Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Yipirinya School Principal Gavin Morris speaks about serious concerns in Alice Springs and some of the solutions required

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Yipirinya School Principal Gavin Morris speaks about serious concerns in Alice Springs and some of the solutions required · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf for Darwin Mazda Beemer, your
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  Speaker 1: home of top quality used cars. It is just on
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  Speaker 1: twenty minutes after ten o'clock eight nine four one one
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  Speaker 1: four nine, if you'd like to call through this morning. Now,
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  Speaker 1: as I mentioned a short time ago, there's been a
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  Speaker 1: lot of discussion about Alice Springs and certainly about the
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  Speaker 1: issues that are being experienced in Alice Springs. We know
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  Speaker 1: that Peter Dutton, the federal opposition leader, has been there the.
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  Speaker 2: Last couple of days.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the solutions that has indeed been put forward,
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  Speaker 1: and we've spoken about it on a couple of occasions,
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  Speaker 1: is yippering your school and boarding facility at the school.
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  Speaker 2: And the impact that that may have.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line right now is the
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  Speaker 1: principal of yeppering your school and also a counselor for
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springstown Council, Gavin Morris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Gavin.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie, Good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Thank you so much for coming
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  Speaker 1: on the show this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Gavin.
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  Speaker 1: Mate, firstly, can I ask I know we caught up
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  Speaker 1: with the mayor yesterday, so I guess that the counselors
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  Speaker 1: had on Firstly, how have things been going from your
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  Speaker 1: perspective the accounts that we've been getting that things have
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  Speaker 1: flared up sort of over the Easter weekend.
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  Speaker 2: What's your perspective at this point.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a very accurate, accurate assessment of where we're
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  Speaker 3: at an Alice Springs. Certainly, in the last probably two
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  Speaker 3: to four weeks, we've had a real escalation around anti
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  Speaker 3: special behavior and a youth crime in Alice Springs, and
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  Speaker 3: in particular in the last seventy two to ninety six hours.
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  Speaker 3: Things are really starting to peak and this was expected.
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  Speaker 3: We should be ready for more of it. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: I guess what we're putting on the table in terms
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  Speaker 3: of some of the stuff that we're doing on council
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  Speaker 3: and the work at your prenier is solution based, string
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  Speaker 3: based stuff that's going to BREAKFAE cycle. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I like every time that you and I
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  Speaker 1: have spoken, is that that you do have some solutions
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  Speaker 1: up your sleeve of things that you think should be happening.
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  Speaker 1: Before I get to those, Gavin, can I just ask
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  Speaker 1: you you'd said that there'd been a real peak in
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  Speaker 1: the last sort of seventy two to ninety six hours,
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  Speaker 1: what had happened, what sort of happened in that time frame.
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  Speaker 3: In terms of sort of youth crime and any social behavior. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I mean if you happen to go out sort of
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  Speaker 3: you know, after dark and move through the Todd Mall
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  Speaker 3: and you know, through some of the eating districts in
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  Speaker 3: ow of Springs, I mean, it's it's pretty clear to see.
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  Speaker 3: It's in front of you. It's young children, young people
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  Speaker 3: stealing cars and driving cars around you know, the main
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  Speaker 3: streets of our springs at a million miles an hour,
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  Speaker 3: putting everyone at risk, including themselves. You know, last week
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  Speaker 3: I was I witnessed some catastrophic violence in terms of
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  Speaker 3: young people who are absolutely reckless, who had total life,
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  Speaker 3: total control. And shopkeepers, shop fronts, local patrons, community members,
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  Speaker 3: everyone's impacted. And it's just it's plain to see. You
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  Speaker 3: don't need to be looking for it. You just have
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  Speaker 3: to go down to your local movie or ye take
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  Speaker 3: your family up for a meal and you'll see it.
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  Speaker 1: And Gavin, you know, the hard part about this is
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  Speaker 1: like I know that you're a real advocate for young
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  Speaker 1: people and as the principle of you for in your school,
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  Speaker 1: you're doing everything in your power to try to get
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  Speaker 1: kids on the right track in that role as the principle.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Katie and I think this is the important next step. Look,
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  Speaker 3: it's easy to come to Alice Springs and point out
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  Speaker 3: where the deficit lies and where the violence exists. The
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  Speaker 3: second part, the more and the more important, more difficult work,
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  Speaker 3: is well what are we going to do about it?
