Strengthening research partnerships with Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation in the Pilbara

From 18-23 August 2025, Associate Professor Nick Bainton, Dr Nicholas Drake and members from the Building a First Nations Research Agenda to Support the Centre for Future Materials project team travelled to Ieramugadu (Roebourne) up in the Pilbara, Western Australia to spend valuable time with their research partners from the Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation Ltd (NYFL).

The visit provided an important opportunity to better understand the scale of extractive industries and their impacts in this part of the country. Together with NYFL, the research team is working to co-design a future research program that will examine the role of agreements between extractive companies and Indigenous peoples, and how these agreements can uphold or undermine First Nations rights and interests.

As the global mining industry expands to meet the growing demand for critical minerals, agreements will play an even greater role in the future in shaping First Nations outcomes.

The highlight of the trip was a journey to Yindjibarndi Ngurra (Country). Hosted by Michael Woodley and Lorraine Coppin and the team from Juluwarlu Group Aboriginal Corporation, the group camped under a blanket of stars at Wuyumarri. The experience offered a meaningful opportunity to learn about Yindjibarndi history, culture and language, and to understand their landscape in new ways.

The visit highlighted five key takeaways:

1) The Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation Ltd (NYFL) team are doing amazing work in the face of incredibly difficult circumstances.

2) The scale of wealth inequality in this part of Australia is phenomenal.

3) While terms like “structural injustice” are common, they do not fully reflect the lived realities faced by some groups in this region.

4) The governance landscape is exceptionally complex, so people grow up having to navigate their way through myriad representative organisations, rights and obligations with very uneven outcomes.

5) Strong First Nations leaders carry a fulltime load dealing with extractive interests, issues and impacts, which is often overlooked when the focus is on the opportunities of extraction.

The visit strengthened understanding and partnerships, supporting ongoing research into how extractive agreements affect First Nations rights and interests.

Photo credits: Nicholas Drake, Ngaarda Media and Philip Davies