Speaker 1: This episode is the third part of a three part series.
Speaker 1: If you haven't yet, start with Children of the Intervention
Speaker 1: and then listen to the Coppers. Also, it contains some
Speaker 1: strong language.
Speaker 2: Most of us have lived in these camps all their life.
Speaker 2: I've moved out, I've come back, grew up in Charles Creek.
Speaker 1: So you got some kids on your own, yep, what
Speaker 1: are your hopes and dreams for them?
Speaker 2: They've got brains, they do go to school all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've got my eldest daughter and who's almost finished year twelve,
Speaker 2: and she's straight into her health worker's course straight after
Speaker 2: school holidays and the other ones in year ten and yeah,
Speaker 2: she's pursuing what she wants to do now through the
Speaker 2: VET courses through school.
Speaker 1: I'm at Charles Creek Camp, just on the edge of
Speaker 1: Alice Springs. It's its own little community at the bottom
Speaker 1: of a hill. I'm talking to her in a while
Speaker 1: we talk. Her kids are playing nearby, still in their uniforms,
Speaker 1: just home from school. They're burning off that last bit
Speaker 1: of energy before dinner and settling in for the night.
Speaker 1: I want to't know what it's been like to live
Speaker 1: here under the glaring spotlight of governments, but never to
Speaker 1: be seen, only monitored, to live a life within the
Speaker 1: ever tightening parameters decided by the state, the latest one
Speaker 1: being the curfews imposed earlier this year. Kids weren't allowed
Speaker 1: on the streets after six pm. It was horrible.
Speaker 2: Like I've just finished the season being an under seventy's
Speaker 2: coach for the girl's side into Alice. It was a
Speaker 2: bit hard because we had to bring our training times
Speaker 2: earlier just so the kids could be home before the
Speaker 2: certain time, which was silly because none of my girls
Speaker 2: was involved with any of the rubbish that was going
Speaker 2: on around town and it really affected our training ways.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was pretty stupid that we got affected
Speaker 2: from it, really bad.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the typical thing that happens in the
Speaker 1: territory is that everyone gets tired with the same brush
Speaker 1: because you know, a certain number of people are playing
Speaker 1: up and then everyone has to suffer as a result.
Speaker 1: Is that the way you feel, Yep, exactly the way
Speaker 1: I feel. It's you know, it's not our problem.
Speaker 2: It should be brought upon their guardians, their parents or
Speaker 2: whatever with whoever's doing wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so no one's talking to each other. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what it seems to me. No one's actually you
Speaker 1: can sort of like enforce the law. You can bring
Speaker 1: in curfews, you can bring in the interventions through the
Speaker 1: army and stuff, but actually no one's actually sitting down
Speaker 1: and talking with people to find out what the problem
Speaker 1: is and what the solution is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll be right if we could do that. But
Speaker 2: no one's game enough to get out and talk about it.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, it must be pretty exhausting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is being locals and liveding all our life,
Speaker 2: So yeah.
Speaker 1: You see a long term future here for yourself and
Speaker 1: your family At the moment, no, So where would you go? Oh,
Speaker 1: somewhere out of Alice Springs. Hopefully it's not so much
Speaker 1: the crime wave that's driving Renee out of Alice Springs.
Speaker 1: It's been the response to it. People who are trying
Speaker 1: their best are looked on with suspicion. It's tiring having
Speaker 1: to prove yourself time and time again to do the
Speaker 1: little things, go to the shops, drive a car, raise
Speaker 1: a family. Every Aboriginal person here is under the same pressure.
Speaker 1: The thing that needs fixing is not Renee or her family,
Speaker 1: but they continue trespassing on their lives by clerks and coppers.
Speaker 1: She's not alone wanting to leave Alice. Those who can
Speaker 1: afford it are packing up and leaving. There are for
Speaker 1: sale signs everywhere you go in town. There's a glut
Speaker 1: of homes in the market. So what are the people
Speaker 1: that remain want. What's working or needs to happen to
Speaker 1: make things work, the little things that can make a
Speaker 1: big difference. I'm Daniel James from Schwartz Media and seven AM.
