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Statement

Name:

Address: C/- O’Brien Solicitors265 Castlereagh StSydney NSW 2000

Date: 17 February 2017

Part 1

This statement made by me accurately sets out the evidence that I amprepared to give to the Royal Commission into the Protection andDetention of Children in the Northern Territory.

This statement is true and correct to the best of my knowledge andbelief.

l understand that it is an offence to provide false information to theRoyal Commission/Inquiry.

This statement has been prepared on the basis that the Commissionwill issue a Notice to Produce under s 2(3A) of the RoyalCommissions Act 1902 (Cth) for the production of a signed copy.

Where direct speech is referred to in this statement, it is provided inwords or words to the effect of those, which to the best of myrecollection, were used at the time

Early history and my involvement with the Department ofChildren and Families (DCF)

o Both of my parents are Aboric

l didn’t get a chance to learn much about my Aboriginal cultureuntil I was older.

Signature of person giving this statement:

Signature of witness: ..... ~.N. ..... .. ,:i .......

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11. When I was around eight I remember a day when the police came toour house in Darwin. I remember seeing the biggest mob of policeoutside. They were yelling out to Dad to bring the kids out. I rememberi was holding tightly onto Dad’s leg with one arm and I had my otherarm holding onto~l wasscreaming to Dad "Don’t let them take me". I was really scared. It wasa big stand off for hours and we were hanging onto Dad the wholetime. Then the police finally left and they yelled out that they would beback to take us. I had no idea why the police wanted to take us. I wasnever hurt or abused when I was living with Dad.

12. It wasn’t long after that day when welfare mob took me,~~ I can’t remember the day they took us. I do remember themtalking about splitting us up and that really upset me. In the end

us were in a house ~n ~l still

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didn’t understand why we had been taken away from Dad. I don’tremember anyone explaining why.

l didn’t think the old people we stayed with were very nice. The oldwoman and her daughter would often grab me and smack me in theback of the head. It upset me but it wasn’t that hard though. Iremember one time they hit~coz he wouldn’t eat. I yelled atthem and then they hit me.

l’m not sure how long we stayed there. Then one day we got moved.No one explained why. The second place we went to was even worse.The lady there was Aboriginal but she was mean. ~

l rememberbunk beds and clothes being all over the place. This lady would smackme in my face every day. She did it hard and in a real nasty way.

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Sometimes it was for nothing. She would also drag me by my hair. Ialways had to clean the toilets, which I hated. I was always getting introuble for things that her kids did. If I even picked her youngest sonup to hold him I would get smacked in the face. The whole time livingthere I felt that she hated us and didn’t give a shit about us. She evenforced us to call her "Mum". I hated it there so much and I still thinkabout it now.

The only good time during that time was when we got to visit with Dad.He was allowed to see us after school sometimes and he would takeus fishing. I hated it when ~ our welfaregworker, would take usback after our visits with Dad. I used to tellg- that the lady wasmean and that I didn’t want to go back there. I didn’t tell anyone else. Iwanted to tell Dad but I was worried he would get real angry with thatlady and I didn’t want him to get in trouble.

Apart from ~taking me back to the home after my visits with Dad Idon’t remember having much to do with anyone from welfare.

18. A couple of years after that we were living with Mumcan’t remember exactly how that ha

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l enjoyed going to Primary school even though I can’t remember a lotof it. My main memories are of Dad making us lunch for school andthe times when he would come and pick us up and give us a breakfrom the welfare home.

21 l can read and write but not big words. A lot of the big words thatteachers, doctors, guards and lawyers have said to me I don’tunderstand. I can read but I don’t read books. It is too hard for me. Ihave to strain to read stuff because it is blurry. Then my eyes hurt andI look away and then I end up reading the same thing twice when Ilook back. I’ve never felt that I was smart. I went to Middle School in

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and ’-

I never liked Middle School and often wouldn’t go. Iremember when I did go I would have to walk up close to theblackboard and write down what was there and then go back to myseat. Some times I would get in trouble for this. I don’t recall aJn one,at school or in detention, talking to me about getting glasses 2’ -

~ I do remember in detention some of the teachers wouldgive me work with larger writing so I could read it.

l never realised I could do anything about these things until one timelast I picked up my Godmother’s new lasses and tried them. Allof a sudden I could see clearly

23. Sometimes I would get really angry in school because I couldn’t seeetimes i wOuldand FMit was so hard to concentrate. I would getfrustrated and rip up my paper and get thrown out of class. I wouldalso get frustrated because I was bored with most of the stuff theywanted to teach me. And then I would get angry when the teacher’stried to force me to do things I wasn’t interested in.

