The End: Part II

Friday at work was really average just tying up loose ends and transferring information back to Kate as we finished up.

Friday afternoon Zoe and Kara and I went down to the Katherine River in Knott Crossing and put our feet in the very cooling and refreshing waters. It was a good thing we didn't see the 'Danger: Crocodiles' sign till afterwards.

Friday evening I made roast potatoes, stuffed capsicums a salad and some yummy banana bread. Zoe my housemate was there (John's gone to Melbourne) as well as Kara the American intern and Brent who is a dietician working in community health education in the remote communities. Pretty awesome right?

After dinner we went out walking to the local field watching wallabies jump around. It was dark and hard to see but there were a ton of them.

Shabbat morning I slept in and picked up "The Finkler Question" again. It's an ok book. Zoe went to the local museum but he was disappointed to discover that it was really just about white settlement of the area with no discussion of local indigenous cultures. No surprises there really.

After that we went down to the hot springs and hung out there for a while and then went passed Kara's place on our way to the opening of the local cultural centre. Sadly we'd missed most of the Aboriginal dancing but there was lot's of local art and artists around but sadly not a very big turn out, then again, Katherine isn't exactly 'culturally aware.'

After going home and shabbat going out we went back to the cultural centre to see the Fire B Boys who do indigenous dancing with fire. To 80s music! Seriously, it was awesome, particularly when they danced to MC Hammer's 'Can't touch this.' Pure perfection.

Saturday night we went to a housewarming party for one of the lawyers at NAAJA. It was surprisingly good fun. Kara the American enjoyed the barbequed kangaroo and crocodile and the company of the young lawyers was pleasant. It was nice to social with like-minded lawyers who care about using their powers for good and not evil.

While at the party one of the KWILS (Katherine Women's Information Legal Service) Lawyers, Danielle (coincidentally on my first weekend in Ktown I went to her 30th) offered me a ride to Darwin. Which was beyond brilliant.

I left the party pretty early (11ish) to go home and pack. Responsible aye?

Sunday morning Kara came over and we made a great brunch of fried mushrooms and tomatoes and toast and good coffee. It was delicious.

The ride to Darwin with Danielle and her boss was nice though we had to stop every hour so that her boss Kylie could smoke. I have no idea what that woman does on aeroplanes.

Sunday night I stayed at Jo's place again. We had a great chat about NAAVLS and how it could be improved. She's a really impressive person. Her daughter's wedding had been the day before and the house was still full of family and friends who were staying there for the wedding. But she still made time for me and made me feel super welcome.

That evening I went to the Mindil markets again. There's not really anything to buy there but I did get me some good Indian food (again).

Today (Monday) I went into the NAAFVLS office to have a final chat with Tony the CEO and to tell him how I think the organisation could be improved and about my concerns relating to Kate. There's 2 new lawyers coming in with hopefully a 3rd on the way as well as another intern so hopefully the place should be a bit better.

And now I'm at the airport on my way to Sydney.

I'm probably not going to blog again until my next adventure.

So I suppose my final thoughts on this experience are quite bleak. The problems for indigenous Australians are many. Health problems, social problems, financial, educational, prejudice and discrimination as well as alcoholism, mental illness and homelessness. There were many times on my internship that I felt overwhelmed by the despair in these communities. Sadly, I'd say that by the end I'd developed kind of a new measuring stick for suffering. My threshold for compassion was raised and that disappoints me. I supposed I'm disappointed in myself in my ability to consistently care.

How are we going to fix it?

Straight up - I have no  idea.

Remote communities are hard to service. It's expensive to provide health and educational services to isolated areas. It also requires a very strong cultural change within the communities which can only com from within. Outsides and guide and lead and educate till we're blue in the face (and we haven't been pulling out weight enough on that front) but ultimately the communities can become functional and safe with a good quality of life and life expectancy by the will of the community itself. The communities have to chose that though, outsiders can't choose it for them.

I suppose for my line of work specifically, men need to stop hitting women. But really, don't stab them, don't slap then, don't burn them, don't push them into crocodile infested waters, don't hit them with a metal rod. Women also need to leave those situations. They need to resources and self-belief to pick up and get out and look after themselves. But I suppose that both of those issues are really community cultural issues that can obviously be helped by education but is also manifest in the personal decisions of individuals. And there's only so much control or influence we have over that.

Bleak? Yeah, well, in the most beautiful part of Australia it is pretty bleak. 

Timber Creek

Monday was a good day. I got up early and came into the office to do some more moot research. The client then came in and signed all the affidavits and applications and I lodged them with the court. Kate and I then had a brief negotiation with the police prosecutor who wasn't willing to budge so I went back to the office and researched some issues for the case before we went back to court. Ultimately, though, it was stood down for mention this Wednesday afternoon and then a hearing in August so it wasn't really so exciting.

After that we drove 3 hours to Timber Creek, which was a beautiful drive along the escarpments towards the sunset. That evening I hung out at the town pub with the locals and my housemates who were also in TK for the bush courts. On the wall of the bar was a big board covered in names of the banned drinkers list and another 'shameful behaviour' list which I assumed was the warning list before getting banned. The lists were full of my clients or the defendants in the matters.

Today was the bush courts so bright and early we went to the police station and got a lit of the matters being heard and who the victims in the domestic violence matters were. Then we drove to the town centre and had a chat with the locals trying to find our old clients and the new victims of DV.