Speaker 1: This is Ella Springs Episode three in Bartway.
Speaker 3: Thank you everyone. What an incredible group of dedicated, hard
Speaker 3: working Territorians. How good is it to be Territorians Tonight.
Speaker 1: There's a new government in the territory and its leader
Speaker 1: has promised solutions. Earlier this year, Lea Finiguiaro became the
Speaker 1: new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. She won on
Speaker 1: a landslide, almost completely wiping out the Labor Party from Parliament,
Speaker 1: reinstalling the Country Liberal Party to power.
Speaker 3: As are born and Bred's second generation Territory Q the
Speaker 3: granddaughter of Italian migrants. I grew up living an iconic
Speaker 3: territory childhood, hunting, camping, fishing and playing outside. I always
Speaker 3: knew the territory was a special place and I was
Speaker 3: lucky to be a Territorian growing up here.
Speaker 1: The new Chief Minister's just turned forty, but she's been
Speaker 1: in Parliament for thirteen years. She's clp through and through
Speaker 1: as much a part of the political establishment as you
Speaker 1: can get. Here. The dawn of this era looks strangely
Speaker 1: like the old one. It's another territory and looking back
Speaker 1: at this place as they remember to get back to
Speaker 1: those times. The new Chief Minister will be implementing her
Speaker 1: tough on crime agenda.
Speaker 3: Territorians have stood up against nearly two decades of escalating
Speaker 3: crime and economy going backwards, and the erosion of our
Speaker 3: once iconic lifestyle. But tomorrow is the start of a
Speaker 3: new day and a new shutter.
Speaker 1: She's promised to lower the age of criminal responsibility to ten,
Speaker 1: tightening already type bay all laws skills, will have truancy officers,
Speaker 1: and there's the threat to restrict government benefits for parents
Speaker 1: of kids who misbehave. Police will be given more powers
Speaker 1: to search kids as young as ten if they're considered suspicious.
Speaker 1: The greyest of law enforcement criteria spit hoods banned after
Speaker 1: the Don Dale Ryal Commission, will be back the prison
Speaker 1: itself in the midst of a makeover, new and improve
Speaker 1: the house, all the incarcerated children to come.
Speaker 4: CLP are proposing on the issue of you crime to
Speaker 4: reducing the age of criminal responsibility back to ten from
Speaker 4: twelve years of age. Yes, what experts have said that
Speaker 4: this is a good idea? And what have they said?
Speaker 3: Well, the experts of the CLP listen to are the
Speaker 3: everyday Territorians who are out there sick and tired of
Speaker 3: being victims of crime.
Speaker 1: We had holy promises, so they're her solutions. But what
Speaker 1: about the locals. Before we came to Waller Springs, we
Speaker 1: called a lot of people, elders, lawyers, health workers, a
Speaker 1: lot of people who have been fighting over decades to
Speaker 1: try and improve the plight of people living here. Blair
Speaker 1: McFarland's name kept on coming up, so we set up
Speaker 1: a meeting with him. We meet him at the Olive
Speaker 1: Pink Botanical Gardens, the desert gardens, nestled at the base
Speaker 1: of one of the hills of the Eastern McDonald Rangers.
Speaker 1: The sky is blue and the morning sun is warm
Speaker 1: a blaze game. After decades of work on the front line,
Speaker 1: he's approaching retirement. And is at the point where he
Speaker 1: can tell it like it is, call out anyone or
Speaker 1: any agency that needs to be called out.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm Blair McFarland. One of my things is that
Speaker 5: I'm twenty twenty four empty Australian. Every year I say that,
Speaker 5: so you know, I've got a little bit of generally
Speaker 5: sort of acknowledged cred in case you've never heard of me, which,
Speaker 5: of course the past majority we'll never have.
