David Jennings, The Star. November 1978 This is part one of a series that charts the short history of the Ku Klux Klan in the Northern Territory of Australia and the involvement of NT police officer Constable David Jennings in that story. It is part of a developing set of posts and series that I’m [...]
Photo by Katrina Beavan, ABC Alice Springs This is a guest post by Frank Baarda, a long-term resident of Yuendumu, NT. Yesterday hundreds of Yuendumu residents marched on the Yuendumu police station. The police station was going to be opened to allow the station to be swept. Sweeping is a ritual whereby after a death [...]
By late 1976 Csidei was in real financial and legal trouble, with debtors—including the Bartons—and corporate regulators on his tail. Around this time, while on one of his occasional trips to Sydney, Harald Paech, manager of Csidei's Wollogorang Station, suggested—half-heartedly and after a few too many drinks—that Csidei might investigate the possibility of growing a cannabis crop to raise some cash.
We'll never know with any certainty just how many crops were grown in the NT from the late 1970s through to the late 1990s but through my research over the past couple of years I’ve located reports - sourced from court reports, personal reports, NT Police material and of course contemporaneous media accounts – that indicate the Northern Territory was a hot-spot for cannabis cultivation during that period.
Supporti-ki karlipa wangkami, tala manu nyiya kanti-kanti yungungurlu ngalpa yinyi nyampurla ngurungka. Nyampurla Yurntumu-rla panu karlipa madarni nyiya-ningki-jarra ngula karliparla yulkami. Madarni karlipa jana Mt Theo program, kurdu kurdu kurlangu, Warlpiri-rli ngulpa karlipa jana tiji-mani, PAW, Mampumaninja-Kurlangu jarlu patu ku, WarlukurIangu arts centre, manu yangka ngula kalu jana mardarni wiri-wiri-rli kurdu-kurdu. Ngulalparlipa mangu pungkalayi, Yungurlu ngalpa nyanyi nguru kari wardingki-rli pirrdiji ngula karlipa mardarni.
The law is like a spider’s web, In all humility I explain: the rich man fears it not neither he that is in command. The large beetles break free and only the small insects are ensnared
There are many reasons why naming and shaming youth offenders is not a good idea, particularly where they are only alleged offenders. Social media is unforgiving and unforgetting. The image of a child aged 11 years has a long future ahead of it. In addition to addressing any alleged offending, they now have to deal with the stigma. No amount of new schools or new names will be able to reintegrate them into the community.
Toponymy - the study of place names* - is for many of us an arcane corner of linguistic and anthropological study. Notwithstanding the complexities of the issues it throws up, it is a key to understanding our connections to land and place.
The battered document was later mailed to Buckingham Palace with a covering letter of apology, signed by Larrakia leader Bobby Secretary and four others, who claimed that there had been no reply to a note they gave to an aide with the Royal Couple, leaving the Larrakia’s last hope to try and break through the police barrier. The letter noted: ‘We are sorry to send the petition in this condition. We hoped and planned to present it personally to Princess Margaret.’
"You're not going back into the community. The community can't afford you. It's quite clear that you and your family are not going to pick up the damages for what you've caused. And, presumably, and I infer this, you've got no understanding of that. You don't know what a first world economy is." Judge Greg Borchers, Tennant Creek Youth Court, 6 June 2017
