In the chambers of Australia's federal parliament, personal secrets are often buried far from the curious public eye.
But occasionally they are laid out on the carpeted floor, raw in their fury and heartbreak.
So it was this week when, under intense national attention, it was announced that alcohol bans would return for Alice Springs' town camps and surrounding communities.
On Thursday morning, between the red walls of the Senate, two women from opposite sides of politics proved that the matter was far from a dry policy debate.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, an Alice Springs local, rose to deliver an impassioned tale of trauma centred around the early death of her cousin in the town's palliative care unit late last year.
"My cousin, only one year older than I am, who never bore children of her own, loved and nurtured other children in our family whose own parents could not care for them — because they were either dead, incarcerated or suffering from alcohol or substance abuse," Senator Nampijinpa Price told the chamber.
An entire life in an Alice Springs town camp — "lived in a hellhole" — contributed to her cousin's bad health, the senator said.
"But it was the last few months, when alcohol was reintroduced in her town camp, that her health took a steep decline, ending in her early death.
"She was no drinker and nor did she smoke … (but) life in her town camp had become absolutely unbearable again with alcohol flowing back in."
Over the last two weeks, the outback centre's struggles with alcohol-related crime have leapt from local headlines to TV screens around the country and the front page of the national broadsheet.
A political whirly-whirly had spiralled from Central Australia into Canberra.
After weeks of pressure and scrutiny, NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced on Monday that liquor bans were returning.
They will mirror the federal, Intervention-era bans that lapsed last year, but will this time operate under territory law.
Territory Labor has promised to urgently pass laws through parliament so the sale of takeaway alcohol to Indigenous communities will once again be prohibited by the end of next week.
Senator Nampijinpa Price has long called for such bans to be returned, however, she doesn't trust the NT government to deliver them.
Through a tearful 12-minute speech the Warlpiri-Celtic Senator unfurled harrowing realities of her past, from having to identify a relative in the morgue, to watching family members succumb to alcoholism — loved ones left "powerless to the bottle" and dead too soon.
As she returned to her seat, comforted by Coalition colleagues, another territory senator took the floor.
Senator's relatives 'smashed to smithereens' in drunken violence
Assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy, a former television journalist, recounted her own stories of immeasurable grief caused by alcohol in NT communities.
She recalled how, in her 20s and standing alongside female relatives, she'd tried to speak up against alcohol abuse in her Gulf of Carpentaria town of Borroloola, calling for a halt to the stream of liquor flowing in.
It hadn't ended well.
"The alcohol didn't stop, but the abuse continued, and certainly the retribution in terms of wanting to stand strong against it, continued," the Yanyuwa Garrawa woman said.
"I spent the next ten years looking after my mother, after the domestic violence she experienced from her then-partner, before she then went on to renal failure and kidney disease.
"And then I took on my sister's children, her four children, because of the domestic violence and the alcohol issues she was facing."
As her speech wound on, her accounts of family pain read like a horror story.
"[One of my] aunties was smashed to smithereens by her partner with alcohol," she said.
"We stood by her bed for the next six months as she lay unconscious, being told that she was never going to come to life again … today, she lives in Borroloola with no feet. They had to be amputated. Her elbow she can't move, because of the fractures she received from the hits."
Senator McCarthy said she was far from alone in her experiences.
"I do think it's important that the Senate hears those stories," she said.
"And I guess, in a lot of respects, First Nations people across the country have stories of such experiences to share."
Survival stories in Central Australian communities
In the aftermath of the new liquor restrictions being announced, residents of Central Australian town camps and communities spoke of their own journeys battling the bottle.
Far from a well of despair, there were stories of survival and resilience.
In an Aboriginal community on Alice Springs' outskirts, called Amoonguna, longtime resident David Fatt stood by the wall of his brick home, recounting how he made his way back from alcoholism.
"I used to be an alcoholic in Coober Pedy [in South Australia]," Mr Fatt said.
"I shifted away from there, now I don't drink as much; I've got a job, I've got a house, I've got a partner.
"It's made all the difference. I don't drink as much – if I had of stayed in South Australia I would've been drinking every day. But since I'm here I'm working, I don't drink all the time."
By this coming Friday, the NT government says its new liquor bans will be installed in communities like Amoonguna, and 18 town camps across Alice Springs.
Ms Fyles said she knows many will be "disappointed" by the return of blanket bans – residents like Mr Fatt who believe the tempered drinkers are being punished for the actions of the excessive.
But for others, like schoolteacher Theresa Alice, the restrictions will allow some time for the communities to sort out their issues – even after the national spotlight has once again turned away.
"We got problems here all the time. But we will address it," Ms Alice said.
"I just want the place to be safe, you know. Because we been living with alcohol all our lives."
