Yarn Strong Sista, after 23 years of experience and excellence, specialise and offer a range of services including visits to Early Childhood environments to facilitate storytelling and arts workshops with children, hosting Professional Development training for Educators, facilitating arts experiences and face-painting at festivals and events, and providing First Nations designed resources and educational tools on our website.
We work beyond Early Years, customising our programs to meet the curriculum needs of Primary and Secondary students, and work in community contexts supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our Aboriginal Early Childhood Education Resources include: Artefacts, Dolls, Children’s Music, Children’s Books, Games, Felt Hand and Finger Puppets, Felt Mats for Storytelling, Puzzles, and Teachers Resource Guides.
We have expanded into three other projects
- Foregrounding Anti Bias Perspectives
- Yarn Strong Brutha
- Ethical Practise
WHAT WE DO
Aboriginal pedagogy, social justice and self-determination
A great yarn that inspired us was from the late Aunty Iris Lovett-Gardiner, a Gunditjmara Elder who told us a story about her childhood adventure of hunting for possums. Life on the Lake Condah Mission meant that they were restricted to only hunting one day a week and surviving on rations of sugar, flour & tea the rest of the time. Iris and her brother Charlie (who was a particularly good tracker and would always find mother Emu and Echidna tracks) would look for scratch marks on the bark of the gum tree, because that’s the way they knew there was a possum hiding up in a tiny hollow. To Annette, the importance of resilience in these stories showed how integral it is to not lose cultural knowledges and practices. This helped Yarn Strong Sista become what it is today!
Yarn Strong Sista was founded because Annette Sax found a gap in the early childhood education field while storytelling, and the resources available at the time. Thus, started an organization that combined all the required elements to ensure that Aboriginal history and Ways of Being were introduced in the Early Childhood Education sector. Our founding principles were built in collaboration with two other women- Yorta Yorta woman Dr. Sue Lopez-Atkinson, Arakwal Educator Delta Kay, whom we honoured along with Annette by representing them in our logo.
Over the years, the Cultural Knowledges shared by strong Aboriginal women and men inspired me to develop and design toys and resources that reflect Aboriginal Pedagogy and Ways of Being. Over our two decades of being YSS, we have built meaningful relationships with Aboriginal artists, authors and specialists in creating cultural artefacts, as well as building a platform to supply these to educational settings and to the public. We have also built a great relationship with our Fair-Trade partners while producing our handmade resources.
Remembering these yarns with Sistas coming together, and creating new strong yarns is at the core of what YSS is.
Annette Sax
Taungurung
Who we are
Yarn Strong Sista (YSS) is a National Indigenous Educational Consultancy and Training Provider. We are an Indigenous owned and run organization specialising in Aboriginal Pedagogy, providing authentic Aboriginal training for early childhood professionals, primary school teachers and corporate teams.
We also provide relevant resources and books that assist parents, teachers and organisations to acknowledge and celebrate Aboriginal Ways of Being. All our resources are ethically made and sourced, in collaboration with Indigenous artists and Fair-Trade partners.
“We aim to educate and empower both Indigenous and non-Indigenous
communities in understanding Australia’s history and ways to weave Aboriginal
Pedagogies within Educational and Corporate sectors.” – Annette Sax,
Taungurung woman, Education & Creative Arts Director, YSS
Our Vision is Reclaiming, Reviving and Representing Cultures and with this in our sight, we’ve launched two series that encompass these values-
Yarn Strong Brutha is a corporate series that specialises in corporate training, corporate gifts including homewares and accessories all designed by Indigenous artists and ethically produced with Fair Trade partners. Yarn Strong Brutha is your organization’s solution from Aboriginal cross-cultural training, corporate stylings for events and beautifully designed gift sets and clothing range.
Foregrounding Anti-Bias Perspectives is a new series under YSS, where we have available a range of books and resources that make every child feel represented and respected with inclusion as the core. Our resources include bilingual children’s books, all identities’ dolls and cultural fabrics which have been carefully curated with an early childhood teacher ensuring an inclusive range for children, parents and teachers. This series also provides anti-bias training for educators in early childhood and primary education around cultural competency, unconscious bias and contemporary storytelling.
Ethical Practice : With Yarn Strong Sista’s growth we’ve developed into an organization that believes in giving to the community as much as possible. We’ve looked to empower and enrich the lives of our Aboriginal communities and the newer relationships we make with other communities both nationally and internationally. Achieving this has been possible with commissioning artists, independent suppliers, fair-trade workers of all identities. We also offer a scholarship to the young women of mob, who study in Commerce in collaboration with Deakin University called Yarn Strong Sista Indigenous Scholarship!
OUR TEAM
I am a Taungurung woman and have worked in Early Childhood Education for 29 years. I have especially enjoyed many years nurturing children in a special needs setting. I love to spend time with family especially connecting with Country. It’s what keeps us grounded. I thank YSS for giving me the opportunity to do what I love and that’s share my culture with the new generation. To share my knowledge and the truth about how were and are for my people.
I’m an early childhood education leader, and work part time with YSS. I have loved working with the Anti Bias series that we’re launching and have been super happy curating the resources. I came to YSS for my Preferrential Placement to learn more about Aboriginal Pedagogies. The natural elements of our resources make them so memorable and I love them as teaching tools. I have a strong focus on social justice which bleeds onto the love I have for Anti-Bias and YSS!
I am Sharon, I am a Gunditjmra woman. I had worked in Community Health and Engagement within the Aboriginal Community for 12 years. My daughter had introduced me to YSS when working there, and I quickly fell in love with the atmosphere at the office! I work with YSS to help book events and workshops. I also like the flexibility of doing both office work and field work. Networking with other communities and understanding different Cultures is something I look forward to, when coming into work. Annette and Bob’s passion and hardwork at the small but growing business is truly inspiring!
I’m the full time accountant and managing director with YSS, I am also the part time DJ at the office upstairs, playing everything from ABBA to Yidiki cause there’s no problem that music doesn’t give me a respite from. I do a variety of work, from overlooking resource production overseas to customer care. I’m most passionate about ensuring our customer’s happiness, giving it a 200% from me! I also love that I get to travel for work and see new places!
Womindjeka my name is Annette Sax and I am a Taungurung woman.
I have worked in Early Childhood for more than 30 years now, but when I first started YSS, I had realized that there was a gap in Aboriginal storytelling, appropirate Aboriginal resources being used and Cultural knowledges available within the curriculum. I love going into work everyday for the diversity of it. Every single day, I drive in for a new challenge and that paired with our wonderful team makes everyday a memorable experience. The creativity required to design the toys and homewares excites me as much as having yarns with my collegues.