Overcrowded and poorly ventilated housing is a major driver of preventable diseases among Aboriginal communities, with more than half of all Indigenous people in the NT living in overcrowded homes. These overcrowded and overheated homes have been blamed for high rates of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in the NT, a preventable condition caused by repeated, untreated streptococcus A infections. Australia has one of the highest rates of RHD in the world, and rates have doubled between 2012 and 2021.

In the community of Tennant Creek, houses with poor thermal performance, lack of cultural consideration, overcrowding and insufficient maintenance have resulted in residents facing health issues, financial hardship, and disruption of cultural practices. Wilya Janta (‘Standing Strong’) is pushing to define a new standard for housing in these communities through culturally sensitive collaboration, design, and building.

Although Wilya Janta was only registered in 2023, its mission has been developed over 20 years, due in no small part to the relationship between co-Founder and Warumungu Elder Norman Frank Jupurrurla, and Dr Simon Quilty, who has been working in the Northern Territory for nearly two decades. Simon’s medical and academic background examining heat and health in the NT and Norm’s rich Warumungu-based cultural knowledge and advocacy led to initial success with a pioneering solar project, and has resulted in their advocacy work around housing innovation to address energy insecurity and broader inequity within the community.

Most remote and regional housing is poorly designed, lacks proper insulation or shading, and has little natural ventilation – in an area of the country that regularly sees temperatures above 40 degrees for days on end in summer. This poor design creates ‘heat caves’, where houses are hotter inside than out, often forcing residents to make difficult choices between paying expensive electricity bills for air conditioning and meeting basic needs, such as medication, food and education. Remote Northen Territory residents are three times more likely to be living in overcrowded houses, and 50 times more likely to be homeless compared to the national average.

Overcrowding and poor thermal efficiency are not the only ways in which current housing is unsuitable for its First Nations occupants. Local Indigenous people have never been consulted in the design process of their homes. There is limited consideration of cultural practices or the way in which Indigenous families live with the land and with each other.

Warumungu people sleep with “gwarda to the Manu” (ear to mother earth) and with their head to the east and feet to the west, yet houses have no liveable outdoor sleeping areas and are not built in an east-west orientation. There is a strong spiritual connection to the use of fire in preparing food, yet houses come with ovens and firepits are strongly discouraged. Cultural avoidance relationships are still deeply honoured, yet overcrowded houses force “poison cousins”, who are not allowed to be in each other’s presence or even make eye contact, to cross paths daily.

These are the problems Wilya Janta aims to solve by promoting community agency in the design and construction of government housing. The pilot project, building two demonstrative ‘Explain Homes’, will seek to overcome ongoing failures in the design of present-day housing developments through culturally sensitive collaboration, design, and building.

Current Tennant Creek Housing: extremely poor thermal design with no breezeways and almost no outdoor livable space. The yard has been compressed during construction, so nothing will ever grow on the sharp, barren gravel. Thirteen people live in this house. Photos by Andrew Quilty. 

Wilya Janta recognises that designing Indigenous homes in remote communities is vastly different to designing houses for non-Indigenous Australians and requires a unique skillset and process to ensure that it is done appropriately. The proposed Wilya Janta model employs local experts as Indigenous Housing Consultants, who will gain experience and skills through designing their own houses as part of the Tennant Creek Housing Pilot.

Engaging the community in the early design phase ensures core cultural design principles are appropriately incorporated into the design phase of the project. The result will be beautiful, functional, culturally safe, thermally efficient, off-grid, climate resilient housing that maintains a connection between the built environment, the community, and the natural surroundings.

Wilya Janta commenced with the restoration of a brick making machine in Tennant Creek to reinvigorate employment opportunities in the community, partly funded by TFFF through a grant from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal. These mud bricks, made from local anthill and spinifex, will become part of the newly designed houses, quite literally embedding Country into homes, while also providing local employment opportunities.

Construction has now commenced on the demonstration houses, which include deep verandas to protect from the sun, breezeways and multiple access paths to allow for ventilation and avoidance relationships, and a connection between inside and outside spaces: as residents spend large amounts of time outside, a focus was placed on outdoor cooking areas, as well as landscaping to make the most of the surrounding natural environment.

Locally, Wilya Janta recognises the importance of strengthening ties with community through cultural events and by providing employment opportunities. With the success of the pilot demonstration homes, Wilya Janta will refine and expand the model to assist the construction of 10 to 20 new houses in the Tennant Creek community. It has already received invitations to work with other remote communities to design culturally and climate-relevant homes and is committed to building a capable workforce to meet the growing demand.

Proposed design of the Wilya Janta demonstration home.

Wilya Janta is supported through the Resilience stream.