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I can put forward some examples like
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  Speaker 3: I've just done there in terms of where things are
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  Speaker 3: going wrong, but the next important step is well, what
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  Speaker 3: are the solutions? And yet burna Across the last twelve
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  Speaker 3: to eighteen months, we've been able to demonstrate that if
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  Speaker 3: you can get a few parts of the huzzle right,
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  Speaker 3: and a part of that is listening to our original
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  Speaker 3: community and then providing non indigenous support to wrap around
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  Speaker 3: that in a way that's culturally sensitive, you can make sustainable,
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  Speaker 3: long term change that's very measurable. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've spoken in the past of this program around our
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  Speaker 3: increase of enrollment which is now well above three hundred
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  Speaker 3: percent since those took over the range of your premia.
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  Speaker 3: And that's not about me. That's just about a bunch
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  Speaker 3: of principles which are common in Aboriginal communities, which if
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  Speaker 3: you get right, can make change. And the next part
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  Speaker 3: of that for us is around providing safe and stable
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  Speaker 3: accommodation for our kids at your prena.
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  Speaker 1: So, Gavin, you know, talk us through that situation right now,
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  Speaker 1: because obviously, you know, the thing that's making national headlines
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  Speaker 1: today is the comments that were made by Peter Dutton
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  Speaker 1: yesterday about child sexual abuse. But I want to just
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  Speaker 1: step away from that for a second and talk about
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  Speaker 1: the fact that, again, like you and I have spoken
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  Speaker 1: about before, there are kids that are out on the
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  Speaker 1: street that we don't actually want out on the street,
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  Speaker 1: but if they don't have somewhere safe to be. This
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  Speaker 1: is where it seems as though the boarding facility at
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  Speaker 1: y Barinya is a no brainer.
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  Speaker 3: It is in a lot of ways, and I know
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  Speaker 3: that there's a lot of people calling for curfews, which
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  Speaker 3: will get to which we'll get our young people off
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  Speaker 3: the street, but you have to take them somewhere birthly
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  Speaker 3: which is safe, and secondly where they want to go.
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  Speaker 3: So if you round up our kids off the streets
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  Speaker 3: tonight and take them back to unsafe housing, whether it
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  Speaker 3: be in out the springs all beyond the kids are
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  Speaker 3: going to flee again, and it's going to be a
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  Speaker 3: constant doing and throwing. You're not going to break that cycle.
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  Speaker 3: And what we've proposed and yet for any by listening
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  Speaker 3: to our community is we've demonstrated that holistic support around
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  Speaker 3: the student, and around the family and around the community
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  Speaker 3: makes a huge difference. And the next part of that
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  Speaker 3: is providing accommodation to ensure that Firstly, our kids are
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  Speaker 3: off the street and they're safe. Secondly, they're getting into
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  Speaker 3: a habit of of healthy living like we all would
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  Speaker 3: expect in twenty twenty three, So they get to build
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  Speaker 3: a pattern of habit and build a pattern of teaching
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  Speaker 3: and learning because these are the next future leaders of
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  Speaker 3: Alice Springer's community. And if we don't get it right
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  Speaker 3: with the current ten and twelve and fourteen year old,
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  Speaker 3: this is going to escalate. And while we witnessing now
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  Speaker 3: in teny of your time, we'll look back and go, gee,
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  Speaker 3: things are okay in twenty twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Kevin, where are things at right now with this proposal
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  Speaker 1: for the boarding element of the school.
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  Speaker 3: So I've had conversations with niAA, which are the major
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  Speaker 3: funders across Aboriginal community, if you like, in the last
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  Speaker 3: four to six weeks, and they've chased some nuanced information
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  Speaker 3: around operational sort of costs and consideration, so that the
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  Speaker 3: conversation has progressed somewhat. Okaatie, are you asking me whether
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  Speaker 3: I've got in my back pocket a signed agreement in
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  Speaker 3: terms of shoveling the ground date in terms of getting
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  Speaker 3: how you bring your boarding facility up and running no
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  Speaker 3: I day And you know it's any times where you've
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  Speaker 3: got very seen you a very high profile of people
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  Speaker 3: like Senator Price and the Opposition leader Peter Dutton in town,
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  Speaker 3: it can be you can become a political football pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 3: And I just want to make a very clear for
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  Speaker 3: your listeners that I'm not trying to play one side
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  Speaker 3: of politics against the other. The NTGL were very closely
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  Speaker 3: with Chief Minister files Evil or our Minister of Education
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  Speaker 3: at NTG and at federal level. We've got support for
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  Speaker 3: this from both sides of politics. At the moment, I
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  Speaker 3: don't have a sign agreement around yes we're going to
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  Speaker 3: go ahead, but I am confident Katie that we have
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  Speaker 3: moved the conversation forwards until last time that we spoke.
