国民彩票

Our people

Our team is made up of people based in Walgett, Sydney and beyond.
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Housing work
We work with the community where changes requires them to push a little and we push back a little 鈥 like a bow saw. Sawing together shows our partnership. We give them tools to see their strengths and identify the resources and then work together.
鈥 Clem Dodd
Long-term former Speaker of the Dharriwaa Elders Group

Walgett team

Wendy Spencer鈥痠s the General Manager and Water and Country Co-Lead of Dharriwaa Elders Group. She is the founding Project Manager of the Dharriwaa Elders Group (鈥淒EG鈥), and brings small business and a background in community media to her roles. Wendy first worked for the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (鈥淲AMS鈥). The Founding Chair of WAMS, George Rose OAM, together with other Elders, founded the DEG in the late 1990s and invited Wendy to support their work, which she continues to further through DEG and Yuwaya Ngarra-li.聽

Vanessa Hickey鈥痠s the Community Response Lead at Dharriwaa Elders Group. She is a Gamilaraay mother of four who began working with the Dharriwaa Elders Group part-time in 2017 in the Elders Support Officer role and joined the Yuwaya Ngarra-li team in April 2018. Vanessa is actively working to improve the education outcomes for Walgett children and has served as a member of the School Reference Group and the Walgett AECG for some years. Vanessa is also an active volunteer for the Walgett Local Aboriginal Land Council鈥檚 Aboriginal Culture and Heritage Committee and is very active in the anti-Coal Seam Gas movement to protect Country and wellbeing for north-west NSW communities.聽

Loretta is a Gamilaroi woman from Walgett and Wellbeing Lead for Dharriwaa Elders Group. She has a background as a community researcher and sees working as part of Yuwaya Ngarra-li as a way to be a voice and advocate for her community. Loretta wants to see a healthy Walgett, and for families to feel empowered to make choices for themselves through the support of Dharriwaa Elders Group's programs.

Zoe Sands is a proud Gamilaraay woman from Walgett. She is currently the Water and Country Co-Lead and a River Ranger Project Officer at Dharriwaa Elders Group. She loves working for DEG because of the advocacy they do for the Walgett community and being from Walgett she wants to give back to her community.

Tyrin Hickey, a proud Gamilaraay man, is聽a Project Officer for the Food & Water 4 Life Project. He advocates for access to clean water and healthy聽food while collaborating with teams and聽providing support to meet common goals. He mentors colleagues, tackles complex issues, and fosters partnerships that prioritise the voices of the community.

Wendy Rose is an Ngemba women who lived in Brewarrina and Walgett in her early years before moving to Wagga Wagga with her family in the early 80鈥檚. Wendy remained in Wagga Wagga and started her own family. While raising her children Wendy began tutoring in local schools in the Wagga Wagga area. This eventually led to administrative and customer service roles where Wendy gained skills and qualifications to become a case worker and manager.

Wendy moved back to Walgett in February 2024 to get back on country and give back to the community. Wendy starting working in May 2024 with the Dharriwaa Elders Group and Yuwaya Ngarra-li Dealing with Fines program. Wendy is passionate, proud and committed to working with this program to better the lives of our people and community.

Steven 鈥淏ungee鈥 Dennis聽is part of the Dharriwaa Elders Group Dealing with Fines team. Bungee supports Aboriginal people in Walgett to work off fines through registering for a Work and Development Order and participating in activities such as art workshops and on Country trips, helping Elders with gardening, maintaining local parks, and running a community caf茅. Bungee has a clear vision for the work he is doing in the Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership: 鈥淚 want better quality of life for our mob - better water, cheaper food, more activities for our youth.聽 I want more gardening programs to grow food, more lunch and dinner programs. There are still people going hungry in Walgett. I want to help change that.鈥

