Daniel Daylight had been working with Aboriginal young people in Mt Druitt for over a decade through his various roles with the Children’s Court. He took on a new job with Just Reinvest NSW – Mt Druitt because he saw the strengths of these young people who had gained wisdom from their struggles with the criminal justice system.

Terleaha Williams, Isaiah Sines (both pictured above), and Craig Doole-McKellar are some of the young people who took on youth project and ambassador roles alongside the JR NSW Mt Druitt team. They led, what would be, three years of conversations about what it is like to grow up in Mounty, the challenges, and young people’s hopes and ideas for the future. They yarned with family and friends; they spoke to young people in custody and went into schools speaking with kids as young as six. There was a sense of honesty and trust because they’d grown up together and shared experiences of life in Mounty. 

_{Pictured: Daniel Daylight and Lizzie May, Mt Druitt community member and Link-Up Chair at the community launch of Mounty Yarns. Photo Credit: Tama Doole-Mellalieu}.

The Youth Ambassadors led the JR Mt Druitt team to act in response to what young people were asking for. First, they expanded a youth-run Oz Tag team, then a make-up course, then boxing and music programs. Young people wanted to do things with people they trusted in places that felt safe. Things that kept the police and trouble away. The JR NSW Mt Druitt office, provided rent-free by philanthropist Ruth Ritchie, was becoming that safe place where young people could come and go but there was always support there. Young people immediately felt it was their space.  

When young people started to see that when they used their voices and something good happened it built the foundations and trust for deeper conversations. Those conversations turned to the services and systems and how they weren’t working for them then quickly shifted to the solutions young people knew would work.

The Mounty Yarns film and the Mounty Yarns Report were made, containing the stories of over 100 young people and their solutions to make Mounty a safe place for Aboriginal young people. The Report contains solutions on how to support young Aboriginal people in Mt Druitt with Aboriginal-controlled services, housing, and mental health supports. It shares how systems can work differently to better suit the needs of young people, how changes in policing practice and more community oversight will improve youth justice and more culturally appropriate and accessible education and learning can support young Aboriginal people to stay in school.

The Mounty Yarns work is now being used by young Mt Druitt leaders to make real change for their community. We heard from some of those leaders about what this means to them.

_{Pictured: Isaiah Sines, Youth Engagement Worker, JR Mt Druitt and Hana Kahuroa, Mt Druitt community member. Photo credit: Tama Doole-Mellalieu}.

Our own Youth Service

The number one ask of Mounty Yarns was to have an Aboriginal Controlled Youth Service. In 2024 the transition from JR NSW Mt Druitt to Mounty Aboriginal Youth & Community Services began with their registration as an independent entity and establishment of an independent board.

Julie Williams, Community Engagement Lead, said “Mt Druitt hasn’t had its own youth service or anything like that since my father’s time. This was a fight started long ago and it’s all about building on that. I’m proud to live in Mt Druitt all my life and now to watch this next generation come up.”

Jess Brown, Youth Project Lead says, “Services just didn’t want to implement the programs identified by young people. Now we have funding that is ours to make decisions about. We have that control and power.”

Our first contract

As a youth service, Mounty has won its first significant tender with Youth Justice to deliver Youth on Track. Julie explains, “We’re taking on a service that wasn’t working for our young people so we can design it with them and have it work for them.”

Lana Hammond who will be part of delivering the new service says, “I grew up through hard times and the struggle. Now I’ve grown into a strong young woman with kids, and it is powerful for me to give back.”

Talking with the Police

New relationships are being built with police to help drive some of the policing changes identified in the Mounty Yarns stories.

Jess said, “If you’d told me two years ago, that we would even be having conversations with the police, I wouldn’t have believed you. Now we are playing Oz Tag against them.”

Coming in with feelings

Craig Doole-McKellar, JR Youth Ambassador, shared the importance of having this youth-led service, the programs, and what changes he has seen already.

“Most of us young fellas don’t get a chance to leave Mounty. These programs open our eyes a bit wider. Our care doesn’t just stop when a young person turns 18 or 21…you can come and go here, and we will always have that support for people. They are not just left in the dark.”

Craig has noticed a change in the music that is being made during the music program he runs. He says he hears it in the lyrics of rap songs. “They used to rap about hurt and violence and now they come in with feelings. They are going deep and talking about the stuff that really means something.”

_{Pictured: Craig Doole-McKellar, JR Youth Ambassador, Photo Credit: Benny Edwards}.

Next generation

“These are the people I’ve grown up with, we’ve been alongside each other. We are pretty much family if we’re not family,” says Terleaha Williams, JR Youth Ambassador and Project Lead on Mounty Yarns.

These are young people who have had systems against them, but they always had their families – their Mounty family and community backing them. Now they are helping others navigate those systems and helping each other to grow. They are showing what young people can really do.

Learn more about Mounty Yarns and watch the Mounty Yarns film here.

_{Pictured: Kobie Dee, Gomeroi rapper and JR Youth Ambassador with Mt Druitt young people. Photo credit: Tama Doole-Mellalieu.}