Speaker 1: Blair arrived here in the mid eighties from Melbourne and
Speaker 1: fell in love with the place and the people. Petrol
Speaker 1: sniffing was a sporadic problem when he arrived, but by
Speaker 1: the start of the New millennium the problem became more
Speaker 1: and more prevalent, until it turned into an unrelenting wave
Speaker 1: with no sign of stopping.
Speaker 4: It's an issue that's played remote indigenous communities for decades
Speaker 4: and its effects are devastating.
Speaker 6: Petrol sniffing is on the rise.
Speaker 1: In the top of two thousand and two, Blair established
Speaker 1: the Central Australian Youth Linkup Service KALOS to support young
Speaker 1: people sniffing petrol. Blair himself had first hand encounters with
Speaker 1: people he'd attempted suicide as a result of sniffing. One
Speaker 1: man he saved went on to save another from a
Speaker 1: similar attempt.
Speaker 7: Blair McFarland is the manager of Kayalus. He's speaking with
Speaker 7: Kathy van Extell.
Speaker 6: And so the youth are rumming around with a real
Speaker 6: feeling as like nobody cares about us. It's definitely contributed
Speaker 6: to a feeling of unease on the street in our springs,
Speaker 6: like a lot of people are really concerned about it,
Speaker 6: like they're nice kids around.
Speaker 1: Through Kalus, he advocated for the Low Aromatic Fuel Act
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, which resulted in a ninety five percent
Speaker 1: drop in petrol sniffing. It was as close as you
Speaker 1: could get to ever solving a complex problem in this
Speaker 1: part of the world. But this is different, This crisis
Speaker 1: as much worse.
Speaker 5: It's really quite different because basically a petrol snipper is
Speaker 5: like a zombie, you know, they sort of they stumble around,
Speaker 5: they've got a can against their face, they don't seem
Speaker 5: to see anything. So that's what it was like then,
Speaker 5: and they're doing themselves serious damage. But now it's really
Speaker 5: contrasting to that, And the now is a bunch of
Speaker 5: kids with ADHD fas D global developmental delay they're hungry,
Speaker 5: they're wired, they're sort of their traditional authority systems have
Speaker 5: been undermined by colonization for generations, and this is what
Speaker 5: Alice Springs is now facing, the karma that we're facing
Speaker 5: because of policy decisions made a generation ago.
Speaker 1: But no one in politics is talking about that. It
Speaker 1: seems like they're only thinking as far ahead as the
Speaker 1: next electoral cycle will allow.
Speaker 5: I think that there are so many players here operating
Speaker 5: in their own on their own agendas, that it's actually
Speaker 5: what a mathematician will call a chaos field, a field
Speaker 5: where there are so many decisions being made that it's
Speaker 5: really unpredictable in which direction things will go. And that's
Speaker 5: I think what you're feeling here. There is no plan,
Speaker 5: like you know, the crime stuff. They're saying, oh, we'll
Speaker 5: put everybody in jail, So like, is that the plan
Speaker 5: that everybody in the Northern Church wy will either be
Speaker 5: a prisoner or a warden by the year twenty fifty.
Speaker 1: Lowering the age of criminal responsibility back to ten?
Speaker 5: I know what, lecg to six?
Speaker 8: That'll be more fun.
Speaker 5: This is crazy.
Speaker 1: What do you got to say about it? Oh?
Speaker 5: It just it's a crazy, desperate foolish thing that in
Speaker 5: no way affects you know, what's making those kids criminal.
Speaker 5: If they wanted to do something about that whole scene,
Speaker 5: you'd put a lot more resources into diagnosing and treating
Speaker 5: all of those things.
Speaker 1: His view echoes experts who say, not only does tough
Speaker 1: on crime not work, it's a potential breach of human
Speaker 1: rights when it comes to kids in prison or detention
Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call it. What the state's
Speaker 1: doing is swapping one culture for another one where the
Speaker 1: cycle of crime and punishment becomes the norm. Throwing children
Speaker 1: in detention and placing them in previously banned spit hoods
Speaker 1: can and will have psychological and cognitive impacts on kids development.
