The family of a man shot dead with a crossbow arrow in a remote Northern Territory community are preparing a complaint for the Australian Human Rights Commission, alleging they're being denied adequate policing.
Artist and traditional owner Regina Pilawuk Wilson is still mourning the death of her 36-year-old grandson Mr Jones, who was shot in the street in her Daly River region community of Peppimenarti last month.
"I can't sleep because it happened outside my house, we've got to look at that place every day," she said.
His death has followed what the community says is more than two years of violence between families.
Ms Wilson said several families had been intimidated out of their homes, many children can't attend school and some clinics and staff have been frightened away.
"Five of my grandchildren have lost their houses, those boys smashed their houses and stole everything," she said.
"Now they're living in tents outside my house, my house is overcrowded, there's 16 in my house and about 20 in the tents, some with young children.
"We need help from the police, health department and education department."
'We warned them there's going to be a death'
Ms Wilson said she and other family members called the police regularly when they were attacked in the weeks and days before her grandson's death.
"We told the police many times, and we warned them that there's going to be a death if you don't help us," she said.
"In Darwin when they ring triple-0 police come out, but in Peppi, you've got to wait for a couple of hours or until the next day."
The team leader of Peppimenarti's local council-run community patrol, Annunciata Wilson, said she had called police as violence escalated on the night of the death.
"I had been calling the triple-0 call centre to let them know that them boys were coming towards my house, that their behaviour is very violent, carrying crossbows, tomahawks, machetes and steel bars, and it's going to escalate and somebody's going to get hurt badly, and that same night it did," she said.
"There was no police seen until that young fella got hurt that night."
Violence blamed on 'systemic failures of successive governments'
Ms Wilson's son Dean was injured when he was shot in the chest with a crossbow arrow in 2020.
Several other families members, including Anastasia Wilson, who suffered a serious elbow injury after being hit with a stone, have been physically attacked since.
One of the community's senior traditional owners, John Wilson, said historically if there was trouble in this or other Northern Territory remote areas, traditional owners could expel those responsible "until they grew up".
"Now we can't use tribal law or they'd put us in the lock-up, so we need the police to support us, but we haven't heard back from them," he said.
A worker in the community has also told the ABC on condition of anonymity they also feared escalating violence in the community would result in a death.
"Systematic failures of successive governments and a multitude of departments is to blame for what happened here," they said.
"The people of this community have seen a flood of government departments, charitable groups and politicians bring with them lists of promises and pledges of buckets of money.
"But still today the housing is in an appalling state of disrepair, a three bedroom house with one toilet and shower has upwards of 20 people living in it, school attendance has dropped significantly. There is no meaningful work available for those who want it."
Human Rights Commission complaint prepared
Early this year, 12 community members, including Regina and Annunciata Wilson, applied for Personal Violence Protection Orders.
Their lawyer Matt Hubber claimed police would not help serve the documents on the alleged attackers.
He had expected that they would, even though, legally, serving PVOs isn't a police responsibility because they are civil applications.
"We've complained to anyone that will listen about this: the courts, the relevant government ministers and local members, and we're simply not able to get any traction anywhere," he said.
"The matters have stalled in court and the people haven't been able to get this protection and the defendants are continuing on, as they have done for the last couple of years, which has culminated now in someone losing their life."
Mr Hubber is now assisting his clients to prepare a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) alleging they have received a lesser service because they are in a remote Aboriginal community.
"The system is failing them, [and] it's now a human rights issue, there's no doubt about that," he said.
"You can just imagine if someone pulled out a machete at a supermarket in Darwin, there'd be 10 police cars there in five seconds, [but] this happens on a nightly basis in a community and the call gets forwarded to Darwin and nothing gets done."
NT Police defends response to community violence
Northern Territory Police has made several arrests on both sides of the dispute.
Regional Police Commander Kylie Anderson rejected the accusation that the force didn't respond adequately in the six weeks before Mr Jones' death.
"There were 64 jobs recorded for the community," she said.
"Fifteen of those were actually proactive activities, like reassurance patrols in hotspot areas, and of the remaining 49 jobs reported, police responded to all but eight of those; [and] those eight were duplicate reports, resolved prior to police action, so there was no necessity to respond.
"So we have been, we are continuing to, respond to all jobs reported from that community and other communities in the area."
Commander Anderson could not say what percentage of triple-0 calls had been responded to.
"I can say that if the information provided reports that a person's safety is at risk, that would obviously attract a higher risk assessment," she said.
"I'm comfortable with the system."
She said police had not been aware a life was at risk.
"Observations from local police leading up to that incident, coupled with recorded reports from the community in the weeks preceding ... don't support that there was evidence to hand that any individual resident's life was at risk prior to the event," she said.
"The signs just weren't there."
'Long term solution needed'
When asked whether Peppimenarti and other remote communities were under-resourced, the president of the NT Police Association, Paul McCue, said it was a problem.
"It's not good enough," he said.
"We should not expect in 2022 police to have to go out and live in shipping containers, and if the community want police there we have to get the right investment to make that happen."
NT Police Minister Kate Worden responded with a statement saying the allocation of resources was a matter for the NT Police Commissioner.
Commander Anderson said policing alone would not solve the problems of the Peppimenarti community long-term.
"Really there is a responsibility on community residents, they need to accept their personal responsibility for living and working harmoniously with each other and police are obviously more than happy to work with all residents to try and achieve those long-term positive gains," she said.
Annunciata Wilson said she and other community members had attempted to mediate in the dispute.
"We have tried to have meetings with the family from the other end, we're trying, but it isn't working because of the unrest from the juveniles," she said.
"I think the police think it's a community problem, but then why are they sent out to work on a community? They are here to serve and protect, not matter what size the community is."
"It's getting worse, other people are going to die soon," Regina Wilson said.
"Even though we've lost our grandson, right now they're still doing it."
