challenges of coping with change, with isolation from family, friends and technology, with health scares, while managing their relationships and working in new jobs.

“Their stories are invaluable for anyone contemplating ‘going bush’ to discover who they are and what’s important to them.”

One of the women featured in Stone’s work is Patricia Fry, an Aboriginal woman hailing from the Gibson Desert in the Pilbara’s far east. She writes in her story that nothing can replace the fondness she has for home.

“When I think of the land, I think of the red, red ochre…my last long trip up there was right out to my mother’s country, on Lake Percival – we called it Winpa,” writes Ms Fry.

“I knew as soon as I felt that wind on my face that I was home, I knew it was my father’s, my uncle’s, my mother’s country – I couldn’t get there quick enough, and when I arrived I just sat down and cried.

“I never wanted to leave.”

Hard copies of the book can be found at Elizabeth’s Bookstore or at the above Amazon link.