Part 2: My Time in Detention

24. Between when I wa~ it felt like I was always inand out of detention. And when I wasn’t in detention I was always onsupervision.

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My lawyer has shown me mv criminal record. Iinto custody on when I wasthat I spent a total of aroundcustody and detention.

The first time I didhanging out with

ree that I first went I also agree

after that in police

; was when I wasi’. I wasThey told me to follow them and

we broke into a couple of houses. It was really scary. I did not getanything from it. Most of my trouble outside of detention has beenwhen I’ve been hangin q out with~ and following them.Deen nanglng

~1l’ve had Ji mgo to detention and to jail. In detention I wouldsometimes get charged for breaking stuff or assaulting guards.

27. l mostly remember pleading guilty. In the first few years I didn’tunderstand the process and what was happening in court. I still find itall a bit confusing.

Part 2.1: First time in Don Dale

28. The first time I went to detention it was a shock. It was at the Old DonDale ("ODD"). I remember coming out of the van and going into thetiny cell. They told me they needed to "strip search" me. No one

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explained why. I said, "No, I don’t want to do it". They said I had to doit because I was new. They said I would have to stay in the tinyadmissions cell until I did it and that I could stay in there until the nextday. I waited in there for a few hours. They kept saying to me "do youwant to keep waiting or do you want to get it over with fast?"Eventualb I did it. I had to take off all m clothes and then uat andcoug- I felt really embarrassed andweird.

They then put this smelly powder in my hair and on my body and toldme to rub it all over. They said it was for scabies, ringworm and lice.They didn’t explain to me properly what I had to do and I got it in myeye. It stung and I started crying. They were yelling at me "you don’tput it in your eyes stupid". That made me feel no good.

The clothes they gave me didn’t fit. The underwear, shorts and shirtwere all too big. I had to fold the top of my shorts over and over so thatit would fit and not fall down. I felt like a parachute. The whole time Iwas in detention I never got clothes that fit. They were always too big.

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l remember my first night in ODD I was by myself. The next day I didget a medical but I do not recall getting a Mental Health assessment.

None of the staff explained to me what the rules were in detention. Ilearnt from the older girls that were detained there. I was pretty quietthe first couple of weeks. But then I started getting in trouble andthings just got worse from there.

I remember one day early on~ and I had a fight over thekeyboard. One of the guards, Yogi, came out and broke us up. Hesnapped the keyboard in half. He then picked me up from my shortsand bra strap. This was how they would often grab me when I was introuble. They would lift me up from the back of my shorts so that thebottom of my shorts dug in hard between my legs and they would puttheir hand under my bra strap so it pulled tight on my chest. This hurtand was shame job. They would hold me in the air like that and takeme where they wanted. That time Yogi took me to the BehaviourManagement Unit (BMU). That was my first time in there.

Part 2.2: Use of Isolation while in Detention

35. l spent a lot of my time in detention in isolation. At ODD it was mostlyin the High Dependency Unit (HDU) cell. At the New Don Dale ("NDD")

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Royal Commission into the Protection andDetention of Children in the No.rthern Territory

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it was in an isolation cell in C-Block. And at Holtze it was also in anisolation cell in the at-risk area of the prison.

At first when I was at ODD I would get put in the BMU cells. Thefirsttime I went in there I remember it being really hot and dark. The onlylight was outside of the cell and not much of it came through the mesh.I was scared, as I didn’t know how long I was going to be in there. Iremember I couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t sleep at all that night. I think Igot out the next afternoon. I don’t remember any guards coming downto check on me during that time.

l spent a fair bit of time in the BMU during the first couple of times Iwas in ODD. It was small, boring and scary. Sometimes when I didn’thear from anyone for a while it would feel like a ghost area. My mindwould start playing tricks on me and I would get real scaredsometimes, especially at night. Every time I went in there I was nevertold how long I would be there. I would always ask and they wouldnever tell me. They would say things like "fuck knows" and "how longis a piece of string". They would neverive a strai I ht answer. Thelongest I spent in there at one time was It was usuallyaround 24 hours. There was never any regular checks by the guardswhen I was in there. They would just come by randomly when theywere not busy.

