After weeks of incessant unrest among family groups living in the remote Central Australian community of Yuendumu, police have increased their presence in the face of escalating property destruction and violence.
It comes as a three-month coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker begins in Alice Springs, after the 19-year-old was fatally shot by NT Police Constable Zachary Rolfe in Yuendumu in 2019.
One of the two major stores in the community, about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, has instructed different factions to shop at different times of the day in a bid to avoid conflict.
'System seems to be falling apart'
Central Desert Regional Council chief executive Leslie Manda said "the system seems to be falling apart", save for the mediation process underway between family groups.
Mr Manda said houses and office buildings were regularly broken into and vandalised, leaving council staff feeling unsafe.
"The store has been broken into quite a number of times, as well as some properties around the community," he said.
"The incessant nature of the violence has had an impact on the resilience of our staff members, and [in one instance] we closed the shop one afternoon, just to allow our staff to reset and get themselves ready for work the next day.
"When you've got people marching down the street carrying weapons and throwing stones, of course, eventually, that takes a toll on your resilience as an individual, and in some instances, you don't feel safe."
Mr Manda said the council had managed to continue providing services like rubbish collection to the community, but staff were prepared for the situation to worsen.
"We do provide resilience training and also have our own lockdown procedures as and when it happens," he said.
"We are a member of the local emergency committee, where we've got direct line of sight or contact with the commander on the ground, or even the police in Alice Springs.
"We do have that point of call with the police, if they say it's unsafe, we can take the next step to ensure safety of our staff."
Mediation the 'most important thing'
Mr Manda said mediation between family groups was key to improving the current dynamic, with police also playing an essential role when there is criminal behaviour involved.
"With this infighting between family groups, mediation becomes the most important thing," he said.
"At this stage, we do have some community elders holding community meetings with that Southern Kurdiji Indigenous Corporation coming to the table to try and get those family groups to get to a point of commonality."
He said some of the conflict had stemmed from social media and portrayals of the community in the media, which had also made it more difficult to recruit staff.
"Pictures come out in Alice Springs, and then it basically comes up on community and they pick up all those fights that happen, so not all of it is actually based on what's happening on the ground in the community," he said.
"Social media and news unfortunately are not doing Yuendumu justice.
"It's even challenging for us to get staff to come to our Alice Springs office from interstate because the news portrays Alice Springs in a different light in terms of antisocial behaviour as well."
Bringing community members to the table
Northern Territory Police Commander Craig Laidler said the unrest had required a "strong police presence" to help bring the situation under control.
"The aim, and what we're trying to do, is that we engage closely and try and hold a strong rapport with community members, local elders, where we can all actually work together to try and mediate and reduce that feuding," he said.
"We look to have them actually meet agreement and mediate together so that we don't have to deal with these behaviours so that we're able to actually keep the community safe.
"We need them to have an interest in doing so as well."