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  Speaker 3: But time is of the essence. Now, since the last
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  Speaker 3: time that I was on your program, I've had absolutely
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  Speaker 3: I can say to your listeners that I've had some
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  Speaker 3: of us that Yephrenia is actually assaulted. I can absolutely
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  Speaker 3: say that I've had some of our male and female
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  Speaker 3: staff experience very serious domestic violence. I can say chargorically
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  Speaker 3: that I've had a number of our eight, nine, and
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  Speaker 3: ten and twelve year olds in contact with police, locked
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  Speaker 3: up in detention in its incarceration. And while we weigh
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  Speaker 3: more of this happens, and we know that once some
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  Speaker 3: of it, we know that when this kids start the cycle,
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  Speaker 3: it's very, very difficult to get.
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  Speaker 1: Them off bloody hell. Gavin, note that brings tears to
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  Speaker 1: my eyes. You saying that, so, I can't imagine how
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  Speaker 1: tough it is for you as the principal of the school,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that as time goes on, more of this happens.
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  Speaker 3: It escalates the compounds in variety. In severity, it does
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  Speaker 3: bring tea to your eyes. I'm in a very privileged
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  Speaker 3: position at your Premia school. The stuff that we're talking
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  Speaker 3: about today I identify as one part of our school.
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  Speaker 3: The majority of what we do with Yaphrenia is we
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  Speaker 3: are the most unique school in the country. Were the
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  Speaker 3: only school that teaches them for Aboriginal languages. Our Aboriginal
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  Speaker 3: stuff with hundreds and hundreds of years of teaching experience,
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  Speaker 3: are absolutely brilliant. We have the answers to the solutions
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  Speaker 3: that you're Prenia School. We just need a bit of
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  Speaker 3: support and around the getting the funding for the next
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  Speaker 3: piece of our puzzle, around holistic support, which is the
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  Speaker 3: boarding facility. I'd be happy to walk from our springs
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  Speaker 3: to Darwin Katie's years this meeting. I don't know what's
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  Speaker 3: the impact that's going to make, but it's a very
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  Speaker 3: privileged position that I'm in and I'm there to make
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  Speaker 3: a sustainable change that takes Aboriginal people forward in a
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  Speaker 3: two way world to ensure that we're Aboriginal leaders in
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  Speaker 3: the future. Mate.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure. Was that a challenge Davin, that.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to walk there to get that publicity to
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  Speaker 1: do it or is it just a metaphorical thing that
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  Speaker 1: you'd absolutely be prepared to do that for those kids.
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  Speaker 3: Well, o, Katie, I'm happy to do anything at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: You know, some of the stuff that I'm willing to
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  Speaker 3: do for your premial, which everything is on the table
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  Speaker 3: day at night. Myself and our staff. We offer support
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  Speaker 3: through the school day, weekends, public holidays, across the Christmas period.
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  Speaker 3: We're at twenty four hour a day school and some
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  Speaker 3: of the stuff that I'm doing now, Okatie's actually far
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  Speaker 3: more difficult than walking to Darwin. Yeah, and some of
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  Speaker 3: the some of some of the help that our families
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  Speaker 3: are crying out for. It's far more difficult than that.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, if someone had to say to me,
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  Speaker 3: why don't you walk to Darwin and we'll sign a
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  Speaker 3: deal for you, I get the running shoes on the marrow.
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  Speaker 2: I know you would.
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  Speaker 1: And Mate, this is what I love about every time
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  Speaker 1: I speak to you, is that I can actually hear
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  Speaker 1: the absolute care and passion in your voice that you
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  Speaker 1: have got for the students, for the teaching staff, for
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  Speaker 1: all you know, everybody involved in that school. And I
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  Speaker 1: think what you do is by speaking to us and
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  Speaker 1: by speaking to the audiences, you.
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  Speaker 2: Make it really real.
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  Speaker 1: You know what you said a little bit earlier about
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  Speaker 1: you know the fact that the last time you're on
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  Speaker 1: the show, since then, you know, there have been kids
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  Speaker 1: that have been on the wrong side of the law.
