About Ngawilyi
Not another worker outside the family.An Aunty walking alongside them.
Ngawilyi Narrative is an emerging Aboriginal-owned narrative therapy, mentoring, movement and community organisation supporting Aboriginal children and young people, parents, kinship carers, foster carers and families across the overlapping areas of life.
Our philosophy
Every family needs an extra Aunty for a yarn.
Sometimes children and families do not need another referral, another assessment, another appointment or another person asking them to tell their story again. Sometimes they need someone consistent beside them. Ngawilyi Narrative provides an Aunty's all-round approach — a relational bridge across the spaces services leave between them.
The gap we're responding to
People's lives don't fit neatly into service categories.
Children and families experiencing multiple overlapping concerns can quickly become surrounded by services — a different program, referral or worker for each concern. Ngawilyi Narrative was imagined as another way of working: someone able to yarn, mentor, move, advocate, connect, create and respond according to what is happening in the person's life.
Ngawilyi does not aim to replace specialist, statutory, clinical or cultural services. It aims to work alongside them — and bridge the spaces between them.
School affects home.
Home affects placement.
Placement affects belonging.
Belonging affects identity.
Family contact affects emotions.
Emotions affect school.
Carer employment stress can affect the whole household.
The name
Ngawilyi means "Aunty" in Arabana language.
The use of Arabana language and authorisation for the program and name has been provided through Arabana Elders and the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation. This cultural authority is held with deep respect. Ngawilyi Narrative does not claim cultural authority for other Aboriginal Nations — when working alongside children and families from other Nations, we support connection with their own family, community, Elders, Country and cultural knowledge holders.
The aim
The goal is not dependence on Ngawilyi.
Community around the child.
Knowledge within the child.
Strong relationships beside the child.
Ngawilyi Narrative is an emerging organisation. Our programs are proposed models being shaped through community consultation — we are seeking partners, pilot funders and community voices rather than claiming finished outcomes.
Help Shape NgawilyiAbout Our Aunties
An Aunties All-Round Approach.
Ngawilyi Narrative is an Aboriginal-owned narrative therapy, mentoring, fitness and community organisation. Our Aunties are narrative therapists who bridge therapy, culture, community, movement and everyday life — creating flexible spaces where children, young people and families can receive therapeutic support without losing the importance of relationship, culture and connection.
Therapy does not always need to happen across a desk.
Narrative conversations can happen while —
Healing through story. Strength through connection.
Founder & CEO
The Aunty who built the bridge.
Founder portrait
coming soon
Angel
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Aboriginal-owned and led. Professional narrative therapist, community practitioner, mother, kinship carer, foster carer and Aunty.
Professional Qualifications & Experience
Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work
University of Melbourne
Diploma of Narrative Therapy and Community Work
University Certificate in Trauma
Certificate IV in Child, Youth and Family Intervention
Certificate III in Fitness
Certificate in Treating Trauma Using Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
7+ years' experience
Across child protection, child, youth, family, social work-aligned and community practice
Behaviour support
Knowledge and practical experience
First Aid trained
Suicide First Aid trained
Lived experience
As an informal kinship carer and formal foster carer
Experience and knowledge
As a mother and Aunty
For clarity with partners and referrers: the Founder brings extensive professional experience within child protection and social work-aligned settings, alongside a Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work. Only completed qualifications are listed — the Founder is not presented as a qualified social worker, and a qualification never means a support is automatically NDIS claimable.
Why I Created Ngawilyi Narrative
"Ngawilyi Narrative grew from seeing the same gap from every side — as a professional, a carer, a mother and an Aunty."
Through more than seven years working alongside children, young people and families — and through my own experiences caring for children — I kept seeing a space between the different systems surrounding families.
There were therapists.
There were child protection workers.
There were schools.
There were carers and families.
There were community services.
But there were times when what was missing was an Aunty who could move between those spaces.
My professional experience and study in Narrative Therapy and Community Work — alongside my lived experience as a mother, kinship carer, foster carer and Aunty — made me want to build the bridge I could see was missing.
That became Ngawilyi Narrative.
Bridging Therapy & Culture
Narrative Therapy + Culture + Mentoring + Movement + Community + Relationship
Our Aunties are narrative therapists, able to bring professional therapeutic knowledge into culturally and relationally grounded spaces. A therapeutic conversation might happen during a traditional therapy session — but it might also happen during a walk, fitness session, art activity, community activity, school support or yarn.
We recognise that healing, identity and wellbeing do not exist separately from a child's relationships, culture, family, community and everyday experiences. Ngawilyi Narrative therefore works across those spaces — rather than expecting children and families to continually move between disconnected systems.
The Aunties All-Round Approach
One relationship. Support that responds to the week.
The All-Round Approach allows the relationship to remain consistent while the support responds flexibly around the child and family — therapy, mentoring and cultural needs woven together by one trusted Aunty.
We walk alongside — we don't take over.
Meet Our Growing Aunty Team
More Aunties coming.
Ngawilyi Narrative is growing carefully and intentionally. As our programs and community partnerships grow, you'll be able to meet more of the Aunties walking alongside our children, young people and families here.
Photo
More Aunties Coming
Aunty / Role — to be announced
Name
Mob / cultural connections — where the individual chooses and has authority to share
Qualifications
Therapeutic training
Professional experience
Lived and community knowledge
Areas of practice
About Me
What I Bring as an Aunty
Photo
More Aunties Coming
Aunty / Role — to be announced
Name
Mob / cultural connections — where the individual chooses and has authority to share
Qualifications
Therapeutic training
Professional experience
Lived and community knowledge
Areas of practice
About Me
What I Bring as an Aunty
Photo
More Aunties Coming
Aunty / Role — to be announced
Name
Mob / cultural connections — where the individual chooses and has authority to share
Qualifications
Therapeutic training
Professional experience
Lived and community knowledge
Areas of practice
About Me
What I Bring as an Aunty
Professional therapeutic practice. Cultural connection. The relationship of an Aunty.