This is the synopsis of a story on ABC AM this morning:
In some of the Northern Territory's biggest remote communities Aboriginal organisations say youth crime is now so out of control that they can no longer deliver essential services.
They had hoped after the Northern Territory's Royal Commission into Youth Justice they'd get more support to help break their young people out of a cycle of offending.
But community leaders in the NT's largest remote community in Western Arhem Land say they've been facing a youth crime crisis for six months, and they're now begging for help.
On the audio version of the story I heard the following complaints:
* need more housing (although part of the reason is some kids need to escape some of the dysfunctional households and so you get overcrowding in some houses)
* need more diversion programs for kids - nothing much to do there; need more sports etc. Kids think they are "ganstas";
* government needs to do more.
You could have written the same story 20 or 30 years ago.
I actually assumed that Arnhem Land was probably one of the better "remote" areas for Aboriginal communities - it's green and fertile at least, isn't it?, unlike the useless, barren, hot red dirt of inland NT and South Australian remote communities. Not that far from Darwin either. But still, not much to do, there's apparently no economic activity and kids are bored.
Just another example where "connection to land" of itself does not cut it as forming the basis of good living lifestyle for communities. And all this reliance on government to fix dysfunction in the community
But how dare anyone say that out loud, hey?
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