Violence out of control in outback town of Wadeye, home to 22 clan groups

Harrowing stories are emerging from a town where 500 people are now homeless and a man died after reportedly being speared in the head.

Fighting in a remote indigenous community southwest of Darwin has been so intense that as many as 500 people are now homeless.

National attention is turning to Wadeye, 400km from the NT capital, after a man there was reportedly killed when a spear struck him in the head.

The violence which has broken out and been sustained for several weeks is being blamed on tensions between 22 clan groups living in close quarters among a total population nearing 4000.

Video footage from Wadeye shows large groups of men fighting in the streets. Pictures show men standing in front of burning buildings in a town where 37 homes have been torched — each one leaving more than 10 people with nowhere to sleep and shelter.

A huge police presence in the region, bolstered since fighting began in February, has done little to ease tensions and stop violence.

A major co-ordinated NT Police operation is underway in the remote community of Wadeye in response to months of violent unrest.

The result is that many are left without basic humanitarian needs.

NT Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy issued a statement on Wednesday saying women and children have been forced to leave town and flee into the bush with nothing.

“(They need) shelter, food, sanitation, and medication,” Ms McCarthy said.

“It’s unacceptable what is taking place in Wadeye, in terms of hundreds of people being forced out of town and into surrounding homelands and bush camps.”

Police Minister Nichole Manison visited Wadeye on Tuesday, at the request of Traditional Owner and senior community members, according to NT News.

A spokeswoman for her office told the newspaper: “This is a very complex matter with a long history.”

The Northern Land Council (NLC) has issued a statement saying it has provided more than $100,000 in aid including temporary accommodation, food and personal hygiene products.

“Government has a clear law and order responsibility,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Police in Wadeye where a man has been killed and dozens of homes burned to the ground.

“The answers lie in more support for homelands as well as opportunity for mediation of family disputes, before they escalate to intra-family violence.”

The simmering tensions almost mirror what went on in another top end community in 2016.

At that time, the Aboriginal township of Aurukun, on the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula, was the setting for a series of violent acts.

First, teachers were evacuated from the community’s only school after principal Scott Fatnowna was attacked with the back end of an axe. Then women were filmed throwing fists at each other as police stood by and refused to intervene.

Attacks on the local school forced the evacuation of 25 teachers.

A 2011 report declared Aurukun had one of the worst murder rates in the world.

In 2015 alone there was the shocking death of a man who was run over as community members watched, there were shots fired at police, there was a hammer attack and there were riots.

Footage of women fighting in the street hasn’t helped. In the footage, police are seen standing by their vehicles and watching the women brawl.

Videos from the remote community of Wadeye show how ongoing violence has forced women and children to flee.

Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Taylor defended the inaction by police. He said it was a matter of protecting the wider community.

“On occasion, the temperature within the community can raise quite rapidly because of one minor incident,” Mr Taylor said.

“Often, when police get to these incidents, there are large numbers of spectators and the complexities in Aurukun mean those people are all related to the combatants, and they are highly emotionally charged.

“If they do intervene, are they going to take it from a fair fight between two individuals to having a large mob, who are highly emotive, start fighting? On occasion, for the greater good of the community, it’s extremely difficult for us to intervene.”

As similar problems plague Wadeye, solutions are proving equally difficult to come by.