Membership open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people
National Executive
Our Candidates
If you have any questions please contact
Uncle Owen Whyman:
0499 342 340
Indigenous Party Enrollment Form + AEC Enrollment Form
Hey Mob and Allies,
Here are the 2 forms you may need to fill in to join the Indigenous Party of Australia.
Online Enrolment form - to join our party
2. If you are not on the electoral roll, or are not sure, go to : https://check.aec.gov.au. If you’re not enrolled or need to change some details, go to : https://www.aec.gov.au/enrol . If you don’t have I.D. or a permanent address or don’t like computers or the internet there are ways to get enrolled anyway. If you need help feel free to email us on indigenouspartyofaustralia@gmail.com. (For instance someone without I.D. can be vouched for by someone else who is already enrolled.) If you would prefer enrolling via paper there is a link to the form via the button below:
Uncle Owen Whyman
Convenor
Indigenous Party of Australia
If you are having trouble with the online form to join the IAPA, please print out the form below, fill, scan and send it to us at: indigenouspartyofaustralia@gmail.com or just write the required information on a piece of paper, sign and post to: Owen Whyman, C/o Wilcannia PO, NSW. 2836.
The Wilcannia Mob: Next Generation - 'River Down'
Desert Pea Media is very proud to announce our latest release 'River Down' - straight out of the community of Wilcannia – the cultural heart of Paakantji Country in Western NSW.
The song was created in May 2017 as part of a 2 Week Desert Pea Media (DPM) storytelling workshop in partnership with Far West Local Health District ‘Quit for New Life’ Project.
It stars one of the original members of 'The Wilcannia Mob', Lyndall King, and a group of community members including vocalist Owen Whyman Snr and Maureen King aka 'Radio Mor'.
DPM was invited to Wilcannia to facilitate a conversation about important issues facing the community around healthy choices and to create some works that would inspire and educate.
This production was co-written by DPM staff Toby Finlayson, Michael Graham, Jared Melrose, Nicky Akehurst and Josh Nicholas.Music produced by Sydney - based music producer Josh ‘Hazy’ Nicholas, and mixed by his father, David Nicholas.
CREDITS:
Starring and co-written by:
Jamin Whyman
Maureen King
Lyndal King
Owen Whyman Jnr
Owen Whyman Snr
Toby Finlayson - Director/ Writer/ DOP/ Editor
Josh Nicholas - Music Producer/ Music Director
Jared Melrose - Co-Writer/ Co-Facilitator
Nicky Akehurst - Production Assistant/ 2nd Camera/ Photography
Roy Weiland - Colour Grading/Motion Graphics
David Nicholas - Audio Mixing & Mastering
Jules Lawson - Producer / DPM Business Manager
Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia. Ready for Election 2022 | The Point | NITV
The beginning. Uncle Owen Whyman, Uncle Derek Hardman and Uncle Lionel Henaway speaking.
We take donations for any amount to keep our Party going:
Bank: Westpac
Acct. Name: INDIGENOUS ABORIGINAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA
BSB:
032 816
Account Number:
317 621
Thanks for your donations, even $5 is great!
Email us for a tax receipt.
* For other ways to donate, including PayPal, Credit Card and via the Chuffed Crowdfunder, instructions for obtaining a receipt, and AEC compliance, please see DONATE in the site header.
Laylah’s Rap:
Laylah is a talented Barkindji song writer. For her and her sister song-writing and singing is joyful release from the troubles of adolescence. Flexible school structures and hours allow time for this sort of creativity. This year Laylah will be starting her nursing studies in Melbourne near where she stood for the IAPA in the CBD seat of Melbourne in November 2022, standing in the first election she was eligible to vote in, having just turned 18 years old.
Policy No 5: Indigenous controlled indigenous youth education.
Laylah Alsaimary is our youth representative in Victoria. She stood as an Independent in the Victorian Nov 2022 elections with IAPA backing. Below, when she was 16, Laylah spoke about her unhappy time at school. Many of our kids do not fit in to mainstream school resulting in poor attendance, self esteem and educational outcomes.
Laylah’s story highlights some common issues our kids are facing in schools toda
New T-shirtDesign
Designed by Amelia in Wilcannia when she was 11 years old.
Charlotte’s Story
Entering high school, I was selected for one out of the two "S classes". The title of these classes had the stigma of being the smartest classes in the year. Over time, I realised being in one of these classes put nothing but pressure on me. I was obviously smart enough to be in this class, but I never felt quite as good as the others around me.
As well as endless work, and tests and exams being thrown at you in every subject and class you sat down in, you were constantly being thrown assignments that were to be done at home with such a short period of time until their due date.
I then started to fall behind, not only with my grades but with my attendance. I just couldn't get myself to go to school some days. I would have packed my bag the night before with all of my books, but when I got up to get ready in the morning, the feeling of severe sickness and anxiety was just too much. Whenever I didn't turn up at school, which was sometimes consecutive days, I would constantly receive pressuring messages and phone calls from my group of friends who wanted me to be at school, this actually got to me. As well as this, I had issues at home.
