Yuendumu is a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory and is home to many Aboriginal artists. It's 293 km northwest of Alice Springs on the edge of the Tanami Desert, population 817. They have 3 community stores, a school, airstrip, swimming pool, church, old people's program, womens centre and safe house.
After a tribal fight, 101 people left Yuendumu in a hurry last week and made an 1800 km journey to Adelaide. At least 30 children were in the group and they arrived in a convoy of buses and cars and were squeezed into emergency accommodation. A frustrated South Australian Premier Mike Rann said it was the media, not the Northern Territory government who advised him the displaced Aboriginal people were on their way. "South Australian have been left to pick up the pieces as more than 100 people have been bussed in with no notice, no preparation and no planning." But there's always two sides to a story.
Wendy from Adelaide is furious and writes:
Why the hell does Elizabeth (a suburb of Adelaide) have to cop all these Aboriginals with their anti-social behaviour? We have way too many here now who do not work, loiter, break and enter, and harrass people of Elizabeth daily. How stupid is it to bring in even more of them? They just rocked up, expecting us to take them in with love and care - NO WAY - they started their fights, send them back and make them deal with it, let them blow themselves up for god's sake! The houses they are staying at are already trashed and their kids run riot day and night, the neighbours are furious. The kids just climb into people's yards, go into their back gardens, they have no boundaries at all, it is disgusting. Make these lousy parents care for their kids or have them removed like any white family would have done to them or would that constitute 'stolen generation'.... jezuz .... send the filthy mongrels back before there is trouble - SERIOUS trouble.
Someone made the comment "I hear what you are saying but do not have an answer to your problem." She responded:
I know, we are all made to feel sorry for them, yet in our area, all they do is trash everything they own and everyone elses for that matter and if anyone says anything, they are branded racist. Now with 100 more to deal with we are all at our wits end. Their kids are never taught boundaries and just tonight, they are all running up and down the roads, yelling and annoying the elderly people, crushing their gardens by running all over them... out in the bush they just sit around and have no control over their kids but this is suburbia, these people should not have been dumped here. Now they will get free household appliances, cash, food, all because they were at war in their own town. We have poor and needy too, but if they were to ask for a free washing machine because of their situation, they would be laughed at. Enough is enough. If they want to be at war with one another, then they should have to deal with it. Even the Northern Territory police can't control them - it's time everyone stood up to the Aboriginals and told them to get their acts together and start behaving like members of society - but because they are Aboriginals they feel they have more rights, they dislike white people, and believe they can do what they want but by crikey if something goes wrong, the white fella is the first person they run to for help... makes no sense to me.... the houses they have here at Elizabeth Grove will need to be demolished when they move on, what a waste of community housing where the average waiting list for one is over 10 years....it's selfish and stupid...as Jennifer Rankine says I hope the NT pay for the cost of all this, SA should not have to food the bill!
Now the reasons behind the riot are starting to emerge. A prominent indigenous family, the Watsons, involved in the Yuendumu riots, have drafted an agreement to permanently ban 30 residents from returning to the community unless they agree to the Aboriginal law of "payback" for the death of a brother." The agreement names 22 individuals and one entire family who are their sworn enemies. It says that these people are banished for life and is signed by the Watsons and three registered traditional landowners.
A representative of the exiles, community leader Harry Nelson attended a mediation meeting where Watson's demand were put. Local police officer Peter Davies also attended who said that because they couldn't get payback, they did the next best thing which was to chase them out of the community. During the riots, police gathered vulnerable residents into the women's shelter. "Once they stepped outside that secure area out there, no one could guarantee their safety" Officer Davies said.
Sebastian Watson was stabbed on the night of his brother's murder and is the instigator of the agreement and warned that if the exiles returned before "payback" had occurred, there would be more violence. However, he pointed out that if they agreed to tribal punishment "they can come back" he said. Mr Watson is facing charges relating to the riots, along with 16 others. Dennis James Nelson 20 from Yuenduma has been charged with the murder of Mr Watson's brother.