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  Speaker 1: There have been kids that have been sexually assaulted. You know,
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  Speaker 1: like that's it's heartbreaking and it really hits to home.
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  Speaker 1: I think for everybody listening, just how important it is
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  Speaker 1: that there is action taken.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it is action. It's not you know, I'm
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  Speaker 3: a proud not indigenous male that's in a very privileged position.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not a fre anti panny throw I'm not here
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  Speaker 3: to you know, pull on the heart strings of your
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  Speaker 3: listeners around the Northern character and beyond. You know, I
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  Speaker 3: work on the front line in a very complex space,
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  Speaker 3: a very unique space. And you're pur in your school
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  Speaker 3: is the true school of Alice Springs. It's an amazing
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  Speaker 3: school with so much potential to change. It's demonstrated that
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  Speaker 3: over forty years and now we're in a real youth
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  Speaker 3: crisis youth. Is there absolutely future to Alice Springs in
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  Speaker 3: terms of his lead. And it's not me throwing around
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  Speaker 3: motherhood statements and what comments around what should happen and
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  Speaker 3: what would happen in an imaginary world. I'm on the
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  Speaker 3: front line. I've done you know, I'm very very privileged
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  Speaker 3: to work with Aboriginal communities in the top end around
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  Speaker 3: the pad work around truth telling and around building Aboriginal
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  Speaker 3: leadership capacity in a way that makes a difference. And
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  Speaker 3: this is another example of that. It's certainly not a
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  Speaker 3: white filar standing up and speaking on behalf of Aboriginal
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  Speaker 3: communities with motherhood statements. But me and nothing go nowhere.
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  Speaker 3: We need action, and we.
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  Speaker 1: Need it now, Kevin, how big a difference you know,
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  Speaker 1: if the sporting school and this boarding element of the
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  Speaker 1: school can get unlock, you know, can get up and running,
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  Speaker 1: how big a difference do you believe it can make
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  Speaker 1: to the lives of some of these young people?
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  Speaker 3: At an extraordinary difference? I mean, you're pretty school at
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  Speaker 3: the moment spends one million dollars a year on non
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  Speaker 3: teaching staff in what we call our Happy Heart Hub,
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  Speaker 3: which is where we where we deal with all of
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  Speaker 3: behavior issues, with assessments and diagnoses, and kids come in
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  Speaker 3: to school with trauma. We've got occupational therapists and un
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  Speaker 3: carees of psychologists, social workers, youth workers, a blending of
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  Speaker 3: a biomedical Western medical model and traditional healing practices that
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  Speaker 3: blends those two wills together. We can offer that, and
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  Speaker 3: we are spending that and resourcing that. That's the really
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  Speaker 3: important piece of our puzzles. But at the end of
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  Speaker 3: the school day, whether it's at three o'clock, at eight
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  Speaker 3: pm or ten thirty pm, we can't then be dropping
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  Speaker 3: our kids off at homes which aren't safe. Many of
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  Speaker 3: our families are fantastic and doing amazing job raising their children,
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  Speaker 3: but there's a growing number of our families that are
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  Speaker 3: in crisis. They need support, and it's absolutely critical for
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  Speaker 3: our students, for their families, for my staff, for our staff,
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  Speaker 3: that we provide accommodation which is long term, which is safe,
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  Speaker 3: and which is culturally appropriate. And we're putting that on
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  Speaker 3: the table that you're bring your school well.
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  Speaker 1: Gavin Morris there for in your school principle and also
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  Speaker 1: counselor on the Alae Springs Council. I always appreciate your time,
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  Speaker 1: and I appreciate the fact that you're prepared to have
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  Speaker 1: the difficult conversations, but you're also stepping forward with some solutions.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me on, Katie, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: hoping for the next time that we speak, I've got
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  Speaker 3: some great news. I'm sure that's the case. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 3: it's not me to jumping on here on my high
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  Speaker 3: horse sort of, you know, exaggerating how bad things are
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  Speaker 3: in Alice Springs and talking in a deficit model that's
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  Speaker 3: easy to do. It's been tasted to be able to
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  Speaker 3: share some of the stuff that's happening in our springs,
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  Speaker 3: but they're putting forward a solution which has come from
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  Speaker 3: community where you know this is a real possibility for
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  Speaker 3: sustainable change.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Gavin Morris, mate, I really appreciate you having a
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  Speaker 1: chat with me this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, enjoying it Friday and have great weekend.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah you too, Thank you. We'll talk to you soon.