Original subtitles

(WHISPERING)

(DISTANT YELLING CHILDREN)

DUJUAN: Megan.

MEGAN: One, two, three.

Why?

(LAUGHING)

Alright.

(JAUNTY MUSIC)

(WHISPERING)

(WHISTLING)

(MUSIC ENDS)

BOY 1: Oh, yeah.

BOY 2: They come around night and day.

BOY 3: No, this is out in the golf area.

BOY 1: Yeah.

But you gotta watch out.

BOY 2: Yeah, then we'll play right over there.

BOY 3: Yeah, this is my way, too, too, too.

(HUMMING)

(BOYS YELLING)

MEGAN: C.

BOY: C? Car!

MEGAN: No arguing, too.

BOY: Black. MEGAN: Bird.

BOY: Right away!

(LAUGHING, CHATTER)

(FIREWORKS CRACKLING)

MALE: We want our ceremony.

We want our language.

We want our stories told to our children.

(FIREWORKS CRACKLE)

(DOG BARKING)

DUJUAN: Just going up on the hill.

WOMAN: OK.

NANA CAROL: Lie down, lie down.

Yeah.

DUJUAN: Like that.

(SHOUTING)

You're pushing my - (LAUGHS)

(SINGS A TUNE)

(WHISTLING, CAR HONKS)

BOY: Jump in.

BUS DRIVER: Come on, now. School time, school time.

Dujuan, come on.

DUJUAN: (INAUDIBLE)

(WHISTLING A TUNE)

I'm going to the oval.

Red, red rover, I call over people wearing blue shirts.

TEACHER: Oh, good one! Everyone keep it going.

You only need to write it once.

After is 'that.'

(STUDENTS CHATTER)

DUJUAN: The, the. How do you spell 'that?'

TEACHER: It doesn't matter if you get it wrong.

Or if you don't, if you have no idea, just leave it.

That.

GIRL 1: Or if you put a line through it like that.

TEACHER: The next word is 'be.'

DUJUAN: Be. TEACHER: Be.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

GIRL 1: Teacher.

TEACHER: Alright, Dujuan, can I have a look?

(CHILDREN YELLING)

NANA CAROL: Dujuan!

TEACHER: I'd prefer if you line up there.

Hurry up, Megan and Aisha!

Right, let's go.

Listen carefully.

Now, this one isn't a story.

This is information or nonfiction. It's fact.

The Australia Book.

It's about the history of our country.

At Botany Bay, Cook landed for the first time in a new country.

Then, he sailed up the coast, mapping as he went.

He was nearly wrecked on the coral of the Barrier Reef,

and only because he was a great sailor

did he manage to save his ship.

On an island of Cape York, he raised the English flag.

And he claimed for the English country the whole of this new land.

There's the English flag up the top, which is still on our flag.

With texters, find the word 'Botany Bay' and highlight it.

In English, first fleet, convicts, Arthur Philip.

For some of you, this will take a long time,

and you might need some help from some friends.

Well done. Good work.

Oh, clever girl.

DUJUAN: (VOCALIZES A TUNE)

(CHILDREN CHATTER)

(EERIE MUSIC, CHATTER FADES)

NARRATOR: To free the children from the bonds

of tribal compulsions,

which held their parents, is a major task of the administration.

The children are being gently led towards our culture so that,

in time, they will take their place in the Australian community thinking

as we do.

(MUSIC ENDS)

DUJUAN: For me. And for me.

$2 I got. (IMITATES CAR)

With that, that comes with that.

And with that, that comes with that.

And then, they go next. That comes with that.

That comes there.

And everybody waiting in line to be scanned.

(LIVELY MUSIC, THUMPING, CLAPPING)

(MUSIC ENDS)

(CAR HONKS)

NANA CAROL: Car, right in the lane!

DUJUAN: Ah, bumped it (INAUDIBLE).

BOY: You want to take one of them, too?

(CHATTER)

BOY 4: Yeah, Dujuan!

DUJUAN: Hey!

GREAT NANA: Yeah, yeah.

TEACHER: For a long time, there was nothing.

(MUSIC ENDS)

Then, in the mind of the spirit of life, a dreaming began.

