Awaye!

You'd be forgiven for thinking the Commonwealth intervention had reached into the north-western New South Wales town of Walgett, where youth allowance and Abstudy payments can be quarantined under a scheme designed to lift school attendance rates.

Nick McClean travels to Walgett to hear from parents and elders.

Also, we sit down with Jacinta Numina, a printmaker whose work is inspired by the awelye, or ceremonial body lines.

Something from the vault - the sparkling wit Anita Heiss performs her poem 'Token Koori' and we replay a speech the writer Alice Walker gave to a literary conference in New York in 1984, after her novel 'The Colour Purple' won the Pulitzer Prize.

Presenter

Daniel Browning

Producer

Daniel Browning and Selena Sullivan

Story Researcher and Producer

Nick McClean