About Wunan 

Wunan is a not-for-profit Aboriginal organisation based in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its purpose is to ensure that Aboriginal people in the East Kimberley
enjoy the capabilities and opportunities they need to make positive choices that lead to independent and fulfilling lives. Essentially, to have dreams and a real chance of achieving
them. Since its inception in 1997, Wunan has developed many successful and mutually beneficial partnerships. These allow us to deliver key programs and reforms that focus on
education, health, leadership, housing, employment and commercial ventures. 

‘Wunan’ is a traditional cultural practice of Aboriginal people in the East Kimberley in which fair trade occurs which also encompasses caring and sharing. The “Wunan” name was officially adopted for the East Kimberley region by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 1990. This extract from Wyndham Yella Fella by Reginald Birch, a founding director of Wunan Foundation, helps to explain its meaning: 

“A group of Aboriginal men appeared out of nowhere…symbolically marked in vivid white ochre and a burnt red like the very rocks of the Kimberley. The messengers carried huge bundles of ochre-coloured bamboo. This ritual was called ‘Wunan’… a traditional distribution of wealth, a bartering. A means of caring and sharing — Aboriginal currency.”

Birch, Reginald (2003) Wyndham Yella Fella, Magabala Books, Broome WA, p153.