With election day just months away in the Northern Territory, a prominent Indigenous leader is calling on politicians — and the media — to change the narrative around Aboriginal people.
Arrernte leader William Tilmouth fears harmful narratives around Aboriginal communities in Alice Springs are preventing positive change.Mr Tilmouth is calling for governments to better listen to Aboriginal communities, as the NT election looms.
"Sadly, the narrative that is portrayed to the broader community is one that is the stereotypes of yesteryear – that Aboriginal people are uncivilised, Aboriginal people are uneducated, unemployable, lazy, they're violence-loving people," he said. "That narrative gives them permission to bring in the Intervention, to bring in curfews, to bring in dry area legislation, to bring in kids off the street," he said.
"I wish they had allowed my aunties to take me and grow us up so we wouldn't have that vacuum in our lives.""Coming out of Croker Island I had nothing, I could not work out who I was," he said.In the years since, the Stolen Generations survivor has dedicated his life to preventing his trauma from being repeated.
"Having your voice and speaking up is a sign of you growing, you being empowered, you realising that 'yes I do have a voice, yes I do have solutions'," he said.He said young people were being blamed for widespread issues in the outback town when the real problems ran much deeper."They don't see the other side of it, the homelessness, the lack of employment," he said.
Northern Territory Alice Springs William Tilmouth Stateline Arrernte Curfew Nt Intervention
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