After weeks of escalating unrest in the remote community of Wadeye, where an estimated 37 homes have been burnt and destroyed, massive efforts are underway to help people affected by the crisis.
About 400 people who were living in those overcrowded homes have fled into the bush and to homelands on the outskirts of Wadeye, a community with about 3,000 people, 420 kilometres south-west of Darwin.
Over the weekend, staff from the West Daly Regional Council put together emergency food packs to support 100 people. Generators, tents and sleeping bags were driven in to the area.
West Daly Regional Council chief executive Matthew Eastham said a waterline and lighting were being connected to one of the homelands — tiny communities with small populations established on culturally significant lands – near Wadeye.
"These packs will contain an assortment of food, sanitary, cleaning and miscellaneous items … to subsidise the limited food already available and ensure the basic needs of hygiene, cleanliness and basic nutrition can be sustained."
Wadeye's only shop has been forced to close several times over the past few weeks and critical services including the health clinic and the school have been severely impacted by staff shortages and plummeting attendance rates.
Fighting on the streets of Wadeye between rival families escalated last week after an 18-year-old man was charged with manslaughter, following the death of another man, after he suffered severe head injuries during an alleged altercation.
Another man whose leg was struck with a bow and arrow was discharged from the Royal Darwin Hospital on April 20.
An NT Health spokesman said staff levels at the Wadeye Primary Healthcare Centre were "fluctuating daily" as the violence continued to leave people with injuries.
"NT Health has strategies in place to manage resources in remote settings, which includes redeploying staff as required," he said.
The spokesman said additional nursing staff had travelled to Wadeye to work at the health centre over the Labour Day long weekend.
Last Thursday, the department confirmed there were seven nursing and medical staff in Wadeye, about half of what is generally required for the town's population.
But concerns have been raised by Thamarrurr Development Corporation's (TDC) chief executive, Scott McIntyre, that those levels have dropped to as low as three, leaving limited staff to deal with critical injuries sustained in the flighting.
Funding lifeline
Late last week the Northern Land Council rushed to commit $100,000 to aid the many displaced residents with temporary accommodation, food, nappies and personal hygiene products.
"The Northern Land Council is concerned about the displacement of people from their houses at Wadeye and of course the impact of violence on families," a NLC spokeswoman said.
"Government has a clear law and order responsibility but the NLC is working with TDC and West Daly Regional Council to support local families affected by the unrest.
"The answers lie in more support for homelands as well as opportunity for mediation of family disputes, before they escalate to intra-family violence.
"We stand ready to support coordinated and committed government action."
A spokesman from the Department of the Chief Minister and Cabinet said the government was assessing the extent of housing repairs – which could take years – and has worked with the Commonwealth to ensure the Centrelink office remains open.
"For those people that have moved to their homelands and cannot access the office or telephone services there is a relaxation of their [Centrelink] reporting requirements," he said.
Darwin prepares for Wadeye exodus
Leeanne Caton, chief executive of Yilli Housing, a crisis accommodation service in Darwin, said she was gearing up for an influx of displaced residents from Wadeye.
"We've already taken in a couple of families."
About 60 rooms previously earmarked for COVID isolation at the Baton Road crisis accommodation facility have been made available, but Ms Caton said the government would need to step in if those rooms filled up.
Pledge to make homelands move possible
Like many remote Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory, housing conditions in Wadeye are unhealthy, overcrowded with up to 15 or more people living inside one dwelling, and, at times, dangerous.
A regional traditional owner who wanted to remain anonymous said residents' requests to move away from these overcrowded conditions into homelands have been largely ignored by the NT government, which in 2015 was handed responsibility for municipal and essential services for homelands from the federal government.
"But the government says it can't service homelands and that living around the services is the way.
"But it is not working."
In response to questions by the ABC over the claims, Minister for Remote Housing and Town Camps Chansey Paech said the government was looking at options "around the urgent provision of infrastructure to make it possible for residents who wish to move on to their homelands as soon as possible".
He also highlighted federal Labor's pledge last week to invest $100 million into homelands in the Northern Territory, if elected this month.
"I know homelands are places of critical social and cultural importance and that's why I have been a strong advocate for better housing on our homelands," he said.