Speaker 1: Even though the strategies won't work, people have lost hope
Speaker 1: to fight against them. This is the mandate the government has.
Speaker 1: Despite less than forty five percent of enrolled voters in
Speaker 1: Bush electorates casting a ballot, Blair says the low voter
Speaker 1: turnout is linked to the outcome of the Voice referendum
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the referendum made Aboriginal people even more
Speaker 5: cynical than before. For about what's the point, Because I
Speaker 5: think a whole lot of Aboriginal people became really enheartened,
Speaker 5: but the whole voting thing and didn't vote. Like in
Speaker 5: the electric I ran and there were six and a
Speaker 5: half thousand people registered to vote and two and a
Speaker 5: half thousand voted.
Speaker 1: Blair ran as a Greens candidate in the recent election
Speaker 1: and lost. Greens threw a rare breed in the territory,
Speaker 1: perhaps his last attempt to force change in our springs
Speaker 1: and beyond. So Blair, what needs to be done?
Speaker 5: I don't know what, I don't know. I've tried everything,
Speaker 5: nothing nothing works.
Speaker 1: Blair contributed a lot more than most, but ultimately change
Speaker 1: here is going to come from somewhere else. After the break.
Speaker 1: One man in his family in the middle of the desert,
Speaker 1: trying their best to help the children of him Bantua
Speaker 1: break the cycle. It means Ruby and I are going
Speaker 1: on country.
Speaker 2: These are the biggest spurces you've ever seen.
Speaker 8: So have we seen Amia? The other day?
Speaker 9: Just over there around we just picked up a baby
Speaker 9: printing about that big.
Speaker 8: His head was stuck in a can.
Speaker 1: So we surrounded. Can you describe where we are? I
Speaker 1: mean we're surrounded by rocky escarments with McDonald Range.
Speaker 8: East of McDonald Rangers.
Speaker 9: I think this is the Ondulia side of the Baranta country,
Speaker 9: and over here there's a great significance of connection to
Speaker 9: this country.
Speaker 8: That's the three caterpillars.
Speaker 9: And Gelco is my great great great grandfather, and.
Speaker 8: He's not too far from him.
Speaker 1: We've come here at a cracking time of day, late afternoon,
Speaker 1: the sun low over the McDonald ranges on the horizon.
Speaker 1: I'm with Damien the Fellow. He's been our unofficial to
Speaker 1: a guide. We're out at his favorite place, the place
Speaker 1: where he tries to make a difference to what's happening here.
Speaker 1: His generosity helped us a great deal for this series.
Speaker 1: But now we're at his outstation, the spot that made
Speaker 1: us want to speak with him in the first place.
Speaker 9: All what you see is what I've accumulated out of
Speaker 9: my own pocket. This machiney, I've only bought that cheap,
Speaker 9: but it's done in me some some world of greatness.
Speaker 1: There's caravans for smokeo and to shelter from the weather.
Speaker 1: There's fences, gates and pens, and there's horses. What's this
Speaker 1: fellow's name.
Speaker 8: There's a malon. She's a mayor.
Speaker 1: How much I know about horses.
Speaker 9: That's emma melon, chopsticks.
Speaker 8: This is my my big ouse.
Speaker 1: He's a big fire many as.
Speaker 9: Sixteen sixteen nuns and the other one other side of him,
Speaker 9: DJ and groom up the back.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest source of ever scene in my life.
Speaker 8: He's a most gentlest one. Yeah right, he's raised all.
Speaker 1: The Emma melon and chopsticks. I looked after by kids
Speaker 1: who come here from town, kids who spent time in detention,
Speaker 1: or kids with substance issues. Damien calls the program all rounder.
Speaker 9: I got a young black that I'm training justin and
Speaker 9: he's getting ready to race again, so he's probably going
Speaker 9: to raise chopstick or this big follow you.
Speaker 8: So we'd get kids out of here.
Speaker 9: Numbers of thirty twenty nine different different young fellows, different ages.
