MY WISH FOR WADEYE (formerly Port Keats) NORTHERN TERRITORY

I am disappointed by what seems to be happening time after time after time, for years and years and years, at Wadeye. My wish and hope for the community is shared below. It is also a wish I hold dear for other remote communities in the NT and indeed elsewhere around Australia.

May Wadeye get good.

May peace and harmony be restored.

May children go to school (each child every day).

May substances abuse cease to be an issue.

May all suppliers of illicit drugs and illegal alcohol be apprehended, with their behaviour attracting the full force of the law.

May all weapons including knives be handed in during an amnesty period on surrender of these objects.

May alcohol in all its forms be forever dismissed from the community and may there be a resolve that people will become teetotallers.

May the community become a jewel in the crown of community management and good will.

May rancorous conduct be no more and may thoughtfulness of all residents toward each other prevail.

May there be a cessation of domestic violence.

May the community become a model of everything that is good, decent, harmonious and upright.

May children come to respect parents and elders.

May parents nurture their children and lead them in the way they should go through the example they set.

May elders imbue children and young people with heartfelt desire to forsake all that is wrong and to walk a better way.

May Wadeye become a transformed community and a desirable, attractive place.

NB: I worked in remote community situations in. WA (1970, 1974 to April 1975) and in the NT from July 1975 until December 1982.