Garma Festival, 13-17 August 2002
Forum: Indigenous People and the Environment

Youth Issues Discussion, 16 August 2002

Facilitator

• Rosie Pearson (Yirrkala Community Education Centre)

Participants

• Yolngu young people
• Yuendumu Mt Theo substance misuse program students
• Tjukurla Remote Community School students

The forum commenced with all participants taking part in a game which involved interaction and resulted in forming groups of 5-10 people from different communities.

Throughout the morning the groups were asked a number of questions about their communities which were discussed within the groups and then reported to the forum. The following statement is a short summary of some of the questions and an overview of the answers that the children gave.

Firstly they were asked about the aspects that they like about their communities. The main answers were:

• Music
• Dancing
• Helping older people
• Fishing
• School
• Sport

They were then asked to discuss the reasons why they enjoyed the activities and who the organisers were.

The second half of the discussion was based upon aspects of their community that they thought were 'not so good'.

These included:

• Drugs
• Alcohol
• Petrol sniffing
• Domestic violence
• Fighting
• No money for sport
• No hunting
• Swearing when drunk
• Youth not respecting elders or listening to parents
• Stealing
• Shifting the blame of crimes to other people

Finally the students suggested solutions to these problems:

• Forming community youth groups
• Sharing money equally within the community
• Education and funding for programs
• Cooperation and working with the police
• Having greater input from elders in the community
• Increasing employment and activities

It is hoped that in the light of these discussions changes can occur within the communities with further involve the Yolngu youth.