There was no air-conditioning in the BMU and it was stinking hot. Onetime they put me in there in an ’at-risk’ gown. The gown was reallythick and I was so hot I thought I was going to pass out and die. I tookthe gown off. The guards would then buzz me and tell me to put itback on because the male guards could see me on the screen. It wasweird knowing the guards were watching me all the time and that Iwas semi-naked, but I was too hot to care. When I refused to put thegown on they would send female guards down to force me to put itback on.

There was no access to water in the BMU. You had to buzz the guardson the intercom to get them to bring water. Most of the time when youpushed the buzzer a noise came back that meant they had rejectedthe call. That happened a lot. I buzzed a lot to ask for water or to findout when I would get out. They would just hang up or say they werebusy. The only way to get them to come was to block the CCTVcamera with wet toilet paper. Because of this there was a lot of times Ihad to spend time in the BMU and HDU with no toilet paper. Then if Ineeded to use the toilet I would have to block the camera with themattress to make them come. Even then they would take their time.And then they would only give me a few pieces of paper to use.

After a while they stopped putting me in the BMU and started puttingme in the HDU. The HDU cell was much bigger than the BMU. It wascalled "the bare bones" cell. There was nothing in it except a toilet and

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a bubbler. There was no bed in the room during the day. It did have awindow I could look out from. And it did have an air-conditioner atfirst.However later on the air-conditioner was removed after some boysbroke onto the roof through an air-conditioning hole. Then it wasstinking hot like the BMU. The heat in the ODD was unbearable attimes and made me feel angry.

l only got a bed in the HDU at 11pm at night. One night they forgot tobring it in and I had to wait till after midnight for the nightshift to bring itin.

There was access to water in the HDU from the bubbler but it was hotand it tasted disgusting, not like normal water. I couldn’t drink it.

43. When I was in the HDU I would have to eat my meals in there. I wasn’tallowed a knife or a fork. Not even a spoon. I would have to scoop upmy food with my hands, which was disgusting. I felt like a dog.Sometimes I’d smash it on the ground or put it down the toilet or justnot eat it.

44. It was a tiny cell inC-Block. It was much smaller than the HDU. It was the size of a smallbathroom. There was nothing in it except a toilet, a concrete bed and ahard mattress. And it was dark and hot. There was no window to lookoutside. To feel any coolness from the air-con I had to lie still in acertain spot directly under the air vents. It was a tiny little breeze. Itwas at the back away from anyone else so it was also very quiet andlonely. I hated that room the most during my time in detention.

45. ~ I wasn’t even allowed outto make my own breakfast. The guards told me that they didn’t trustme to come out and be good. The only one who let me out sometimeswas Luke Ross. I hardly saw the sun that whole time. When I finallygot out my skin was almost white. I was scared to touch the sun. Theweirdest thing was that after all that time in there I ended up finding itreally hard to be outside that cell. Everything felt extra bright, hot, loudand weird. One time, even though I hated that room, I wanted to goback to the room because I felt unwell and scared outside of it.

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47. Whenever I was in isolation in ODD and NDD I would only be allowedout for 20-30 minutes a day at most. Sometimes not at all. Because Iwas at-risk I wasn’t allowed anything. I didn’t get any schoolwork,magazines or puzzles. I got no eating utensils and my food was oftencold. I always felt tired and all I ever did was just lay around and think

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and think. Sometimes at the HDU some of the guards would have aconversation with me at the door. But mostly I didn’t talk to anyone.Sometimes in the NDD I would talk to spirits.

l hated being in isolation. All my life I had been around my siblings,cousins and other family. I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors.Detention was the first time I had ever felt alone like that.

l still don’t really understand why I had to be in there. I don’t think Ishould have ever put in isolation. There were a lot of times I felt likethe guards would put me in for no good reason. Any little thing and Iwould be put in. Sometimes it seemed like they were trying to provokeme or that they would make out like I had hit them when I hadn’t. It didnot take much for them to call Code Amber on me and then I wouldget slammed around and thrown in isolation.