Speaker 9: We could either be doing identifying bush medicine or trees
Speaker 9: to make bush tools out of we do what do
Speaker 9: you call it a cultural conversation. Half of the group
Speaker 9: might want to do the horses, like brush them down,
Speaker 9: and we'll get the other half prepared to saddle and
Speaker 9: then we'll switch so they both get two learning sessions
Speaker 9: out of the one day. And that could be the
Speaker 9: mechanics or that could be the fencing, or that could
Speaker 9: be the cooking, or the artwork or the fitness side
Speaker 9: of things. So we break it down for the one day,
Speaker 9: but split it in twos.
Speaker 1: So by the time the kids have come through the program,
Speaker 1: what will I know how to do that they didn't
Speaker 1: know how to do before they got eat.
Speaker 8: Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 9: When you talk about pioneering days, everything was built on
Speaker 9: how much skills you had and how useful you could
Speaker 9: be on country.
Speaker 8: So we tried to give them all those skills. So
Speaker 8: I for job presented itself.
Speaker 9: They'll be trained in stable ways, so our job wouldn't
Speaker 9: sort of cause them any fear to apply for one
Speaker 9: or But we normally aim to explore their talents and
Speaker 9: expose out of talent and push them into that sort
Speaker 9: of workforce because then they'll stick at it because they
Speaker 9: love doing it. So we do, you know, all sorts
Speaker 9: of stuff worlding, fencing, mechanics, cooking, artwork, horsemanship. I believe
Speaker 9: from what I've seen, I've seen a lot of change.
Speaker 9: I've seen a chemical here that actually works.
Speaker 1: What's that chemical?
Speaker 9: The chemical is back on country and just being that
Speaker 9: peace with country and animals. It gives a different approach.
Speaker 9: When you're trying to educate someone or talk to someone,
Speaker 9: they have the time to take it in.
Speaker 1: All round, it is a working work in progress, and
Speaker 1: Damien's reasons for starting the program are deep.
Speaker 8: From the origin behind it is.
Speaker 9: My dad is a cattleman and a person before him
Speaker 9: grew up in a home starting generation, very resilient. Yeah,
Speaker 9: took on different skill set because that's what was required
Speaker 9: back in the day.
Speaker 1: As a kid, Damien's dad, Dennis, was forcibly removed from
Speaker 1: his family and sent to Darwin. Somehow he escaped and
Speaker 1: returned to his country, where he became a ringer on
Speaker 1: a cattle station. Through years of skilled and hard toil,
Speaker 1: he went on to become one of the first Aboriginal
Speaker 1: owners of a cattle station. I've seen footage of Jennis.
Speaker 1: Damien looks and sounds just like him.
Speaker 9: I was raised in bush on cattle stations, seeing my
Speaker 9: dad doing it.
Speaker 8: But to be creative was the key for.
Speaker 1: Me in life. Damien, like many of us do, worked
Speaker 1: a series of jobs, many of them a long way
Speaker 1: from his true passion, but in aid of his people. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: what were we doing before you started the program?
Speaker 9: I was an officer at a Bailey facility called Sodwish
Speaker 9: and we were trying to keep him from not getting
Speaker 9: locked up and keep him from coming back. And then
Speaker 9: I heard about his other programs that's been delivered, but
Speaker 9: his kids were still reoffending. But that was receiving so
Speaker 9: much funding every year. And I come to think about it,
Speaker 9: what where's all his money going? Because there's a lot
Speaker 9: of money getting chucked around, but there's no change. So
Speaker 9: I created an idea for my program that was based
Speaker 9: on my dad's upbringing, from his pioneering days.
Speaker 1: To find the path forward, not only for himself but
Speaker 1: his community. Damien would be guided from within. He could
Speaker 1: look to his own flesh and blood for the trail
Speaker 1: out of the mess. He would look to his own father.
Speaker 1: Dennis passed away a couple of years ago, but his
Speaker 1: name and memory live on. Damien has called the land
Speaker 1: We're on r DK Outstation after his old man, Roy
Speaker 1: Dennis Kunos. That means that every kid that gets a
Speaker 1: helping hand here will have Dennis to think as much
Speaker 1: as Damien. He believes that small, black run and own
Speaker 1: programs like this can help kids heal, reorientate their lives
Speaker 1: and help them in a way that locking them up
Speaker 1: never will.
