A radical idea goes live: community-designed home opens in Tennant Creek
Media are invited to Warumungu Country (Tennant Creek, NT) for the official opening of a first-of-its-kind home, designed by Warumungu people based on their culture and Country.
Federal Member for Lingiari and Special Envoy for Remote Communities Marion Scrymgour MP will officially open the home.
What: official opening of Wilya Janta’s first Explain Home
When: from 3.15pm ACST, Thursday 9 July 2026
Where: Hingstons Pl, Tennant Creek, NT (see map here)
More than two years in the making, the Explain Home has been delivered by Wilya Janta in partnership with the Warumungu community. It flips the script on remote housing – rather than forcing people to fit the house, it has been shaped around people’s lives, culture and priorities.
It started with a simple question: How do you want to live? The result is a home that reflects culture as much as climate.
It includes:
- Spaces that support cultural living patterns, including family structures and sleeping arrangements
- Design that respects avoidance relationships
- Outdoor areas for firepits, including the use of smoke for cultural cleansing
- A layout designed to reduce overcrowding, a key driver of diseases such as rheumatic heart disease and diphtheria
At the same time, the home is a high-performing thermal build designed using data to stay cool in Tennant Creek’s extreme heat and warm through cold desert nights, reducing reliance on power and lowering energy costs.
It’s also locally made and constructed from mud bricks created in Tennant Creek using spinifex and termite mounds, with local people involved in making the materials and bringing the build to life.
But this isn’t just a house – it’s a living test of a better way.
The Explain Home will be continuously evaluated based on what matters to the people who live in it. Residents will define the indicators tracking outcomes like comfort, health, wellbeing, and cultural safety to understand what truly works.
Jimmy Frank Jupurrurla, Chair and Chief Cultural Officer with Wilya Janta, said:
“This is about empowering local decision making and practicing culture in our homes. The Explain Home shows how Wumpurani people can have a house that suits our culture and our Country.
There are a lot of barriers that Wumpurani people don’t see in our everyday lives. Parts of the system are unfair and don’t work for our people.
Wilya Janta shows we can have a voice in decisions about our lives. By evaluating the home, we’re showing that Wumpurani people can collect our own data and be the ones telling our own stories.
For a Warumungu person from a small community with English as our second language, it’s a huge step for us to sit and design a house alongside architects, working together with papulanji (non-Aboriginal people) to make our lives and community better.
Dr Simon Quilty, Chief Operating Officer with Wilya Janta, said:
“For decades, we’ve been building houses in remote communities that don’t work then blaming the people living in them. This flips that. We started with the simple question: how do you want to live? Everything that followed, the design, building materials, landscaping came from that.
When you listen first, you get a completely different result. It’s not radical, it’s just common sense.”
Marion Scrymgour MP, Federal Member for Lingiari, said:
“Housing is the bedrock of economic development, employment and education in our remote communities – we have got to improve how it is currently delivered. Wilya Janta has done some great work showcasing the way things could be done.
One of the exciting parts of this project for me is the work Wilya Janta has done on local employment, energy security and health. I think government and our community sector have many things we can take away from this project, but we also need to see support for this work continued.”
The event will bring together community members, partners, and leaders to celebrate the home’s transition from idea to lived reality.
The afternoon will include a traditional smoking ceremony led by Warumungu Elders, reflections from community leaders, tours of the home, and the painting of Wilya Janta’s van featuring the organisation’s “two snakes” design, based on a Warumungu story that speaks to cultural protocol on Country.
Media attending will have the opportunity to tour the home, capture vision, and speak with residents, community leaders, and project partners.
Media unable to travel to Tennant Creek can access interviews and vision.
ABOUT WILYA JANTA
Wilya Janta is an Aboriginal-led organisation partnering with remote communities to design and deliver climate-ready, culturally appropriate housing that supports health, wellbeing and community resilience.
MEDIA CONTACT
Alycia Gawthorne
0425 016 380
ag@wilyajanta.org