Sometimes I knew the thing that happened which made them put mein isolation. But I didn’t understand why that meant I had to go in. Mostof the behaviour that put the time. Ididn’t alwavs understand

That was just how I acted. Every time I asked why Iwas in isolation they would just say "because of your behaviour", but

they never explained exactly why and I never really fully understood. Ialways felt like they were picking on me.

was in

Being in isolation never made me want to act better. It made meangrier and it felt like it was making me more mad inside my head. Itended up making it harder for me to be outside of isolation. Almost allthe times I hurt myself in detention was when I was in isolation, notlong after I had got out or when they were threatening to put me in. Ihurt myself because I was either so angry at being put in isolation or Iwould get so upset that I felt dying was better than staying in isolation.

Part 2.3: Classification while in Detention

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I never got a chance to argue for a lower classification. Ididn’t understand who made the decisions and what it was based on. Ifelt that even when I tried my hardest to be good for a while it had noeffect on my classification.

I was always the firstblamed if anything went missing or anything bad happened. Wearingthe red shirt made me feel that I was bad.

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Part 2.4: Use of Restraints while in Detention

Spit Hoods

55. The guards never used the spit hood on me. They did try once butthen changed their mind. I never spat at them. I think they would thinkI was going to spit on them because they would often thrust theirpalms into my face when they were grabbing me and putting me intoisolation.

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Hoffmart Knife

59. l clearly recall a time at NDD when a large group of guards picked meup, some had my arms and some had my legs. It was mostly maleguards and one or two female guards. They carried me into a roomand threw me face down on a bed. They then used the Hoffman Knifeto cut off all my clothes including my bra and underwear. I was fullynaked and I felt real shame with all those men in the room. After awhile of pinning me down they let me go and left the room. A shorttime later a guard opened the door and threw in an ’at-risk’ gown. Thatwas one of my worst experiences in detention. I still think about thisand it upsets me.

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60. The same thing happened to me at ODD when I was arouncWl. Idon’t think about that as much probably because I was much youngerthan I was with the time at NDD.

Wedgies’ and Shackles

61. When I first started going into detention I was~. A few of theguards, including male guards, preferred way of grabbing me was bythe back of my shorts and my bra strap. They would lift me off theground like this so that my underpants and shorts would dig in hardbetween my legs and my bra would pull tight on my chest. It waspainful and shame and happened a lot.

62. l was placed in shackles or handcuffs around my legs several times. Italways hurt. After they took them off I’d lay on the ground and cry.Whenever I was taken to hospital it was often in handcuffs andshackles. I remember one time in the hospital the Doctor told theguards to take the handcuffs and shackles off me. She said, "Can’tyou see the state she is in, she can barely move". But the guardswouldn’t take them off.

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Education while in Detention

l mostly hate to school in Don Dale. I couldn’t see theblackboard or It was boring and I felt they were alwaysforcing me rather than helping me. I also found it really hard toconcentrate. I would often get into trouble for talking or swearing. Iswear a lot, it is just the way I talk. It would not take much for me toget yelled at by the teacher and then I would go off and rip up my workand break things in the classroom.

A teacher would come down and work with me. Thatoften made the work easier for me but I felt weird being all by myself.

When I was in isolation I would not go to school at all and I would notget any schoolwork. I would just stay in the room doing nothing.

l only remember one teacher that I really liked. His name was John.He taught me to play the keyboard. Sometimes I would even writesongs with him and I really enjoyed that. That was the best time I hadat school. The second best was a lady that would come in and show

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us nature documentaries and then we would talk about that stuff. Ialways found that fun and interesting.

Part 2.6: Activities while in Detention

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The only things I really enjoyed in Don Dale was playing Basketball,playing the keyboard and when they brought the horses in. I also likedlistening to classical music. I didn’t get to do any of these things thatoften.

The visits from the horses was mad (good). I remember one time Iwas in a lot of pain but I still went to see them. It was my favouritetime at Don Dale, but they would only come once a month.

It did seem like the boys got to do things than the girls did. Like theygot all the musical instruments. And they had male Aboriginal Eldersvisit them. I can’t remember the girls getting these visits.

