00:02Yewa McGrath is used to walking in two worlds.
00:05As the Yolngul nurse starts his career in the Northern Territory Parliament this week,
00:09he says his first task will be to listen.
00:12Our future is talking to young people, elevating and liberating young Yolngul people, you know.
00:21So it's a new era, we're going to be talking about new things, not reflecting on the past.
00:28The 35-year-old, also a single father, won a recent by-election for Labour in the vast Arnhem Land
00:34seat of Moolka, his daughters by his side.
00:38He's like the only young Indigenous person that put his hand up to be representing Arnhem Land. I'm just very
00:46proud of him.
00:47I'm really honoured, honoured to have them in my life.
00:50Without them, I would have never had any ambitions and aspirations to go further than doing Cert IV in primary
00:58healthcare.
00:59Growing up on Elko Island and losing both his parents as a child, he describes poverty as a trap not
01:05many escape.
01:06People think it's easy to get out, you know, like in the urban mainstream level, you know.
01:13They say, why can Aboriginal people be like us and snap out of it, you know.
01:20Poverty doesn't discriminate, it'll steal your childhood.
01:27It took me around 15 years to kind of break away, because poverty is a vicious cycle.
01:34His election follows the resignation of independent member Yingya Goyula from the seat after a decade in Parliament,
01:41one of several Aboriginal leaders to resign from high-profile positions this year.
01:45They've been fighting it for a long time. I'm fresh in the game, so I'm here to fight for my
01:51people.
01:52As a remote community resident, the current controversy about the closure of Darwin's short-stay accommodation Yissa
01:58and the shifting of residents 100 kilometres away feels personal.
02:02It's out of sight, out of mind, you know. What are we doing? We're going backwards.
02:09You know, this is like the 60s. What is it next, like, we sit in the back of the bus,
02:12blacks in the back? That's what it is.
02:14The former NT Young Australian of the Year is hopeful his new role will involve educating others in and outside
02:22Parliament about the drivers of poverty.
