Welcome (Aayang) to The Pam(Man/Men) Wik Warriors Yotem (All/Many) Story.

Author: John Riley

So, Where is Aurukun?

Aurukun is situated on the western side of

Cape York, far north Queensland. It has a

resident Indigenous population of 1300 people.

This population consists of five Clan Groups.

Puch, Wanum, Winchanum, Apalech and Sara.

How Does the Men’s Group Help the

Community? Across society young men need to be empowered to

recognise and express emotions.

As a result of male social conditioning, many men

have learnt to suppress and repress their emotions

and are not so in touch with their feelings. Since we

rely on our own emotional sensitivity to tune into the

emotions of others, these men lack understanding of,

and empathy towards, their partner’s and children’s

emotional needs.

learnt to suppress and repress their emotions and are

not so in touch with their feelings. Since we rely on our

own emotional sensitivity to tune into the emotions of

others, these men lack understanding of, and empathy

towards, their partner’s and children’s emotional

needs.

Figure 1. Aurukun, Cape York, Far North

Queensland.

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Key Image 1

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Figure 3. Totemic Wik Painting by Ampeybegan

brothers Dale and Nathan for the Aurukun Wellbeing

Centre (Awuch Ngangk Kemp Min Aak).

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Figure 4. A happy, healthy Aurukun family.

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Some Different Ways of Working. We started with no Men’s Group in 2010 and by the

end of 2013 we were regularly having 30-40+ men

and boys attending. We have shown movies with a

cultural or social message and discuss the issues

that we see in the films. This engages the men on

their level and enables fluid conversations. We have

been lucky enough to have had visits to the Wik

Warriors by entertainers such as Sean Choolburra

and the legendary Archie Roach.

Figure 5. Archie Roach with some of the

Pam Wik Warriors Yotem group following

the Men’s Breakfast in Aurukun 2013.

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The Journey Continues….. So comparing pre-2010 with 2013 we think we

can be very proud of the journey we have

travelled so far and we look forward to

becoming a strong voice for the Wik men and

their future sons.

This we all know is central to a culturally

strong, spiritually strong, Wik community.

Why a Men’s Group? Because there wasn’t

one. Pam Wik Warriors Yotem aims to provide the men

with a supportive group that not only assists with issues

of drugs and alcohol, domestic violence, mental health,

criminal activity and parenting problems but also with

repairing the cultural and social breakdown that has

occurred due to colonisation and the past practices of

various governments and agencies.

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Figure 2. Some of the Pam Wik Warriors

Yotem Group.

Acknowledgements: The Royal Flying Doctor Service (Qld

section).

The Wik and Waya People of Western Cape

York Qld.

The Elders for freely giving of cultural

knowledge to enable this project to succeed.