"Try and make the next one better than the last one and be the best you can be."
R.M. Williams advice to Bill Webb, master leather worker and bush man.
Latest Papers
The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.
Gatirri School at Mata Mata grew from the teaching of Mrs P.B. Burarrwaŋa, one of the first fully trained Yolŋu teachers.
What people eat at Mata Mata and other north-east Arnhem Land homelands depends on the country and sea, the store and whether there is power to keep food cold.
Homelands can be self sufficient through solar power saving tens of thousands of litres of diesel per annum
On the homelands a bush taxi is often an act of desperation that leaves people with no money, with debts, and under formidable personal pressure.
Homelands around one of the world's most lucrative bauxite mine have received very little funding.. so where did the money go? This paper tries to come up with the answers.
This companion paper in the Planes, Roads, Automobiles set turns to the sea.
When a homeland has no working vehicle, planes become the fallback — at far greater cost.
Mata Mata is a Yolŋu homeland in North East Arnhem Land, founded by Gatirri Burarrwaŋa and family around 1948 and supported by Marthakal Homelands & Resource Centre. It has no working vehicle. Homelands have a strong health record, but homeland programs do not fund a transport system, and private vehicles are a gap that families fill themselves.
No great revelations here just some notes on issues that perhaps those living in cities and mainstream life have not thought about too much.
