Indigenous Aboriginal Australian art painting featuring white boomerangs and a circular design against a dotted brown, yellow, and orange background.

Creating stronger relationships through mentoring and community.

Our model is built on the power of belonging. By connecting young people with First Nations mentors from their own community, we create meaningful relationships grounded in shared culture and lived experience.

It's community supporting community — trusted mentors walking alongside young people as they navigate their journey into adulthood, fostering connection, identity and strength every step of the way.

A group of people hiking on a dirt trail in a grassy, semi-arid landscape with sparse trees under a partly cloudy sky.
A person wearing a yellow shirt with black and red patterned sleeves and beige shorts is holding a small fish, possibly a trout, in their left hand while using a small knife in their right hand to prepare or clean the fish. The background is outdoors with trees and greenery.
Outdoor scene with sleeping area set up on a table, including a brown tent and sleeping gear, with two children in baseball caps organizing items nearby. Background features a wooden fence and some trees.

❊ FAQs

About us

  • “Yeyekerte” is a southern Arrente word that translates to story-telling. We chose to call our organisation this because:

    • Aboriginal history is oral and story telling pays a key role in passing on our culture and history to the next generation. This is the way Aboriginal people have communicated for thousands of years.

    • Our organisation has a focus on telling stories – this includes Arrente leaders telling their stories to assist and inspire, as well as helping young men to tell and know their story.

    • Story telling is how we travel through country. The journey from place to place is the same as the journey through life. Our program focuses on helping young men on their journey through life, strengthening and reauthoring their story, and creating a new story.

    • It is important culturally to have the right person doing this work.

    • The model focuses on the importance of tapping into community relationships and create a sense of belonging. As such, the model ensures people from our community are working with young people from our community, for the benefit of our community.

    • The model promotes healthy relationships between a community member (the First Nations mentor) as they walk alongside a young person while they traverse their journey into adulthood.

    • The model acknowledges that adulthood is a social construct, however, will support young people to successfully live in both worlds – cultural world and the colonised world.

    • Due to a focus on staffing being local Aboriginal men, there is a sound knowledge of cultural recognition of adulthood. The staff model is also important because of the impact colonisation continues to have on Aboriginal people.

    • Our staff are respected community members with cultural authority, who have a lifelong commitment to the cultural journey.

    • Our staff are able to reinforce connection to land, country and culture for the young people we work with.

    • Our staff acknowledge the importance of culture and how it pays a pivotal role for young people to enhance strong and positive identities.

    • Our staff have lived experience of how to live and succeed in both worlds – we go out on country regularly to keep connected and we come back and live in Western society.

    • All our programs are designed and delivered by First Nations people.

    • Our staff have detailed knowledge, through lived experience, of the gender-related rules in culture. They are strong role models in a cultural context and promote respect for women.