Part 2.7: Contact with family, friends and others while in Detention

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Family didn’t visit me much at ODD and NDD. That made me sad.

I did talk to~ on the phone whenever I could~~ She always helped calm me down when I was feelingangry or upset.

Sometimes I was stopped from making phone calls as punishment.Sometimes family would call me but they wouldn’t let me take the callas punishment. When I was in isolation I couldn’t make or receivephone calls. That made me feel very sad and angry.

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One day I remember I refusedto put on the handcuffs. I said, "the door is just there and I’ve beengood". Because of that they denied that visit and they stopped mefrom seeing-That really hurt me.When I went to/a guard told me that family was not allowed to

that" and theuard saidust because".

76. l do remember speaking to some of my lawyers on the phone. I nevercalled the Children’s Commissioner. I do remember him coming toODD a couple of times. I told him that the place was shit, we weretreated like shit, we were locked down a lot and bullied by staff. Meand the other girls told him we wanted more programs and things todo. I remember he wrote stuff down but I never heard anything back. Ididn’t feel that he believed me. I never made an official complaintabout anything as I didn’t know how to do it and even if I did I didn’t

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Roya[ Commission~ into the Protection and

Detention of Children in the Northern Territory

think anyone would believe my side of the story. Nothing ever changedas far as the way I was treated during the whole tirne I was indetention.

Part 2.8: Privacy while in Custody

77. When I was at-risk, ~ the female guardswould watch me take a shower. If there were no females then themales would stand right behind door and keep knocking on it. Thiswould make me feel uncomfortable and weird.

78. l always felt I was being watched in detention, either in person or bycamera. I hated that feeling.

Part 2.9 Treatment by Staff while in Detention

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It felt to me like most of the guards didn’t care about me and that someof them even hated me.

A lot of guards would say nasty or cheeky things to me. I rememberbeing called "a disgusting kid" and "scum" and being told to "shut mygob". They would always say that I had a "bad attitude". They wouldalso laugh at me. Sometimes they would say big words to me that Ididn’t understand, but the tone made me think they were putting medown.

l didn’t feel that many of the guards cared about what I wanted toneeded. I remember pissing my pants a few times when I was!~’~ andin Room!~because they wouldn’t let me out to go to the toilet. Thenthey’d call me disgusting. Anything I asked for always seemed a bigproblem for them.

l wasn’t used to so many rules and being told what to do. I found thathard.

l felt that I was always treated differently and that the guards were alot more aggressive to me than a lot of the other kids.

During my whole time in detention it did not take much for the guardsto get physical with me. A lot of the time it seemed to be for nothing,like just swearing. And even the times when they were saving me theywere really rough and they didn’t need to be that rough.

When I was in one of my angry moods only a couple of guards evertried talking to me nicely and calmly. When they did I often calmeddown. Most of the guards seemed to want me to go off and provokedme, Then they would be quick to grab me and get physical. I never feltI had a chance to calm down by myself.

Some of the guards were nice and always spoke to me nicely andnever did anything that triggered my anger. I had no problem withthem. The best one was Deborah. She was really kind. She would

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always talk nicely to me, she wouldn’t freak out if I did a little thingwrong and she would ask me if I needed anything and gave me stuff,like late night snacks.

Part 3 Mental Health in Detention

87. Most of the time I was in detention I felt either really sad or reallyangry.

Part 3.1 Self Harm

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I had been in ODD for two weeks before I tried to hurt myself the firsttime. In the few months after that I tried to hang myself with a sheet

~ l’m pretty sure I was in isolation all these times. I just hatedbeing alone at that time and I was feeling angry and hopeless. Iwanted to die but not really. Like in the moment I did feel like dying butI think I really wanted to live, just not in isolation.

The next time I was in ODD I remember hitting my head against thewall. I couldn’t stop myself. Most of the times I did something like this itwas because I had been left in a cell by myself for a long time, I justgot so angry I couldn’t control myself.In ~ l did try to strangle myself with my t-shirt. Again I was angrybecause I had been kept in a room by myself for a long time.