It wasn't long before the home school liaison officer turned up at my home to talk to my Mum about me not attending school, which was such a scare for me and just made my anxiety worse.
My Mum and I began to think the problem could have been the school that I was at, so my Mum then moved me to another high school to begin fresh in Year 10. But the feeling continued for me, nothing changed, I lasted 4 days at that school before dropping out completely and giving up.
I decided to help my Mum and take on the issues we had at home, becoming a full time carer with her to look after my father figure, my Pop, who was only getting worse with dementia.
At this point I didn't care about education, I thought to myself my mental health comes first before anything. Finally realising I needed help, I ended up seeing a psychologist and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and with what who would've thought it was an actual thing, I was also diagnosed with "school phobia".
Slowly on the mend, my Mum saw an ad in the paper for an alternative school. As soon as she mentioned it to me I freaked out, just the thought of any school frightened me, but fortunately she forced me into at least going to check it out.
So I went to an alternative school where half of the staff, including the people in charge, were Indigenous. This school worked for me because everyone was on the same level with how they felt about schooling, therefore it was judgment free and friendly. It also worked for me in the way that it focused more on attendance, just to motivate yourself to get up out of bed and do something and to be a part of something, rather than the pressure you would have each day of attending a mainstream school. There was never an overload of learning and the classes were never anything too intense, which is what I think is all that's needed. To make this school even more special, it was Indigenous friendly. This was my happy place.
Zaneb’s Story and Shirt Design
My name is Zaneb. I am 12 yrs old. I designed the a T- shirt for the Indigenous-Aboriginal Party of Australia. I live in Mildura in Victoria and I am Barkindji
I live with my mum and sisters and I love them to pieces. I like Art which is why I did the T shirt. I hope people like it. A number of them will be free.
I go to school but I am never happy there. My mum and her friends tried to start an Indigenous friendly school in Mildura. We had to do piles of paperwork and we rented a great building for our school.
But the answer was " No". We had to go to the VRQA [Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority] but their attitude towards my mum was just terrible. They refused to allow her to even speak. Shame job!
The education authorities in every state seem to be really against Indigenous peoples.
I have my fingers crossed for the Indigenous Party of Australia. I really hope we get registered.
Love from Zaneb.
Uncle Owen Whyman and Lawrence Brooke from the National Executive meet and greet supporters of the IAPA on the Central Coast. It was terrible weather but everyone had a good time and had plenty of opportunity to ask Uncle Owen and Lawrence more questions about the Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia.
February 2022 Newsletter
Click on button below
Advice from Aden Ridgeway for the Indigenous Party of Australia
Hi Aden
Hope you do not mind my asking the following:
" If you had one piece of important advice to give us, what would that be?"
Hi again Gab!
I guess my response to your question really relates to the political party (in this case, the IAPA), your policies and campaign messages, and how to make these relevant to a wider support base.
A good example here, is to think of the environmental movement in the 1980s and how they needed to make the issue of environmental conservation, management, protection and biodiversity, a mainstream issue that the population becomes more aware of, understands its importance, and leads to mainstream political parties (as well as big business and society) forming policy responses, etc.
Achieving the desired outcome can often take time but sometimes they can be fast-tracked if the right moment in time and opportunity arises … for example, last year's catastrophic bushfires, etc.
The last thing I would also say is to have a clear vision and strategy about what your party is seeking to achieve, where and how? For example, while I can see that the IAPA is taking a national focus, getting registered is one thing but it also comes back to building up your support base (who are they? what are their thoughts/opinions? How are they like the IAPA and vice-versa? How would they see themselves getting a voice through IAPA, etc.?) So I guess my message here, is more around building the support base and having a clear understanding of the IAPA’s political focus … the Australian Democrats, for example, built a support base aroundthe idea of 'Keeping the Bastards Honest' which then meant developing a focus which was not about becoming an alternative government or even another opposition but a focus which strategised our role to stop the excesses of whoever was elected in government by concentrating our efforts in the Senate. This was further supported by having candidates run in every state and territory election, as well as local government elections, Australia-wide.Aden Ridgeway
Lambie's approach is pretty much the same as the Aus Dems, that is holding
the balance of power in the Senate, which means a senate strategy approach.
The key here is understanding how the Senate vote on election day works … here's
a link which might be helpful:https://www.aph.gov.au/Help/FAQs/Senate
The Senate voting system of 'proportional representation' means that you have to
achieve a quota in each state in order to be elected. So for large populated states
like NSW and VIC, it is far more difficult, whereas the smaller populated states like
Tasmania, it is a whole lot easier to get elected as compared to the larger states.
So I'll leave it at that and wish you well in your political journey .. regards,
Aden
In regard to our competition to design a t-shirt for Indigenous-Aboriginal Party of Australia (also known as Indigenous Party of Australia) we received some fantastic entries. Pls see below!