In the empty darkness, there was a dreaming of fire,

and a color of fire burned brightly in the mind of the great spirit.

So, they're actually saying there's a spirit.

I'm not exactly sure how they do it.

There's a spirit somewhere, and in that spirit,

they had the spirit of fire.

OK, let's see what happens next.

For a long time, the battle of the wind and the fire and the rain raged

in the dreaming, and the great spirit liked the dream.

So, the dreaming continued.

And we just gotta believe it.

I think what it saying is that the weather -

BOY 5: What's this for?

MEGAN: Dujuan!

All the 'E's.

(UNEASY MUSIC)

Dujuan!

(MUSIC ENDS)

Gonna go to school?

Dujuan!

(BIRDS CHIRPING, SIREN, DOG BARKS)

(SOOTHING MUSIC)

Then, you get scared.

(BABY CRIES, LAUGHS)

Again.

(BABY SCREAMS, LAUGHS)

(MUSIC ENDS)

Dujuan!

What happened today?

MALE: What I'll give you here.

There you go.

Yeah, (INAUDIBLE).

Alright, your kitchen and out here.

We'll come back and revisit this soon.

(INAUDIBLE)

REPORTER: This is juvenile justice in the Northern Territory,

a system that punishes troubled children

instead of rehabilitating them.

Where children as young as ten are locked up,

and 13-year-olds are kept in solitary confinement.

Most of the images secured by Four Corners

have never been seen publicly.

(SHOUTING)

(SCREAMING)

AUNTY ALEXIS: Yes.

DUJUAN: Can I ask you a few questions?

AUNTY ALEXIS: Yeah, go, come on.

DUJUAN: Alexis.

AUNTY ALEXIS: Yes.

DUJUAN: What did you feel like when your nephew

got silly at school?

AUNTY ALEXIS: Well, when my nephews get silly at school,

they get in trouble.

It's not a nice place going to jail.

Did you know that, Dujuan?

DUJUAN: It's where you can -

that's where people do bad stuff to you

in juvenile.

AUNTY ALEXIS: When I was in there, we got starved food.

We got told we wasn't allowed to eat.

And that went on for about a week.

Me and a couple of other girls didn't eat breakfast,

lunch, and dinner for a whole week.

Yeah, depriving of food.

DUJUAN: That you don't know.

AUNTY ALEXIS: Trust me, juvenile is not a good place to be

'cause you're only gonna end up in two places,

a jail cell or a coffin.

You know where they bury people in? A box?

Yeah, a box.

A coffin.

Have you ever been to a funeral?

DUJUAN: Oh.

AUNTY ALEXIS: Yeah, one of them boxes.

So, you know what I'm telling you?

Go to school every day.

NANA CAROL: Colin!

COLIN: What?!

I don't know.

MEGAN: We'll go up there.

NANA CAROL: Where? MEGAN: East Side.

(UNEASY MUSIC)

(RADIO TALK)

RADIO: Ministers are arriving in Canberra tonight.

High on the agenda is the royal commission

into the Northern Territory's

juvenile justice system.

The inquiry follows this week's Four Corners program

detailing systemic abuses at the Don Dale Detention Center.

Labor wants a national -

MEGAN: Dujuan!

NANA CAROL: Dujuan!

MOOSHIE: Yeah, that's him.

NANA CAROL: Oi!

Dujuan!

Dujuan, that's not your bicycle!

DUJUAN: I'm riding home!

(MUSIC ENDS)

(CHATTER)

MEGAN: Dujuan!

(BEEPING)

DUJUAN: The reason why we're here is because my aunty got stabbed

in the leg, and it - and she's in ICU at the moment.

And they're letting three people at a time go in to see her

because it's really important to look after your family members.

(HEARTBEAT, TENSE MUSIC)

(CHATTER, TAPPING)

TEACHER: Plus one more, so that makes 20.

16+11.

So, 20 plus one more?

STUDENT: 40.

TEACHER: 20 plus one more?

STUDENT: 30. TEACHER: 20+1?

STUDENT: 22.

STUDENT: 21.

TEACHER: 21.

When we put the 100s next to it, and it's 121.

