Tikkun olam in the outback

Former prime minister Tony Abbott last week worked alongside Yolŋu community members in the Bawaka Homeland in north-east Arnhem Land as part of a water resilience project delivered in partnership with the Nova Peris Foundation and IsraAID Australia.

Abbott arrived in Bawaka on Monday, July 27, at the invitation of the Yolŋu community, the Nova Peris Foundation and IsraAID Australia to take part in the Bawaka Water Resilience Project, which aims to improve access to safe drinking water and strengthen long-term resilience in one of Australia’s most remote Aboriginal homelands.

The project will replace and modernise a bore water system that has minimally served the community since 1983 and will train local residents to operate and maintain the new infrastructure.

Community leader Timmy Djawa Burarrwanga described the project as “my legacy for our children and grandchildren”.

Former senator Nova Peris, Australia’s first Aboriginal woman elected to federal Parliament and founder of the Nova Peris Foundation, said the project was “beyond politics”.