One time I was in hospital after hurting myself and I really wanted tocall Mum. The guards wouldn’t let me. The Doctor said, "she’s not inDon Dale now, she can ring who she likes". But the guards said I wasat-risk and I couldn’t call anyone. When Mum saw me a few days latershe didn’t even know I’d been in hospital. Mum told me that she wasnever told any of the times I was taken to hospital and she madecomplaints about this.

In I was given tablet medication for the first time. After awhile it did make me feel calmer, made me argue less and helped meto sleep better. It made me feel like I had two different personalitiesand the medication would calm the angry one. At one point I wasgetting medication from the nurse in detention every day. Howeversome days the nurse would leave early and when I would go to getmedication I was too late. I would tell them but it would still happen. Ithen felt worse when I missed a day. I couldn’t sleep and startedthinking bad stuff again and would get angry about any little thing.

There were times when I didn’t want to take medication because itmade me too sleepy. And sometimes I didn’t see the point as they justkept me in isolation anyway. When I was~ I wouldn’t getmedication.

Apart from ~ I don’t remember ever being forced to takemedication. There was a time-

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Part 3.2

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In~ I had a really bad month.

~ started as a normal day. I was heading to the basketballcourts when I was told that we were banned from going there becauseone of the other girls,~ had been yelling some stuff to the boys. Ifelt it was unfair that I was being banned as I hadn’t done anything. Igot angry and ~ I was nottrying to escape.F"""""""1 99. The

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Because of that they put me at-riskain and I was locked u in thetiny cell in c-block. I was in therf

- -. In that time I only got out for 15minutes. No nurses, doctors or Mental Health mob came to check onme during that time.

Then they let me out and I thought I’d finished my punishment but theylocked me in another cell. That’s when I got so angry. I thought I haddone my punishment and I was over being locked in a cell on my own.I banged my head on the door and ripped the at-risk gown so I coulduse it to hang myself. My anger had got to that point where I couldn’tstop myself.

l can’t really remember being taken to hospital the second time andwhat happened there. In fact everything in the days after I tried tohang myself with the at-risk gown is hard to remember. Maybe

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because I was so upset and angry that whole time. I also think I gotsome injections around that time.

I remember spending a lot of time in isolation around that time and itwas doing my head in. I was really sick of being locked in that room. Ihated that room. I believe at that time I would have rather died thanstay another minute in that room.

It does scare me now when I look back and realise I could have died. Ijust had no control over how I was feeling at that time.

Part 3.2 Staff Response

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Whenever the guards would come in to the room to stop me doingsomething they were always very rough. I always felt they werecoming in to bash me and not help me. That’s why I fought backsometimes or armed myself. I did keep telling them all through thattime that I hated being in that room and all I wanted was to come offat-risk. I felt they never listened to me. They never told me when Iwould be getting out. The only time they took any notice of me is if Itried to hurt myself. Then they would come running in and throw me onthe ground, jump on me, bash me and handcuff me.

Only a couple of the guards ever tried to talk me down or talk to meabout how I was feeling. I didn’t like raising my problems with most ofthe guards because I didn’t feel they would really listen and some ofthem would use what I said to mark me at-risk again and put me inisolation.

Part 3.3 Mental Health and other External Workers

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l saw a lot of different people during my time in detention. Some ofthem were okay. Most of them I didn’t connect with. A lot of them justrepeated the same questions over and over again. I didn’t see thepoint of a lot of it. I didn’t really see the point of Mental Health Mob.They would ask me all those questions and then nothing wouldhappen. Nothing would change at Don Dale. I was still being isolated.The guards would still act the same towards me. I didn’t learn anyspecial skills. And no one could explain to me what I was doing wrong,why I was doing it and what I could do to change it.

as okay. She would sit with all of us and make uschoose these cards with weird pictures and then get us to talk abouthow they made us feel. I never did any of that stuff outside of thegroup as I had no-one to do it with. I don’t rememberM or

I have not heard of

l don’t know whatany of these things are.

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Detention of Childre,n in th~e:, North,::.rn,

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~ was also okay. I do remember her telling me aboutrelaxation. But once I got angry that was too hard for me to do.

Raymond Morrison was also a good fella.

l don’t remember any regular counselling or training when I was indetention. I don’t feel I learnt anything in detention that has made mylife easier or that has helped me understand my feelings and deal withthem.

