Aurukun mayor Barbara Bandicootcha on what community needs

Aurukun’s incoming mayor is calling for more trauma services in her Indigenous community, as a business leader says the town has not recovered psychologically from the 2020 250-strong mob riots following a man’s murder.

Aurukun’s incoming mayor is calling for more trauma services in her Indigenous community, as a business leader says the town has not recovered psychologically from the 2020 250-strong mob riots following a man’s murder.

Newly elected mayor Barbara Bandicootcha said employment, housing and community safety were among the issues to be prioritised with “Wik people in the driver’s seat” in her vision for the town 828km from Cairns.

“There is too much division within community and amongst us along family lines,” Ms Bandicootcha, 49, said.

“Today we have choices. We are all the Wik nation, but we live differently within our tribe and our clan groups.”

Newly elected mayor Barbara Bandicootcha.

The town is grappling with a series of virulent social issues, many stemming from clan warfare and sly grog.

There are at least five clans living in the town of 1270, divided into towns by territorial lines with fights often escalating into the use of knives and crossbows.

69-year-old Aunty Maureen Karyuka weeaves pandanus leaves into patterns on the front portch in Aurukun, a small Indigenous town on the Gulf of Carpentaria, 800 kilometers north northwest of Cairns on Cape York in Far North Queensland. Picture: Brendan Radke

The clan violence has also been blamed in part for Aurukun State School’s 29 per cent attendance rate, reports of weapons being used by children as young as five and sexual violence threats at the campus which is struggling to retain staff.

Outgoing mayor Keri Tamwoy, who lost the election to Ms Bandicootcha in March, is on the school’s board and says she has been pushing the school to hire a full-time trauma counsellor for students who lives in the town for several months.

Currently the town receives more than $140m in state and federal government funding each year, but does not have a full-time counsellor, dentist or doctor with council’s repeated requests for an audit into how the money is being spent ignored.

Former Aurukun Mayor Keri Tamwoy. Picture: Brian Cassey

“It takes a community to raise a child, but a lot of people are refusing to be a part of that and not stepping in when they see children doing the wrong thing,” Ms Bandicootcha said.

She agrees the town needs more trauma care.

“More healing programs are needed to deal with intergenerational trauma to help people whose mindset has them living in the past and dwelling on issues from years ago,” Ms Bandicootcha said.

“They need to think about what tomorrow brings.”

It comes as an Aurukun business leader, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was involved in “high level conversations with the government” regarding better mental health care for the town.

A man rides his bike along the street in Aurukun, a small indigenous town located on the Gulf of Carpentaria, 800km northwest of Cairns. Picture: Brendan Radke

He said one health service offered a counsellor for a few hours per week but that there was a lack of local language and understanding of local issues of existing part-time, temporary, FIFO mental health workers.

“Community received no trauma debriefing or counselling in relation to the stabbing murder and riots that left the town in ashes in 2020,” he said.

The events which took place in Aurukun on New Year’s Day 2020 followed the fatal stabbing of a 37-year-old man.

The riots, involving hundreds of armed residents taking to the streets, led to 300 others fleeing the remote community of Aurukun on Cape York in Far North Queensland.

“Division is not part of our culture. Our elders who achieved great things in the past did so because they were united,” Ms Bandicootcha said.

“A lot of people keep reminding me that it will be a big challenge, but I am ready for this and will do my best for my community.”

Originally published as Aurukun mayor Barbara Bandicootcha on what community needs