Urapunga is a remote Aboriginal community located 600 kilometres south-west of Darwin near the southern edge of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Home to 108 people, Urapunga is nestled between the two big river crossings – the Wilton and the Roper.
Circulanation founder Tanya Egerton meet sisters Margaret, Kathleen and Rhonda Duncan, Urapunga Elders and their family, in February 2016. Tanya worked with Margaret to facilitate a range of enterprise projects in Katherine and surrounding remote communities.
This included a large scale online campaign for the donation of pre-loved clothes resulting in 500+ boxes of donations delivered to the remote Aboriginal community of Jilkminggan, NT. Margaret was the face of the campaign and played a key role in establishing the Jilkminggan OpShop.
The sisters contacted Tanya in March 2018, with a request to establish a community-owned OpShop in Urapunga, to provide affordable clothing to families and to support the learning of business skills. Their dream is to encourage younger people to run their own businesses.
As part of the Remote OpShop Project, Circulanation is working with Rhonda Duncan and other key community members, in the development of the opshop which opened on the 15th of June, 2018.