"NO-ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND": YINDJIBARNDI CEO MICHAEL WOODLEY ON THE VALUES THAT DRIVE HIM
Yindjibarndi CEO Michael Woodley at the recent announcement of its joint deal to buy a $1.1 billion desalination plant being built by Rio Tinto in the Pilbara, with backing from Perth-based Affinity Capital Group.
Hundreds of people gathered in Ieramagadu-Roebourne for the annual Yindjibarndi Expo last Thursday, an event celebrating Yindjibarndi culture, enterprise and family.
As the Yindjibarndi Nation prepares to appeal the Federal Court’s decision for a $150 million settlement over Fortescue Metals damage of hundreds of sacred sites, it was a reminder of how much else is going in the Pilbara.
The Expo is an annual celebration of the Yinjibarndi Nation, it’s many business interests across water, energy, construction, car hire, media and more, and how those interests help drive an economic engine that feeds back into community and cultural programs - from rangers and the creative arts to protecting language and recording living cultural practices.
At this year’s Expo, Ngaarda Media (a Yindjibarndi-owned community media organisation) had a chance to sit down with the Yindjibarndi Nation CEO, Michael Woodley, who said the expo was about celebrating what the community has built, and sharing a vision for the future.
A TIME TO REFLECT FOR THE YINDJIBARNDI NATION
He said it was an ideal time to reflect on the past 12 months’ of achievements across the Aboriginal owned corporations and community organisations - possibly as minds turn to annual reporting season - and told Lynnese O’Donoghue about the three-word mantra that drives him: culture, commerce and community.
“If you take Native Title, just as one aspect and what Native Title provides is an opportunity, first and foremost, engaging with industry or government and things like that, where the corporation can have some outcomes around compensation and so on,” he said.
“So, what we're going to try and do is to make that compensation have a lasting effect and be long-term and sustainable.
“What we don't want to do is kind of focus only on one area that only recognizes one section of our people.
“So what we recognize is that in the cultural portfolio, it's just as important as the commerce portfolio and the community one as well, right?
“It's a values system, which values all individual people and it makes sure that no one gets left behind and make sure that other part of our society, which is community and culture, is also being factored in.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH LYNNESE O’DONOGHUE, RECORDED LIVE AT THE 2026 YINDJIBARNDI EXPO IN IERAMAGADU-ROEBOURNE, BELOW: