Janice's story
Your generous support today can help First Australians like Janice to generate income and employment, while keeping Indigenous culture alive for future generations.
Janice is a traditional dancer who tells stories through movements handed down over generations. Photo credit: Richard Wainwright/Caritas Australia.
Janice is a traditional dancer who lives on Jawoyn country in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Photo: Richard Wainwright/Caritas Australia
Janice lives on Jawoyn country in Arnhem Land. Like many remote communities in the Northern Territory, Janice’s faces a range of challenges – low employment and education, financial hardship, poorer health and lower life expectancy.
Only 37% of First Australians in the Northern Territory are employed. In remote communities, Indigenous languages are being lost and traditional social structures are breaking down.
Loss of land, language and culture and intergenerational trauma related to the ongoing effects of colonisation, can also contribute to socio-economic problems for young people in remote communities. Many others leave the community in search of work, moving to towns and cities where they may be more vulnerable.
Your donation can help
Janice with her daughters in the shop at Djilpin Arts in Northern Territory, Australia. Photo credit: Richard Wainwright/Caritas Australia.
Provide employment opportunities to First Australians
Janice shows her daughter how to prepare pandanus leaves collected from a forest near Djilpin Art in Northern Territory. Artists at Djilpin Arts weave the pandanus leaves, tinted with natural dyes, into dramatic, round fibre artworks for sale in the shop. Photo credit: Richard Wainwright/Caritas Australia.
Support workshops to train young people
Janice with her daughters outside Djilpin Arts centre. Photo credit: Richard Wainwright/Caritas Australia
Preserve Indigenous culture for all future generations
You can support programs run by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders that focus on strengthening cultural identity, creating employment opportunities and intergenerational healing.
Donate today“With many elders gone, we must transfer knowledge, to keep a connection to culture and nurture future leaders. Me and my family, we keep the culture going, we need to keep our culture strong.”