There was one women who approached us and said that she had a domestic violence matter on in court today. So I got all her details and had her sign the forms and started to conduct an interview. She told me how she'd been with her husband for 20 years and they have 4 kids together and that this is the first domestic violence issue. I asked where it happened and she said behind the pub. And I asked if her and her husband had been drinking and she said no, neither of them drink. So I asked what had happened. She said, well I noticed my husband hadn't come home by 9pm so I went looking for him. And I saw his car parked and he was sitting in there was another lady. So I grabbed a stick and snuck up behind them very quietly and then struck her husband on the head through the open car window. The other woman ran out and ran away. Her husband leapt out of the car and she hit him some more with the stick. What happened next? I asked. I drove away with the car and left him there, she answered. And then he came home and bashed you? I asked. No. He slept out by the bush and the next day I came and collected him. And then he bashed you? I asked. No, she answered, he never bashed me. But if he ever thinks of cheating on me I'll bash him. And then I realised, the victim of this incident was her husband. We had a big old laugh and I told her that she'll have to peak to a defence lawyer since we only work with victims of domestic violence. I then had an interview with her husband, he was the sweetest guy and seemed really good with the kids and had a good job but he was happy to have a restraining order on her so that she couldn't hit him anymore.

The rest of the day was spent interviewing clients and advising them about domestic violence orders and liaising with police about the terms of these orders and varying them. After lunch we left the court and went to visit the communities themselves. They were small and neat. Though some houses obviously were a bit decrepit and had too many  people living in them. Furthermore there were huge packs o giant dogs roaming the communities. Some of the communities we visited were 'dry' zones under the intervention which meant that no alcohol or drugs or pornography could be brought there. Though ultimately it just means that the alcoholics go into town to drink leaving their children alone or neglected. Though the basics card that quarantines some of their Centrelink payments now limits the amount of money that can be drank away.

After visiting the communities we drove to a number of beautiful lookout points and admired the really stunning scenery. After that I lounged by the pool until it was dark and then I returned to my motel room to research the moot some more.

Tomorrow morning we drive back to Katherine (though I think we should have done it tonight) and tomorrow afternoon we are back in court for that mention that was first heard on Monday.

It's almost the end of my time in Katherine. I'll be sorry to leave.

On that note, g'nite. 

Joy

I had a super wonderful weekend.

Friday night Janie came over to have shabz dinner with my housemate n I. Janie is a doctor from Melbourne and is incredibly impressive. Tall, blonde, thin, smiley, bubbly, energetic, fit/sporty, funny.. Honestly, she's perfection. I'd made lasagne and fruit crumble for dinner and I'd say it all went pretty well.  We hung out and chatted til it was too late for anything else n we went to bed. Shabz morning, Zoe (my housemate) n I went for a walk, we wandered through the markets and along the river. Then we came come, had some lunch n lounged/napped the rest of the afternoon. Shabbat arvo we walked over to Janie's house for a picnic. It was a bit awkward that walk. I didn't carry anything over b/c it was still shabz but I wasn't too keen to go explaining that whole thing (thus far I'd managed to avoid explaining shabbat to Zoe, except for the Friday night dinner things). So Zoe was carrying two bags and she was just too polite to ask me to take one for her. But I just didn't know how to explain to her shabbat without sounding a bit nuts/crazy. But so that I won't seem like an asshole who doesn't carry things I probably will. In any case, the dinner picnic was lovely. It was vegetarian (as is everything in Katherine since everybody I meet is a do-gooder greenie), we lay a blanket out on the grass lit some candles and had a great evening. There were a heap of ex-pats from Melbourne or Sydney who were doctors and lawyers and teachers. Good fun.

Sunday morning we got up super early and John (my housemate) took Zoe n I to Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge. Another guy from Melbourne called Glen joined us. He's an environmental educator. We wanted to go canoeing in the gorge but there weren't any. So we did a long hike. It was 6 hours of hiking plus about 2 hours of swimming along the way. It was the lily pond walk, about 20 kms round trip. You walk to all these beautiful little ponds and water falls along the way to the gorge. We went swimming in one it was totally incredible. There was also a very impressive waterfall just before the end. We had a bit of a shower under that. It was breathtaking. And then the gorge itself was stunning. After the 8 hour of hiking. We did another little hike (about 1hr round trip) up a little mountain they have in the park to watch the sun set. It was really the perfect day.

Sunday was Territory Day. The day the Northern territory celebrates independence from South Australia. It is also the only day of the year that fireworks are legal in the NT. So after the hike, John took Zoe n I to the show grounds to see the fireworks. They were pretty exciting. Very pretty and loud. Yet, b/c individuals could do fireworks the whole  town sounded like a war zone. 

Today was a pretty good day at work. I was given the task of preparing all the files for Borroloola. So preparing the pre-trip report. Making sure the clients know we are coming, what documents they'll need to bring, what the court list is like etc. It's good work and it should be interesting. I got to interview my first clients today more or less by myself. One was a woman whose child had been kidnapped by her ex-partner and is now seeking a recovery order. She was breastfeeding a 3 year old during the interview. Now that's fucked. Also, the 3 year old is her 2nd child and she's younger than me.  The other was a woman who reckons she lied in court to get her boyfriend into prison and now she feels sorry. So she could get 15 years in prison for that. More than anything I'm not sure if she really did lie then or if she's lying now to get her boyf out of prison.

Tonight I made spinach and ricotta pie for my housemates.  It was super yummy.

So I'd say this week is going to be above average. It's definitely looking up. I get the car this week one day n I'll probably go to the hot springs in Mataranka about 100kms away. Maybe I'll bring somebody along with me. Maybe I won't. We'll see.

Joy