Jawoyn Association

The Jawoyn Association is a body corporate which represents the interests of Jawoyn and other people who have associations with Jawoyn country, east of Katherine in the Northern Territory.

The Jawoyn Association represents and promotes the views and aspirations of traditional landowners in relation to the management, protection, control, and development of Jawoyn traditional lands. Providing for the general social welfare of Jawoyn clans is one of the major objectives of the Association.

Jawoyn traditional owners have expressed concern about the continuing poor health outcomes for Jawoyn and other Indigenous people living in the Katherine region.

Bangardi Lee (1952 - 2005), a Jawoyn elder and former Chief Executive of the Jawoyn Association, said in 2002: "For many years we have watched the health of our people get worse. Our babies are born sick, we suffer from chronic diseases at dangerously high levels, and too many of our people die too young from preventable illness...

"Over the last two and a half years the Jawoyn Association has worked hard in researching and designing a new health service for the region, and we are very happy that the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments have come into partnership with the Aboriginal people of the region to make our dreams for an Aboriginal-controlled health service come true."

In 1999 the Jawoyn Association sought a partnership with The Fred Hollows Foundation to explore ways to develop a wide-ranging and sustainable health strategy for the people and communities of the region. That partnership was formalised by the signing of a Heads of Agreement in Darwin in May, 2000.

The Foundation has since worked with the Jawoyn Association on a range of interconnected and practical programs, which are designed to tackle the underlying causes of ill health and disadvantage faced by many Indigenous people.

The Association's goal is to place key areas of social and economic life, which are currently managed by discrete government instrumentalities, back under the control and direction of the Jawoyn people and into a framework which emphasises their interconnectedness.

The projects undertaken by The Foundation in association with the region are developed within this holistic context.