Street kids in front of the embattled Peter Kittle car dealership late on Thursday night.
By ERWIN CHLANDA
It all started with a single Facebook posting on Wednesday at 10:23am by motorcycle dealer Garth Thompson: an invitation to the notorious Schwarz Crescent hotspot that evening – not a vigilante call to arms but “a mass tyre inspection at Beaurepaires or a choc sundae at Hungry Jacks”.
It was well attended.
The next evening WE, half a dozen whitefellers, were huddling on the footpath outside Hungry Jack’s. It was 9:30pm.
THEY were on the other side of Schwarz Crescent, on the carpark of the Beaurepaires tyre shop – about 100 Aboriginal kids aged from around six to 16, girls and boys in roughly equal numbers.
They were milling around, small groups going this way and that, some crossing the highway to the Kittles car yard where 52 cars had been trashed in the early hours of Wednesday, just a few hours before Mr Thompson’s FB post, and now was just an expanse of empty display areas, brightly lit.
It was the classical US and THEM.
The US group soon grew to about a dozen. Should we go over and have a chat?
I decided to try and Councillor Eli Melky said he’d come with me. Mr Thompson was also there.
It was like scuba diving: You swim towards a school of fish and they move, either side of you, keeping a pretty well fixed distance, no big rush, maybe re-forming behind you in a tight bunch.
I told Cr Melky this wasn’t working. On my own I thought I’d be able to approach the kids.
A group of girls, aged maybe 14, were very drunk, no point in talking to them, but soon I got talking to two boys, around nine and 11 years. I introduced myself as a reporter. They were happy to talk.
They were matter of fact about what they were doing, about what had happened at Kittles and why they thought it had. Their comments are to the point (see video).
I returned to the US group. Whilst earlier in the evening the kids had given it a wide berth now they came for a look, and even walked through our group, briefly answering questions.
The boys were whooping, chatting, shouting: This is our patch, seemed to be the message. But no big drama.
At this point a big group from the Desert Life Church (in Alice for 40 years, 600 members; their main house of worship is on Undoolya Road, opposite the new netball stadium) joined US and some serious mingling with THEM started.
Both groups now displayed equal curiosity about one another and Schwarz Crescent ceased to be a demarkation.
The Desert Life Church group was swelled by 25 young members of its Brisbane sister church.
Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield had joined the group. Quite a few of the US locals had a lot to say to her.
And church member Wayne Tregea gave the event a label for the US side: “Positive loitering” (see video).
So now we had a comfortable handle, it’s in use elsewhere in the world and could be a new program for The Alice.
Meanwhile a nasty fight had broken out across the highway near the service station. Three police cars, a police bike and an ambulance were there in no time.
And the Beaurepaires carpark had been taken over, without any nasty incidents, by a bunch of people in cars, utes and 4WDs.
One driver was livid: Minutes ago he’d driven through The Gap, the passenger side window open. He was “bricked” and the missile would have hit his wife had his speed been a fraction lower, possibly killing her.
By midnight the US outnumbered the THEM who had dispersed to the back of, and possibly the top of Anzac Hill where some of them sleep, according to people who do the arduous job of security guard in this troubled town at night.
Well, well. I was driving past Kittles at 4am on that day and saw a heap of Aboriginal kids milling around. I did fleetingly wonder if my car would get bricked or such, it didn’t.
I also thought to myself, that a crowd this size at that time of the morning would eventually cause some sort of trouble.
So, we are back to the pollies with guts!!
Perhaps instead of getting firm, which clearly they don’t have the guts to, they should offer some sort of youth program for those that should be tucked up in bed sleeping, but can’t.
This rampant vandalism and unrest has to stop. The police are limited to what they can do, so it’s back to the pollies.
100 years ago no “foreigner” would have dared come to Alice Springs / Mbantua without the permission of the Arranta people.
You can bet your life that the vast majority of these kids are from “foreign” language groups, but now hell bent on vandalism, living on the fringes of Alice Springs society, in the grip of Centrelink, as most of their parents / guardians are required to be here either to collect social service money or get medical attention, or both. Given access to minimal money and subject to no discipline, these kids are doomed.
The Arranta elders need to read the Riot Act to them, in Arranta language and discuss with their parents the old rules and the means of enforcing them.
Surely CLC – ironically major shareholders of Kittles(!) – should be required to organise such a confrontation.
Bob Katter recently reminded us that western punitive measures do not work. Put these kids into “detention” and you will produce a knowledgeable criminal for the outlay of a mere $500,000 per year per student to enable that to occur.
The sooner the Territory government and the Feds draw up regional treaties with the various language groups of this region, the better.
Return to the principles envisaged in the 1960s Land Rights demonstrations. Take people back to where they are the rightful owners, and embark on a start to the Bob Beadman towns that were envisaged 10 years ago.
All social services to be paid at Yuendumu, Papunya, Ali Curung etc., but only payable on the understanding that all members of local groups have the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and will undergo any necessary training to enable the creation of normal, fully serviced towns.
Forget the euphemisms like community, camp, outstation: all Australians deserve the same level of lifestyle as other people get in other Australian country towns. Schools, hospitals, houses, water and electricity, bitumen roads, libraries, museums, motels, shops, cattle and vegetable gardens. And gaols!
All of such towns can be created with Aboriginal labour and staffed by Aboriginal people. It’s not apartheid: it’s land rights.
NT First Australians should all be affluent on their large land holdings. But on the fringes of western society towns they will only achieve the status of dependent, mendicant no hopers. That has been the norm of this land since Governor Macquarie. Our Central Australian First Australians deserve better.
Yes, the behaviour of these little monsters is appalling. But imagine this town in 10 years time if something sensible is not implemented, right now.