Nowadays, the majority of Yindjibarndi people live in Roebourne. There are also communities in Cheeditha and Ngurrawaana. Click on the map markers below to learn more about each community.
Ngurrawaana
Ngurrawaana means ‘a place of homecoming’.
It is the only permanent residential community with secure title for Yindjibarndi people in their ancestral lands. It was founded by respected elders Woodley King, Long Mack, Greg and Alma Tucker, and Len and Desley Norman. It was pioneered in 1982 as an occupation of tribal country and an alcohol rehabilitation camp.
Today, it is one of the proudest achievements of the Yindjibarndi peoples to date; a place with deep historical and cultural associations.
Following the Yindjibarndi people’s forced exodus from their country, the spring at Ngurawaana dried up completely, something which had not happened in the living memory of the local people. It was not until the Yindjibarndi Elder Woodley King returned to that place to develop a community via the homeland movement in the 1980s, and had occupied it for some three years, before the spring returned as it had been before – and it has not run dry since.
Cheeditha
Cheeditha, also known as Old Woolshed, is a small dry community close to Roebourne.
It was settled by Yindjibarndi elders after the bulldozing of the Old Reserve. Refusing to be corralled into the new State Housing Village – they decided to create their own community. They were determined not to be pushed around by the government anymore.
Cheeditha stands for defiance and independence – in the face of the toughest of times. It continues this legacy today – now led with the strength and dedication of Yindjibarndi man, Stanley Warrie.
