Yuendumu is one of the largest Aboriginal communities in Central Australia: the ABS reported 773 usual residents for the community in 1996.^[2] It was set up as a government ration station in 1946 (Meggitt 1962) and is located about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs on the Tanami Track. The main languages spoken are Warlpiri and English.

Yuendumu CDEP started up in March 1997. Fig. 16.1 shows the CDEP participant numbers from the beginning of the program to early in 2001. Until June 1999 the numbers were relatively stable at 140. They then plummeted to about 60 where they remained until June 2000, after which they started rising again. The aim of this paper is to examine the reasons which underlie this rather unusual curve.

The most elementary explanation is suggested by a correlation with the changes in management of the program. Since its beginning in March 1997, Yuendumu CDEP has had three generations of management. Fig. 16.2 shows how changeovers in management seem to be directly related to the fluctuation in participant numbers. The first manager started in March 1997 and resigned some time around July 1999. During this period, the numbers were relatively stable around an average of 140 participants. Just preceding and following this person's resignation there was a steep drop in numbers to about 60 participants. The second manager signed on in September 1999 and left in May or June 2000. During this period, the number of participants was stable at 60. Numbers started rising again with the signing on of the third manager in July 2000.

If the number of participants is taken to be one indicator of the success of a CDEP scheme, and if it can be shown, as in the case of Yuendumu, that the number of CDEP participants and the identity of the manager are directly linked, then an analysis of the relationship between management and participants becomes imperative. It is also significant that in every case the CDEP manager was non-Indigenous. This is also true of management in other Yuendumu organisations (see also Altman, Ch. 13, this volume).^[3] An analysis of the relationship between management and participants must therefore include an analysis of cross-cultural relations. The main part of this paper will consist of an examination of some of the attitudes and opinions held by Indigenous and non-Indigenous persons which underlie the status quo. It will be argued that they have a considerable history. More than 20 years ago Fred Myers studied very similar phenomena among Pintupi people (who live just to the south of Warlpiri people) when he examined 'the miscommunication that resulted across the cultural and ethnic boundaries of black and white through expectations and action based on differing cultural premises' (1980a: 311).- 154 -

This paper will first provide some general statistical information about Yuendumu as contextual background for the ensuing discussion. It will then look at non-Indigenous perceptions of the work ethic and at Warlpiri ideas of the workplace. The third part of the discussion focuses on Warlpiri perceptions of non-Indigenous staff turnover. In the concluding part of the paper I indicate how the forgoing discussion throws light on the Yuendumu CDEP situation.- 155 -