00:00It's a normality for many people in Wadair to have brothers, uncles, sons, nieces, nephews,
00:11grandchildren that are all going through that system.
00:14The idea is to put them in a cage and that'll fix things and I think we all know and we've
00:19all seen an animal put in a cage and what happens.
00:24It's a unique place of culture and colour.
00:28But the remote community of Wadair, with around 2,000 residents, is also the most incarcerated
00:35in Australia.
00:36So many, so many young boys in prison.
00:40Out of the territory's entire prison population, Wadair makes up 5%.
00:46It comes as the jails have been pushed to capacity, with arrest numbers still rising
00:51as the new NT government continues its crackdown on crime.
00:55Our kids at home not having fathers and mothers and other people around, it just heavily impacts
01:04on so many aspects of our lives, on day-to-day stuff in Wadair.
01:10With low rates of education and employment and high levels of dysfunction driven by intergenerational
01:16disadvantage, Wadair's trapped in a grim cycle, but it's one that some are trying
01:22hard to break.
01:23We're heading out to a place called Fossil Head.
01:27It's probably one of the closest homelands to West Australia.
01:32You'll see that this is really a place that heals people, I suppose, in a way.
01:39I see a big future and this is part of what we're trying to do, is build an economic
01:45future for these guys.
01:51At this homeland outside of Wadair, these men are searching for ways out of the incarceration
01:57crisis.
01:58We start carrying poles out to the tail, let's go do it now.
02:02With the help of boys on youth diversion, they're building a fish trap, in a bid to
02:08bring some purpose and economic empowerment to their people.
02:12They'll be proud of themselves, they're catching fish, crabbing.
02:19It's no easy task, driving poles into the mud under the burning sun, which they'll then
02:24rig up with mesh to catch fish as the high tides recede.
02:28To be able to have people out here, working on their own country, creating a business
02:34that will become an income for those guys, it's a small thing here, but our hope is to
02:42replicate this across all the saltwater country.
02:46Back in Wadair, this men's shed is holding its annual open day, with the wider community
02:51invited to come and buy the men's wares.
02:54The men, they're doing hard work and they sell their stuff for their good money.
03:05As a troubled young man, Norman Dumu ended up in prison.
03:09He's since changed his ways, and wants to engage others to follow his path.
03:14It's no good in prison, you know, you've got to stay with your family, always.
03:24That's my message, telling them.
03:27Out here in Wadair, many people are working their absolute hardest, to try to turn around
03:32the community's high rates of incarceration.
03:35But it's still very much an uphill battle.
03:37One of the biggest challenges that presents itself time and again, is how to stop people
03:42who get out of jail from re-offending.
03:45We need to be mindful that changing people's behaviour and what they do, happens over a
03:52long period of time.
03:54So we're working to achieve that, to see the difference in the long term.
04:00This elder visits prisons as part of a program, and says with many relatives and friends behind
04:06bars and three meals a day on offer, for some from Wadair, prison can feel like a home.
04:13When I go into the prison, I talk to the young boys, sit down with them, and tell them, this
04:20is not your home, your home is back in Wadair.
04:24A plea for inmates to change, and prevent a life in the system, becoming a life sentence
04:30for those they love in Wadair.
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