Video: Maningrida Night Patrol and Child Safety Service

NARRATOR: It’s a typical night in Maningrida, the kids are out in force and so is the local night patrol…a group of mums and dads committed to keeping their kids safe.

BOY: Those boys got petrol. Go on! Smell his breath.

LAURIE MAGALDAGI: We’re running around all night 24 hours talking to them and they don’t listen to us sometimes. So we keep on going and talking to them until they get tired and until they go home.

NARRATOR: Home is Maningrida, an Indigenous community of about 2500 people as far north as you can get on the Arnhem Land coast of the Arafura Sea. Recognised for its world famous art and craft, this sports mad community has also had issues of violence and substance abuse amongst its young people.

WOMAN: Come here!

MAGALDAGI: It doesn’t matter what they say to us because there is a change and we are getting stronger, men and women.

WOMAN: You come here now.

VIRGINIE BRANCHUT: They decided there was too much violence that some kids were not safe in the community and there was a particular incident that prompted people, especially these ladies, to start getting together and talking about what they could do at a community level to make the children safe.

FLORA WILLIAMS: That’s it we gonna take you three boys to your parents in the paddy wagon. That’s what we are here for… to help you kids.

NARRATOR: It’s a local initiative that’s working because these parents are committed and won’t back down.

MAN: Stand over there. Who started that fire?

PHYLLIS DUNGUDJA: They are easing us and swearing at us and we just run around and keep on talking to them they keep on coming back. These are the worst boys.

SELWYN PASCOE: I’ve been supervising for three and a half years nearly four, so I’ve seen a lot of things happening here. Lots of kids walking around and lots of violence, all different stuff.

NARRATOR: For many of these men and women, night patrol is their second job and the nights can be long and even dangerous.

BERNARD ENGLAND: More here…stop… the one in the middle in the white shirt had a machete he doesn’t stop, so we give him a warning. So when we come around again if we see him up in the street we’ll probably ring the police.

SENIOR CONSTABLE SIMON BERGER: Being part of the community, it’s the community policing themselves a little bit. So they know a lot more about the community than we do and we get a lot of information from them that way and they do a great job themselves.

BRANCHUT: Was there any sniffing problem?

DUNGUDJA: It’s only walking around with that mob…

NARRATOR: It’s a job that includes keeping an up to date database and monitoring the kids most at risk.

DUNGUDJA: The kids Nathan and Zane were there. And there wasn’t any fighting.

BRANCHUT: In the background during the day they’ll follow up on certain events and go and talk with families and parents that they will work with at the school educating the children.

NARRATOR: And education’s critical to make sure the kids in here don’t end up on the street when schools out.

MAGALDAGI: It’s the problems out there and we come here and talking about all these things.

PUPPET: I know some of the ladies at the Night Patrol. They’ll help you with that big problem.

NARRATOR: Even though it’s on the decline, one of the problems Laurie and Night Patrol still face is petrol sniffing.

PASCOE: Every night, seven nights a week, we see you on the street and you come down to the street and walk around. Eh?

NATHAN: Yeah…

PASCOE: So Nathan walks around every night ‘til, seven, six, five o’clock in the morning.

DUNGUDJA: They run around swearing but we don’t care we still keep on following them until we settle them down. We just put them in the truck and take them home and drop them.

NARRATOR: They’re tough and they have hearts of gold and these kids are their future so they won’t rest until they see them home safely. Night patrol has called Zane’s mum and she’s out the front waiting when he arrives.

ZANE: It was all about drugs and alcohol…

MAGALDAGI: But it’s getting better and better, you know, because every week end we take them kids out.

NARRATOR: And that means out bush and away from temptation. Next morning Laurie and her team are up early collecting the kids they sent packing the night before.

ZANE: We’re going fishing.

NARRATOR: It’s all part of a home grown child safety program that’s a holistic approach to child welfare. After Nathan’s night on the streets, this day at the beach is a 40,000 year old tradition that will reconnect him with his culture.

WOMAN: We keep them busy you know and they like it out here when we bring them out here to the bush.

ZANE: Yeah, I’m looking for stingray.

MAGALDAGI: That’s how we are looking after these kids and it’s good for them instead of hanging around breaking things. And it’s part of our job and it’s part of our culture, too.

NARRATOR: Through Laurie’s teaching to set traps, Nathan is a changed young man.

MAGALDAGI: Because last night he was just walking around boring and that’s what he was doing. But now when he came he’s different now. You see the way he’s really happy and talking.

NARRATOR: As Laurie watches over her brood Nathan catches their first fish for the day.

NATHAN: This is the fish that got caught in the net.

ZANE: And I saw him.

BOY: I saw with the net.

NARRATOR: These young men who roamed the streets the night before are once again proud providers for their families.

As the sun sets at the beach it’s back to town and back to work for Laurie and her mates…doing what they do best – patrolling the night to make sure their kids are safe.

WILLIAMS: We are still working all night ‘til four o’clock, five o’clock, that’s the time when kids go home. We see everything nice and calm, that’s the time we go home too…Night Patrol.