Indigenous Australians make up 83 per cent of the NT’s prison population.

But work to develop an Aboriginal Justice Agreement is leading the way to change.  

At a public meeting yesterday, director of the Aboriginal Justice Unit leading the consultations, Leanne Liddle said the government needs to address the issues happening in community. 

“We recognise we need to do things differently,” Ms Liddle said. 

“We need to look at all the pressure points that influence behavior and triage through it,” she said. 

So far more than 80 NT communities have been involved in consultations. 

With six months left of input, Ms Liddle said she is hoping to find out how Indigenous communities can reassert local power and increase leadership roles and cultural authority to ensure communities are safe. 

“This is a platform Aboriginal people have told us they’ve wanted for a long time,” she said. 

Ms Liddle said that through speaking to community members, she is finding there is a lack of respect for leadership.

And that where there is leadership, when asserted, the platforms to provide further assistance are not there. 

“The leadership in communities has amazed me by how strong it is, the empowerment is incredible and the capacity to work with government agencies to create change is there,” Ms Liddle said. 

Among the 20 Katherine members who attended the public meeting, one resident said: “Let’s face it, rehabilitation is not working for our people.” 

“We need to be the voice when it comes to talking about kinship,” she said. 

“The government has put thousands into our communities but we still haven’t seen change. 

“Our voice has not been heard yet because of politics, but you will hear our voice, I want to see solution. 

“The reason why we have so many of our people in prison is because we have not been able to put this model in place,” she said. 

The final agreement is expected to be completed by mid 2019. 

Read more about the Aboriginal Justice Agreement here.