A remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory, Wadeye, is struggling with a high incarceration rate. Community organizations and former prisoners are working to break the cycle of reoffending and provide opportunities for young men.
As the NT faces a prison population crisis, one remote Aboriginal community is more over-represented than any other — the West Daly community of Wadeye .Community organisations and former prisoners are among those trying to stop the cycle of reoffending and help Wadeye stem its high incarceration rate.Out on a remote mangrove flat a stone's throw from Western Australia, young Aboriginal men and boys are driving poles into the mud, preparing to rig up a fish trap.
Young men from a youth diversion program in Wadeye have been helping families in the Ngudaniman homeland to build a fish trap.At high tide, the fish swim in, and as the waters eventually recede, the traditional trap is flush with fish, crabs and stingray and the community reaps the rewards of their labour. It's a bid to give these young men some purpose, and help drive economic empowerment in a part of the Northern Territory where satisfying employment is so often absent. Noel, Chris and Andrew Kurungaiyi have all been helping to build a fish trap to drive economic development outside of Wadeye.Thaddeus Dartinga, a traditional owner of the Ngudaniman homeland where the fish trap is being built, watches on as the youth diversion boys dig the holes in the ground.The homeland sits outside the remote West Daly community of Wadeye — the most incarcerated community in the Northern Territory. With the NT's imprisonment rates the worst in Australia, the figures make Wadeye one of the nation's most jailed communities per capita, if not the highest. On any given day, NT government data shows that more than 120 people from Wadeye's population of around 2,000 are behind bars. 'Wadeye is the highest represented community in correctional facilities in the Northern Territory with 5 per cent of the current population,' an NT government spokesperson said. Dooky Bonson has been building fish trips around Darwin his whole life, and is now sharing his skills in homelands outside of Wadey
Aboriginal Community Incarceration Rate Wadeye Northern Territory Reoffending
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