(MUSIC ENDS)

DUJUAN: This morning.

(TV CHATTER)

(LAUGHING, BABY COOS)

MEGAN: They don't know their culture.

They don't teach them their culture.

So, it's alright for them to take kids off the mother.

DUJUAN: Where did you run away from?

Ross River.

GREAT NANA AGGIE: Where they can't find me.

DUJUAN: See you.

GREAT NANA AGGIE: Yep.

(BREATHING, INTENSE MUSIC)

NARRATOR: Christina's four.

And, for the first time in her life, she has a mother and father.

A long way from Melville Island but, at last, a home

and the love and affection of a family of their own.

Sleep tight, children, because you know that dreams do come true,

don't you?

(CLAPPING, ACTION MUSIC)

DUJUAN: This movie's about me.

And what I think is 'stop taking kids away.'

That's wrong.

I'm not even scared anymore.

Me, I can walk up the hill in the middle of the night,

and I can stand in town in the middle of the night.

I can walk up and down the street in the dark.

(SCREAMING)

(THUDS)

MEGAN: Boo! Boo!

(BABY COOS, CRIES)

(MUSIC ENDS)

(RADIO CHATTER)

(QUIET, SLOW MUSIC)

NANA CAROL: Get in!

Dujuan! Out!

(SHOUTING)

(BABY CRIES)

(PHONE RINGS)

KUMALIE: Ah, yeah, yeah.

(EERIE MUSIC)

REPORTER: After such a long time turning their children

over to the whites, Alice Springs Aborigines are reclaiming

their own education.

REPORTER: There's a determination that Yipirinya will survive

and fulfill the promise that it holds for a new generation

of Aboriginies.

(KIDS REPEAT ARRENTE)

(MUSIC ENDS)

TEACHER: Everybody say,

'Constructed.' Everyone say it.

KIDS: Verb!

TEACHER: Oop, say the word 'constructed.'

KIDS: Constructed.

TEACHER: Constructed. What part of speech is it?

KIDS: Verb, noun!

TEACHER: Verb, well done.

Constructs. Say it.

KIDS: Constructs.

TEACHER: What part of speech?

KIDS: Noun, noun.

TEACHER: Constructs.

KID: Adjective.

TEACHER: OK, all you have to do is repeat after me.

Pencils down, please.

DUJUAN: Construction.

(SOOTHING MUSIC)

TEACHER: For each question in the test, you will need

to shade one bubble.

Simply, guys, I'll just give you a tip.

Just pick a bubble and color it in.

You do have a chance of getting one right if you color in a bubble.

But if you don't color in anything at all, you got no chance,

so you may as well have a go.

It's just a coloring activity, guys.

YVONNE: Hi, Megan.

This is Yvonne calling from Yipirinya school.

Dujuan ran away from school today at about 1:30.

Yes.

And we don't know where he's gone to.

We've got people watching the kids, but they just don't want

to be in the classrooms.

We've tried to look for them, but they've run away

behind the bushes and up the hill.

(UNEASY MUSIC)

(MUSIC ENDS, CRICKETS)

(WHISTLING)

NANA CAROL: Hello?

He's in good care.

MEGAN: He was hungry.

Look, I'll call you back after. Bye.

DUJUAN: (READING, WHISPERING) Dujuan has been out of class

again today.

He…

Can you read this part to me, Maya?

MAYA: He refuses to follow any directions,

and he was rude to teachers

when spoken to.

Dujuan was sent home, and I have no option but to suspend him

for three days.

DUJUAN: Yes!

(SOOTHING MUSIC)

(MUSIC ENDS, THUDDING)

(SPEAKING IN ARRERNTE)

NANA CAROL: Hiding behind me.

PRINCIPAL: And it's all very well coming in and being very polite

to me today and say, "Good morning, Lorraine."

But you haven't been very polite when you've seen around the school,

have you?

Dujuan, have you?

And when you came here, we tested him, and he's been put

in a reading and writing class that's not that high,

which means he's spent a lot of time, I think, not being a learner.

You've been out of class almost every day.

And you've run away nearly every day.

OK?

