The YAWG Project
A resource for working with Aboriginal girls and young women
What is the YAWG Project?
The YAWG (Young Aboriginal Women and Girls) research, formally known as Fighting, Alcohol and Offending: Interventions Targeting Aboriginal Girls, was funded by Healthway and conducted by the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, in collaboration with Wungening Aboriginal Corporation (2015-2019). The research investigated the experiences of young Aboriginal women and girls (10-18 years). Thirty eight young women participated in one-on-one interviews for the YAWG project, and a further six took part in a one-day intensive workshop. Participants were asked to speak about their experiences around drinking, fighting and offending as well as their experiences of accessing services for support around these and other issues. A resource combining the findings from the data was then developed with the aim of helping service providers better support this group of young women. This website is the result. The content of the website is both uplifting in acknowledging the strengths of many young women but also raises some challenging topics from their lives. If you consider this will contain triggers for you and your own personal circumstance, you may want to read the report or the one page fact sheets before deciding whether to listen to the stories.
Welcome
Ngaire Pigram, Research Officer
As I delved into the personal lives of 38 young Aboriginal girls and women’s experiences and perspectives around drinking, fighting and offending, an interesting picture began to form, a picture for me, at least, that was all too familiar. One that sometimes expressed a good healthy fear of authority and at other times displayed disillusion with the system that has failed our people for generations and continues to use the same formula to do so today. I also saw the formation of 38 beautiful individuals and even though most had similar ideals, each young person gave an honest and unique account of their lives, thoughts and feelings. And for this I was both humbled and grateful. Most young women want to be heard, want to have their say and they don’t want any negative consequences to arise out of doing so. Sadly, as we found out, consequences and the fear of consequences are one of the main reasons that young Aboriginal women aren’t talking to services, they’re not reaching out. They are afraid if they reach out for help, that the person in front of them has no idea about where they might be coming from. They are really afraid of something bad happening to either themselves or their family. That tells me that they’re afraid, that they don’t have trust or a safe place and this is where we need to be coming from. We need to be creating a safe space, we need to provide that for them. It is up to all of us. There needs to be more care taken to work out what it is that they need. Not from high up, from the ground up. I hope you like the website. I wish you all the best and thank you for taking the time to check out the YAWG website and project!
Our Stories
Listen to, watch and read the young women’s stories.
Our Voices
Here you will find a series of short videos that show you the lives of the young women and, in their words, invite you “behind our curtains”.
Our Words: Fighting, Drinking & Offending
The quotes presented here are a sample of those we collected during face-to-face interviews with the young women and girls. They share their thoughts on fighting, drinking and offending as well as paying homage to the people in their lives they most admire.
Reports and Background
- Final report
- This is the report of the Fighting, Alcohol and Offending: Interventions Targeting Aboriginal Girls (YAWG) research project, the findings of which form the basis of this website.
The YAWG Project final report
- Factsheets
- Click on these links to view the YAWG Project factsheets.
Alcohol factsheet
Fighting factsheet
Offending factsheet
- Webinar
- This webinar was hosted by the Australian Indigenous Alcohol and Other Drugs Knowledge Centre.
The webinar describes three interconnected research projects looking at the experiences of Aboriginal girls and incarcerated women around the issues of violence, substance use and contact with the criminal justice system. The webinar aims to promote understandings of their experiences, and discusses potential strategies for enhancing physical, psychological and social well-being among these groups.
Topics of discussion include:
- females in contact with the criminal justice system in Australia
- ‘fighting femmes’: what do we know about women who use force?
- violence as a public health issue
- the YAWG Project
- Aboriginal Mums in Prison and Beyond Violence Projects
- narratives for change.
- “Make a night, Break a night”
- Make a Night, Break a Night was a partnership between NDRI researchers and Moorditj Keila, an Aboriginal community group which, at the time, was running under the auspices of Southcare, Inc. It sought to provide a comprehensive picture of the experiences of young Aboriginal people with alcohol in order for services to be better placed to respond to their needs.
Click here to view our report
Click here to view our eBook
Youth Services Directory
Below is a link to a directory of youth services (WA) available to provide support for young Aboriginal women
A Bit About Us
This website is based on the findings from the research project, Fighting, Alcohol and Offending: Interventions Targeting Aboriginal Girls (the YAWG project). The research was funded by a Healthway Health Promotion Research Grant and was a collaboration between researchers/chief investigators from the National Drug Research Institute (NDRI), Curtin University (Dr Mandy Wilson, Dr Julia Butt, Dr Jocelyn Jones and Associate Professor Ted Wilkes) and Wungening Aboriginal Corporation (Daniel Morrison). Research Officers included Ngaire Pigram and Debby Olow (NDRI), and Dena Gower (Moorditj Keila Community Group) was an associate investigator on the project.
NDRI is supported by core funding from the Australian Government under the Drug and Alcohol Program and also receives significant funding from Curtin University.
Contact us
Acknowledgements
The research team wishes to acknowledge and thank:
The wonderful people from the organisations listed below who supported the YAWG research and/or helped facilitate the recruitment of young girls and women for this study, including:
Clontarf Girls Academy ∘ Corridors ∘ The Foyer (Anglicare) ∘ Sexual Health Quarters (SHQ) ∘ Cockburn Youth Centre ∘ Anchor Point Ballajura ∘ Dungeon Youth Service ∘ Nyoongar Outreach ∘ Mission Australia (Youth Beat) ∘ Youth Futures WA ∘ Red Cross Medina ∘ Mental Health Commission ∘ Drug and Alcohol Youth Service (DAYS) ∘ Indigo Junction crew ∘ Champion Centre Armadale ∘ Future Footprints (AISWA) ∘ Noongar Radio ∘ PCYC (Fremantle) ∘ Kwinana Youth Zone ∘ Meerilinga Children and Family Centre ∘ Billy Dower Youth Centre (Mandurah) ∘ ARCHE Health ∘ Derbarl Yerrigan ∘ Herb Graham Centre ∘ Wirrpanda Foundation ∘ Wungening Aboriginal Corporation ∘ Aboriginal Family Law Services
Our Advisory Group members for their knowledge and continued interest in the research.
Our research officer, Ngaire Pigram, who worked tirelessly to collect the voices of the girls and young women you hear on this website and in the final report. We are grateful for her dedication and tenacity, for honouring the experiences of participants, and for the cultural guidance she provided throughout the research.
Debby Olow, for such a great job putting together the website and with good-humour, interpreting and incorporating our thoughts and changes. Same goes to Alistair McNaughton for his wizardry working with the videos.
Big thanks to the young Aboriginal women who shared their own stories or read out the stories of other young women, for the videos used on this website.
To Teyha Jamieson for taking the challenge and drawing the logo for the YAWG research. And to three generations of the one family who allowed us to use their beautiful artworks you see on this website: Laurel Nannup, Brett Nannup and Lily Wilson.
And lastly, unreserved thanks and appreciation to the young Aboriginal girls and women who participated in this research and shared their experiences, thoughts and expertise. We hope you enjoyed being part of this project, and may your voices be appreciated and heard by the service providers who use this website in their work.