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Katie Woolf spoke with local Alice Springs Indigenous Leader Michael Liddle · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that there's been certainly some real issues
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in Central Australia, particularly Alice Springs when it comes to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: youth crime and Action for Alicis is a page which
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: had started on social media sometime back and they get
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of interaction on there obviously share quite a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: bit of information about different things that are happening around
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the place. But we saw a post on Facebook that
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: was shared on that Action for Alice page. It was
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: written by Michael Little, an Indigenous man from Alice Springs
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: who gave us an insight into what the kids on
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the streets in Alice Springs are thinking. And Michael joins
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: me on the line right now. Good morning to you.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Michael, Yeah, good morning. How are you?
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Good mate, Thanks so much for your time this morning.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I tell you what that post that you shared on
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the Action for Alice page, it's had a lot of
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: traction for those out there who maybe haven't read it. Michael,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: what did you say in that post and what we
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: are hoping that people took from it?
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Well, because I haven't got the post in front of me,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: and the up being a lot of comments about it,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: and you know, majority of them have been sort of positive.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Comments in the way that we that we need Aboriginal
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: conversations around this sort of area. And I think that
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the light had to come on because the field that
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I work in, I work with Aboriginal men and aging
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: kids in the juvenile system, in the in the correction center,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: in the rehabilitation centers, but we also go remote and
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: deliver workshops. And what we're finding and being more revealed
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to us is the losing our identity, and that losing
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: of identity is becoming because of the migration to the
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: bright lights and the fun they having alcohol, the fun
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: having marijuana, and the lack of leadership coming from a
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: father to pass down to his young son to keep
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: keep him away from that, so to tell him who
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: he is and what his purposes in life, tell us
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: around about the the the cracks of it all.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Michael. It's it's a very good point. And you know
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the fact that we all sort of you know, we
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: all need our parents to help us really find our
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: way in life. It's you know, it makes so much
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: sense to me, Michael, how tough have things been in Alice.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I do think that we need our parents, but but
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: what we need is someone around to guide you. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: someone else, someone around your father and the young people
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: they have parents, but they haven't got parents. And by
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: saying that, I mean they've been raised in an environment
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: where more or less the mother and father gone off
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: to town and they lived with the grandmother and grandfather
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and the grandmother and grandfather, And now they get lives
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: to their own more or less and they're on every
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: board in the community. They've they and they functioned around
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: the running of the community is very demanding, the clinic,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: store and the school. And more than likely they've got
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: some chronic illness. So the attention and they want to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: keep this young person time isn't there. So then kids
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: are running off elsewhere to find activity. And they're not
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: running off to find activity in school. They're finding activity
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: in making inconvenient society where they where it requires rules
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: to govern the town and they don't understand those rules.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Michael, what do you reckon we can do to try
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and fix this problem, because I know in Alice Springs
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: it is having a massive impact, isn't it.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Look to say it's having a massive impact. You hit
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: it right on the You're right on the money, because
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: you go anywhere you talk to anyone, everyone is impacted
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: by this situation. It's like a plague sweeping across the
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Alice Springs community and people are dumbling, why are they
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: doing this thing? Who's in control? Well, the government can
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: only be in control for so far. They're only control
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: that they can manage it be in financial assistance. And
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: when you look at the amount of politicians that the
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: central region has, but we've really got none but one
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: is a chance to take the rest of them lost
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: their seats and people are set up with the Northern
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Territory Labor Government and they voted that.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Well that's the thing, you know, And I guess at
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the end of the day, like you said, the government
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: can throw money at it, but we do need to
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: try and work as a community, I guess, you know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: to fix it.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: In saying that, I mean the anti government was pretty
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: much elected by all the northern parts of the territory.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: So what the government don't really focus on is a well,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Ella Springs has got a problem, but we're too busy
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: investing from down to Catsline. And it's very sad that
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: the government thinks like that. I think we've got a
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: good minister Warden. Yep, he's very passionate about things. But
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: that's a government's authentic governments responsibility. But we have to
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: make Averygney people more accountable in the direction that we
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: are taking our identity and our purpose. And at this
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: time and moment, there is no purpose.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Michael, You've given us a lot to think about this morning,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and I really appreciate you coming on the show and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: speaking out will I reckon. We're going to make sure
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: we catch up with you again, mate.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I look forward to it and these conversations. Like right now,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I'm sitting there blood of It's where it is, about
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: three hundred k from Alice Springs, and I need a
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: bit of a rest for myself. But I sid around
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the people in the bush that helped me design a
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: workshop that I run around men's health and around men'swell
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  Speaker 2: being and the purpose of identity, and we discuss all
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: these things amongst men. So when I'm shooting off and
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: talking to these content deliver delivering these types of conversations,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: they're not just thought in my head that comes from
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  Speaker 2: an authority, a Bush authority, and it comes out of
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: my mouth.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate you coming on the show this morning,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and and I look forward to speaking to you again
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in the very near future, Michael Little, thank you for
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: your time.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks mate,