Happy Yarning

Happy Yarning is a community-led wellbeing project co-designed on Country with Bulman-Weemol community to strengthen social and emotional wellbeing. Beginning in 2024 under the NT Primary Health Network’s (NTPHN) suicide prevention funding, the project name Happy Yarning was created by community through the co-design process to reflect a strength-based, culturally appropriate approach to healing and connection.

Mimal is proud to be the first Indigenous land management organisation funded by NTPHN under this program (Michelle to confirm fact). The project supports local employment and on-country activities that build confidence, skills, and leadership while bringing people together through healing circles, men’s and women’s groups, and wellbeing workshops. Activities also include cultural practices such as weaving, carving, and artefact making, which strengthen identity, connection to country, and intergenerational knowledge sharing.

Happy Yarning works in close partnership with Gan’na Healing, who facilitate trauma-informed healing activities and provide ongoing cultural and wellbeing support. The project also collaborates with a range of local and regional organisations to deliver training, strengthen service connections, and support community-led responses to mental health and wellbeing. Through partnership with Nyirrunggulung-RISE, Happy Yarning utilises the Old Bulman Store building as a base for workshops, training, and wellbeing activities, including the Foodbank and Op Shop, creating a welcoming community space that supports healing and learning on country.

Happy Yarning links directly to Mimal’s Healthy Country Plan through Project 9: Communities and Livelihoods, while also supporting Project 1: Capacity Building and Project 2: Strong Culture. It continues to grow through community leadership and the shared belief that healing happens together on country, in language, and through connection.

Happy Yarning aligns with the Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) Framework, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021-2031 (NATSIHP), and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Strategy (2025-2035), all of which emphasise holistic, culturally safe, and community-led approaches to health, healing, and resilience.