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I have lived in Alice Springs for 22 years. In my younger years, I worked in remote communities for several NGOs. I left for a few years during my law studies at Charles
Darwin University and went to Hervey Bay, where I was offered cheap accommodation to help me finish my studies. When I returned to Alice Springs for the summer holiday of 2019, I noticed how crime-ridden the town was. I saw that kids were the main offenders and that little was being done to tackle the problem. I drew up a plan of action, contacted the Gap Youth Centre, arranged to have the use of an empty shop for five weeks in Yeperenye Shopping
Centre, and, with the help of youth workers – one of them the multi-talented artist Tamara Cornthwaite – offered art workshops to kids, along with fruit and water. It was a great success. More than a hundred kids a day passed through and shared with us their ideas, thoughts and
stories, along with their anger and sadness. One project was called Dreams in Motion. We made Tibetan wish flags: every kid painted a wish on a flag. At the end of the project, the flags were strung onto a rope and suspended between trees outside so that all the wishes of the kids of Alice Springs were released into the wind. It was a project of hope. There were more than three hundred flags. During the third week, we painted a large series of concentric circles entitled My Town. In the centre was a sports field. Around that was a circle showing back yards with animals and toys. Next came a circle with houses and people. Then came the streets; then the bush. While they were painting the flags, over a period of two weeks, and the giant mandala over a week, the kids expressed their worries and their aspirations.
We then embarked on a week of Japanese calligraphy. We drew large kanji characters in black ink. The kids were good at it (kids often love learning kanji) and were eager
to learn as many characters and their meanings as they could.
In the final week, we constructed a wall with sculpted animals. The project was titled Wrapped Animals. We wrapped old and broken stuffed toys in masking tape, tightly so that the shapes of the animals changed into absurd forms. We taped them all together and had a good laugh while we were doing it.
All the kids were just that: kids. Cheeky, lovable, annoying, curious, and in need of love and encouragement. Some came in agitated but calmed down soon enough. I made painting aprons, with the same pattern for everyone. This gave us all a feeling of belonging.
So I know many of the kids who roam our streets, and many who don’t. Some of them I’ve seen grow up. The key difference between kids who offend and those who don’t seems to be that those who do not roam our streets have at least one person who cares about them. I have heard of academic research showing that one person can make the difference between offending or not offending, between success and catastrophe. I have searched for this research ever since and am still looking for it; it is a needle in a haystack. It was used in a
presentation for Bath Street Day Care Centre employees, but when I asked an employee they could not retrieve it. Yet the idea has never left me. One person can make a difference. The difference. It is a powerful and hopeful idea.
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