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.