Acting Senior Sargeant Shaun Gill, officer in charge of Northern Territory's southern region, confirmed that police were aware of the list of the exiles but did not support any such ban. He said police would not allow tribal punishments to occur. "We don't support any form of traditional payback" he said.
After a tribal fight, 101 people left Yuendumu in a hurry last week and made an 1800 km journey to Adelaide. At least 30 children were in the group and they arrived in a convoy of buses and cars and were squeezed into emergency accommodation. A frustrated South Australian Premier Mike Rann said it was the media, not the Northern Territory government who advised him the displaced Aboriginal people were on their way. "South Australian have been left to pick up the pieces as more than 100 people have been bussed in with no notice, no preparation and no planning." But there's always two sides to a story.
Wendy from Adelaide is furious and writes:
Why the hell does Elizabeth (a suburb of Adelaide) have to cop all these Aboriginals with their anti-social behaviour? We have way too many here now who do not work, loiter, break and enter, and harrass people of Elizabeth daily. How stupid is it to bring in even more of them? They just rocked up, expecting us to take them in with love and care - NO WAY - they started their fights, send them back and make them deal with it, let them blow themselves up for god's sake! The houses they are staying at are already trashed and their kids run riot day and night, the neighbours are furious. The kids just climb into people's yards, go into their back gardens, they have no boundaries at all, it is disgusting. Make these lousy parents care for their kids or have them removed like any white family would have done to them or would that constitute 'stolen generation'.... jezuz .... send the filthy mongrels back before there is trouble - SERIOUS trouble.
Someone made the comment "I hear what you are saying but do not have an answer to your problem." She responded:
I know, we are all made to feel sorry for them, yet in our area, all they do is trash everything they own and everyone elses for that matter and if anyone says anything, they are branded racist. Now with 100 more to deal with we are all at our wits end. Their kids are never taught boundaries and just tonight, they are all running up and down the roads, yelling and annoying the elderly people, crushing their gardens by running all over them... out in the bush they just sit around and have no control over their kids but this is suburbia, these people should not have been dumped here. Now they will get free household appliances, cash, food, all because they were at war in their own town. We have poor and needy too, but if they were to ask for a free washing machine because of their situation, they would be laughed at. Enough is enough. If they want to be at war with one another, then they should have to deal with it. Even the Northern Territory police can't control them - it's time everyone stood up to the Aboriginals and told them to get their acts together and start behaving like members of society - but because they are Aboriginals they feel they have more rights, they dislike white people, and believe they can do what they want but by crikey if something goes wrong, the white fella is the first person they run to for help... makes no sense to me.... the houses they have here at Elizabeth Grove will need to be demolished when they move on, what a waste of community housing where the average waiting list for one is over 10 years....it's selfish and stupid...as Jennifer Rankine says I hope the NT pay for the cost of all this, SA should not have to food the bill!
Now the reasons behind the riot are starting to emerge. A prominent indigenous family, the Watsons, involved in the Yuendumu riots, have drafted an agreement to permanently ban 30 residents from returning to the community unless they agree to the Aboriginal law of "payback" for the death of a brother." The agreement names 22 individuals and one entire family who are their sworn enemies. It says that these people are banished for life and is signed by the Watsons and three registered traditional landowners.
A representative of the exiles, community leader Harry Nelson attended a mediation meeting where Watson's demand were put. Local police officer Peter Davies also attended who said that because they couldn't get payback, they did the next best thing which was to chase them out of the community. During the riots, police gathered vulnerable residents into the women's shelter. "Once they stepped outside that secure area out there, no one could guarantee their safety" Officer Davies said.
Sebastian Watson was stabbed on the night of his brother's murder and is the instigator of the agreement and warned that if the exiles returned before "payback" had occurred, there would be more violence. However, he pointed out that if they agreed to tribal punishment "they can come back" he said. Mr Watson is facing charges relating to the riots, along with 16 others. Dennis James Nelson 20 from Yuenduma has been charged with the murder of Mr Watson's brother.
Acting Senior Sargeant Shaun Gill, officer in charge of Northern Territory's southern region, confirmed that police were aware of the list of the exiles but did not support any such ban. He said police would not allow tribal punishments to occur. "We don't support any form of traditional payback" he said.
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