国民彩票 team

Dr Ruth McCausland鈥痠s Associate Professor and 国民彩票 Director of Yuwaya Ngarra-li, a聽long-term community-led partnership with the Dharriwaa Elders Group in Walgett. Her research聽focuses on the social determinants of justice, and enabling systemic and community-led solutions to聽incarceration and disadvantage. Ruth has worked for more than 25 years in the fields of criminology,聽evaluation, human rights, and community development. Ruth has a PhD in criminology and聽evaluation, and a Masters in International Social Development. She is on the Board of the聽Community Restorative Centre, the NSW Committee of the Australian Evaluation Society,聽is an Associate of the Disability Innovation Institute and Australian Human Rights Institute, and a member of the Academy of Community Engaged Scholarship.聽

(BA/LLB; Grad. Dip Legal Prac; LLM)聽is a Kalkutungu and South Sea Islander lawyer and researcher, and the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Senior Research Fellow focused on legal and justice issues聽based at 国民彩票. Peta has worked as a researcher on a range of criminology, legal services and community-development projects in NSW and across Australia. Peta was a Field Researcher and Project Manager for the Indigenous Australians with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System (IAMHDCD) Project, which first introduced her to the Dharriwaa Elders Group. Peta鈥檚 area of legal practice specialisation is the legal needs of children and young people, particularly those experiencing social and economic disadvantage. Peta is passionate about Indigenous children and young people鈥檚 participation in community development work.

Dr Rebecca Reeve聽(BEc Hons., PhD)聽is a Senior Research Fellow with Yuwaya Ngarra-li at 国民彩票. She is an applied econometrician who聽is聽committed to using her skills to help improve wellbeing and social justice, through evidence-based research and evaluation.聽聽Rebecca has fifteen years鈥 research experience in academia and the not-for-profit sector, working on a range of mixed-methods projects.聽聽She has particular expertise in using linked administrative data for longitudinal analyses聽relating to health, education, and criminology.聽聽In her spare time Rebecca is an advocate for refugees and people seeking asylum.聽聽

Samantha Rich聽is a Wiradjuri Graduate of Architecture, Adjunct Lecturer at 国民彩票 and a researcher dedicated to embedding First Nations worldview into the design of buildings and the broader built environment. Samantha has a focus on addressing systemic housing needs facing many remote and regional communities. She has worked with Yuwaya Ngarra-li for the last few years looking at multiple housing needs in the Walgett community. She is interested in the role that housing can play in supporting reciprocal relationships embedded in Indigenous culture to care for people, communities and Country.

Andrea Hadaway is the Project Manager - Justice with Yuwaya Ngarra-li at 国民彩票. Andrea worked as a criminal and civil lawyer for 15 years representing children and young people in the criminal justice and out-of-home-care systems. She has also worked in the youth and community services sector, leading programs and services supporting children, young people, women, families and communities.

May Miller-Dawkins聽is a researcher, advocate and facilitator with over twenty years鈥 experience working in and with social movements, community organisations, international civil society, universities and foundations with a focus on community leadership, systemic change and action learning. She is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at 国民彩票.聽

Alicia Dunning is a proud Bundjalung dietitian with a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition) and a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics with Distinction. She spent the first 8 years of her career working as a clinical dietitian in NSW public hospitals gaining vital dietetic, communication and counselling skills. After working in the hospital system through the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved to Canada for a working holiday. While there, she learned about First Nations people of Canada and how colonisation had impacted them, as well as how nutrition research was unethically conducted on them. She realised the similarities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, which re-ignited her passion for research and her desire to return to Australia to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. She joined the Food and Water for Life program in mid-2023 as a research associate and is focused on improving food and water security in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.聽

Alicia is an Adjunct Fellow with the 国民彩票 Division of Societal Impact, Equity & Engagement.

Yssy Burton-Clark聽is Yuwaya Ngarra-li's Project Officer at 国民彩票 Sydney. Yssy holds qualifications in Communications and Criminology & Criminal Justice, and has previously worked in stakeholder engagement, communications, administration and customer service, as well as completing a placement in disability research at the 国民彩票 Social Policy Research Centre. He is also currently completing Honours in Criminology, incorporating crip theory and cultural criminology in a critical analysis of pop culture depictions of psychosocial disability.聽