Speaker 9: I don't think there's too many programs like mine. I
Speaker 9: think it's pretty unique how it's designed and where the
Speaker 9: origin comes from. I've done a little bit of work.
Speaker 9: Most of my work has been pretty good. I'd like
Speaker 9: to expand. I like to have young people out here
Speaker 9: full time, just caretaken for the animals and getting a wage.
Speaker 9: At some point in time, eventually I'll run a little
Speaker 9: bit of cattle. I can introduce that cattle industry back
Speaker 9: in to these young people's lives, given them an opportunity
Speaker 9: to chase call in the yard brandom and mark them
Speaker 9: and just teach them a bunch of skill to be
Speaker 9: self sufficient back on their own country. And I've seen
Speaker 9: a lot of programs like I was saying, they get
Speaker 9: a lot of funding, but there's no real outcome. I'd
Speaker 9: like to be the first that could create outcomes before
Speaker 9: I receive any type of funding.
Speaker 1: I was mesmerized by the setting and what Damian was doing,
Speaker 1: but there was one question I was dreading.
Speaker 8: Would you like to go for iron?
Speaker 1: Not a chance. I mean, it's not that I'm not
Speaker 1: a fan of horses, It's that I fear that they
Speaker 1: won't be a fan of me. Damien Son Bison is
Speaker 1: of a similar mindset. He's been with us all day,
Speaker 1: but he's quiet and shy, especially around the animals. Do
Speaker 1: you ride the do you want any even Bison?
Speaker 10: I don't know for anymals.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he'm hered my big one that was last year. Yeah.
Speaker 9: This plug lives up and down. Yeah, but he occasionally
Speaker 9: come down and visit.
Speaker 8: Check out. I'm doing check out the program doing.
Speaker 1: Sof Bison's eighteen, but he's a young eighteen. Despite his shyness,
Speaker 1: he's been warm and friendly with us and has a
Speaker 1: dry sense of humor, well aware of his surroundings and
Speaker 1: mindful of what he has to say. What's it? What's
Speaker 1: it like living in Al Springs? Slipper messed up there?
Speaker 1: You're eighteen? Yeah, and what do you want to do
Speaker 1: with your life from here?
Speaker 8: I haven't got to that point yid.
Speaker 1: It's a big question, isn't it. What about what your
Speaker 1: old man does? Nah?
Speaker 8: I don't know, to ode horses and stuff.
Speaker 1: You feel lucky that you've got someone like your dad
Speaker 1: as a as a role model. That's kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: been a bit of a bacon for you and your siblings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much. In my mind, Bison wasn't example of a
Speaker 1: kid on the right path. If he played his cards right,
Speaker 1: he could stay at arms distance from the system, avoid
Speaker 1: becoming hoovered up by it, and part of the cycle.
Speaker 1: He has a loving family. His dad's a local leader
Speaker 1: and a role model. The outstation is an oasis in
Speaker 1: a desert of disarray, somewhere where you can point to
Speaker 1: the chaos elsewhere and know from where you stand you
Speaker 1: can keep it at bay. I thought he was one
Speaker 1: of the lucky ones. But it's wrong to assume any
Speaker 1: think about this place. Ruby Bison and I were sitting
Speaker 1: in the car when we started chatting. At first, just
Speaker 1: small talk about life at the station.
Speaker 10: One time I came here when my dad was forcing
Speaker 10: me to come live water for the horses and you yep,
Speaker 10: but I took the wrong track.
Speaker 8: And others got stuck upset on the other road.
Speaker 1: But as we drove on, Bison started telling me something
Speaker 1: complicated all path.
Speaker 2: So when were you up in Darlin?
Speaker 10: I was coming back. When's there?
Speaker 1: Oh really?
Speaker 6: And so why were you up there?