The only time I remember anyone tellina me hatwrona with me was a Doctor

I don’t rea

might be the reason I get so angry and frustrated so eas~has been told this too.

Waswron.g witn me w

I know m’

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When I was in detention I just remember people always saying to me"why did you do that for?". I thought they were plying dumb. It seemedobvious to me that I was doing it because I hated being in isolation. AllI knew at the time was that I hated being in isolation so much that Iwould rather have killed myself.

l have tried counselling outside of detention. It was okay but I find ithard to connect with a lot of the counsellors and I don’t understandhow talking about the same stuff over and over makes it better. I stillalways felt either sad or angry most of the time.

Part 2.10: Development while in Detention

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116.

117.

l feel that detention made me a worse person, not better. It also mademe angrier and sadder. All that time in isolation made it harder for meto be around people. Now I just mostly like to stick with my~~ I still have nightmares about being in those rooms.

The only benefits I feel I got from detention was learning a little bitabout music and learning that I really love spending time with horses. Idon’t feel that I learnt anything else that will help me.

l was never offered or told about any alternatives to intohas told me about Wildman

lt sounded better thanODD, NDD and Holtze as it was in the bush and they got to do a lot ofoutdoor activities, also told me about the BalunuHealing Campe Sheshowed me photos and told me about the cool stuff they got to do andalso about the healing stuff. She said she felt a lot better after she didBalunu. I told one of my lawyers one time that I wanted to go there butI never heard anything back about that.

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Dete~ntion of Children~ in the-,, Northern

Part 4 Life Outside Detention

118. It feels like whenever I wasn’t in detention I was always on someconditions.

Part 4.1 Age 13 to 18

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When I was first released from detention it felt like they would give meheaps of things to do and I would feel pressured and confused. I oftenlost track of things I had to do or the places or times I had to do them. Iwas often late and would get in trouble. Every time I went in theyalways assumed that I remembered everything that I had been toldbefore. But I would often forget stuff between visits. It was hard tokeep on top of everything and I always felt under pressure. It got evenharder when I was on medication and I couldn’t concentrate. Iremember Mum telling them this.

None of the stuff they made me do felt like stuff that I liked to do orthat I felt was helping me be better.

l don’t feel l’ve ever had a serious issue with alcohol or drugs. I havedrunk a bit but not much. I’ve also used marijuana and ice but againnot much. I don’t like the way it makes me feel. The worst thing I do issmoke cigarettes.

The best times I had when I was not in detention was when I would goon a ’bush camp’ with my Mum and her family at~ It wasmad (good) and I loved being out bush. We still do this every year.

Part 4.2 Attitude to Offending

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l don’t like hurting people or taking people’s stuff. It’s just what a lot ofmy family and friends of the same age were doing. We were allpressuring each other to do stuff and you’d get a lot of good attentionand acceptance from friends and cousins when you did that stuff.

A lot of the stuff I did was because I was following others. But somestuff I did on my own because I thought others would accept me orthink better of me.

After l’ve done bad things I do feel bad for the people that were hurt orlost their property. I really don’t want to do bad things anymore. And Idon’t want to be locked up again.

If I had another chance to be young I would never do anything thatwould make me go into detention.

Part 4.3 Present

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128.

129.

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The last few times !’ve been on conditions it has been better as theyhave slowed things down a bit for me and spaced it out a bit better.l’ve been doing good this time so far and keeping all my appointments.

l hope to get some work with either horses or children. ! did somechildcare work with YMCA before and I loved that. Those are thereonly things I really want to do.

live with

131. I still feel sad or angry a lot of the time but I can walk it off and~~also helps keep me calm.

Part 4.4

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133.

4 Royal Commission

I understandthe Royal Commission is trying to make things better for kids whohave to go into detention.

The whole time I was in detention I just felt that no one cared aboutme and that most of the people there hated me. I also had these crazyfeelings of sadness and anger that I did not know how to deal with. Ialmost always felt either sad or angry and also tired. Being in isolationjust made everything worse. I look back now and I see ODD and NDDas evil places.

132. I want to give evidence about what happened to me because I don’twant anyone else to go through what I went through during my time indetention.

Signed:

Date:

Witness:

Date:

18