Speaker 10: Court issues?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: As a youth?
Speaker 7: So wait were you You weren't in Dondale or anything.
Speaker 1: Wait, oh you were oh shit for nine months? What
Speaker 1: was that like?
Speaker 10: It was a little bit scary at the first part
Speaker 10: of it.
Speaker 1: It took a while that to sink in. This young
Speaker 1: fella that we're getting to know a gentle soul had
Speaker 1: just spent nine months, fifteen hours up the road in
Speaker 1: the infamous don Dale, US detention facility. He says he
Speaker 1: felt pressured into crimes that landed him there.
Speaker 10: There's people period, like people they don't like the they'll
Speaker 10: be with that forcing stuff like forcing you to do this,
Speaker 10: forcing you to do that.
Speaker 8: That'll bring down like be weird onto you.
Speaker 10: Oh you little female log you know, like you're scared,
Speaker 10: you know, like that, and they make it more tempting.
Speaker 8: But that's all behind me now.
Speaker 1: Yep. In don Dale, Bison quickly learned to keep his
Speaker 1: head down. They gonna get rough with.
Speaker 10: You first times, but a little bit like I claim
Speaker 10: to them now, you know, because I'm a long away
Speaker 10: from home and that's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: I had a spring with them a long way for now. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 10: Yes, right, small town like different.
Speaker 1: Bison story is a reminder of the importance of programs
Speaker 1: like All Rounder, and perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that
Speaker 1: Damien started the program around the same time Bison was
Speaker 1: sent to don Dale. Three generations of arunder man Dennis
Speaker 1: Damien and Bison, somehow working together. The giant caterpillars that
Speaker 1: formed the McDonald Rangers in Urunda culture can be seen
Speaker 1: in the distance. The dreamtime stories are as beautiful as
Speaker 1: the landscape itself. But in twenty twenty four, the thought
Speaker 1: of what could happen to kids like Bison and the
Speaker 1: ten year olds that could serve time in the facility
Speaker 1: in which he just come from makes the beauty of
Speaker 1: the landscape and the people here ache that little bit more.
Speaker 7: Hello, Hello, Hello, Later, as the sun fell lower and
Speaker 7: the dust became redder, I was drawn by the side
Speaker 7: of Trimeria, Damien's youngest, just thirteen months old, blonde hair,
Speaker 7: olive skin, and.
Speaker 1: A cheeky smile. We would have dubbed a creamy back
Speaker 1: on order order country, But this is her land and
Speaker 1: it's where she's meant to be.
Speaker 4: How long has she been looking for?
Speaker 8: Just started a couple of days now.
Speaker 1: As she todds her way through the same dust her
Speaker 1: ancestors played in through the millennia, it reminds me of
Speaker 1: what we've seen during our time here. Are more her
Speaker 1: problems than anyone else's. Even though she's born into a
Speaker 1: loving family with strong role models and big hearts, the
Speaker 1: fact that she's born and will be raised on her
Speaker 1: land means she will face a battle to become whatever
Speaker 1: she desires, a problem that children the same age but
Speaker 1: born elsewhere will never have. That is the great injustice
Speaker 1: of it all, and that's the heart of the problem,
Speaker 1: at the heart.
Speaker 11: Of this country. This is in Bartois.
Speaker 1: This Is Alice Springs has written, reported, and hosted by
Speaker 1: Me Daniel James Ruby Jones co reported and executive produced
Speaker 1: the series. Shane Anderson is our senior producer. Sarah McVeigh
Speaker 1: is our editor. Chris Dgate is our associate editor. Original
Speaker 1: compositions by Zolton Fetcho, mixing by Travis Evans. We have
Speaker 1: production support from Atticus Bastow and Zaia Tangrau. Additional recording
Speaker 1: by Lloyd Barrett. This Is Ala Springs was made on
Speaker 1: Arranda were Agerie wre Andrei and Dara will Land. Thanks
Speaker 1: to everyone who spoke to me on and off the
Speaker 1: record and welcomed me into their lives.
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