Then, we hear all sorts of stories, then, about people getting locked up

and the police going around to different houses this morning

looking for kids.

NANA CAROL: Yes.

I worry.

When the kids leave from here, they go and smash in cars.

PRINCIPAL: Do you wanna get locked up with those other kids

with the cars?

No! Nobody wants that.

You've got family who care about you.

Now, Dujuan, I'm telling you now that this is your last chance

at Yipirinya, OK?

Your very last chance.

(LIVELY MUSIC, CRACKLING FIREWORK)

DUJUAN: Hold it. Chuck it.

That's my way.

REPORTER: The Northern Territory's Police Commissioner

has revealed plans

to send a unit of camouflaged, specialized police

with military-grade weapons to patrol Alice Springs at night.

And it's part of the Australian Government's National

Counter-terrorism Task Force.

The announcement comes a week to the day

since the Royal Commission

delivered its report on youth detention

and child protection systems

in the Northern Territory.

REPORTER: Despite making our first findings

against youth justice staff and politicians,

the Royal Commission hasn't recommended charges

against those responsible.

PROTESTERS: Stand up! Fight back!

Stand and fight back!

Fight back and give us our rights!

Stand up and fight back for our rights!

REPORTER: Protesters poured onto city streets

around the country.

Speakers called for accountability.

PROTESTERS: Black lives matter! We fight back!

Black lives matter! Black lives matter!

Black lives matter!

REPORTER: By far, the biggest crowds were in Melbourne

where thousands headed to the state library

to voice their anger.

PROTESTER: Every Aboriginal family has been impacted some way by this!

PROTESTERS: What do we want? Justice!

When do we want it? Now!

What do we want? Justice!

When do we want it? Now!

(FIREWORK CRACKLES)

(MUSIC ENDS)

MEGAN: What happened?

DUJUAN: Stole a teacher's car keys.

Chucked it on the roof and smashed it, the other one.

(THUDDING)

(SPEAKING IN ARRERNTE)

DUJUAN: What the -

MEGAN: Happy birthday! Happy birthday.

(LAUGHTER)

Happy birthday!

Blow it! It's gonna burn the cake.

Make a wish.

(LAUGHTER)

DUJUAN: I'm gonna cut this.

MEGAN: Happy birthday, little Dujuan!

(SOOTHING MUSIC)

DUJUAN: OK.

MEGAN: What I gotta do now?

NANA CAROL: Go.

(MUSIC ENDS)

(LAUGHS)

JIM JIM: Yeah.

DUJUAN: Yeah.

(LAUGHS)

There are lovely fish here.

(INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE)

(CHATTER)

TEACHER: OK, what was the first one?

(CHATTER)

I told you I don't wanna hear English.

JASMINE: Kunbi.

TEACHER: You did it, Jasmine.

That's Kunbi. What's a Kunbi?

STUDENT: Frilled neck lizard.

TEACHER: Frilled neck lizard, good boy.

What's that? What's kundababda?

STUDENT: Turkey.

TEACHER: Turkey.

Kundababda.

TEACHER: Do you wanna explain society and language

in your mother language?

(CHATTER)

GRANDPA JIMMY: Hey, see what I mean?

You can't pull that apart.

This belongs to somebody.

I'll tell you a story about my dad.

They was taking kids away, them days.

But my old dad, he had a gun there.

And if they tried to come and take us away,

he would show that gun.

He said, "No one's taking my kids.

You'll have to go through me first."

And that's why we all grew up here.

We never got taken away. We was lucky.

Some kids wasn't lucky.

That's your traditional land.

That's your traditional home.

We was born there, grew up there, and we're still there.

We're gonna die there.

ALLAN: Yeah.

(ACTION MUSIC)

PROTESTERS: What did you get? Nothing!

What do you want? Land rights!

(LAUGHING, CHATTER)

DUJUAN: Colin, give dad the paddle.

Oh, look, there, look at that bird there, Dad.

We're going over here and check it out.

Get a lure for myself.

Gotta look for this (INAUDIBLE).

NANA CAROL: Yeah.

Oi, I can see them all gone.

DUJUAN: What?

(CALM MUSIC)

(MUSIC SWELLS)

(MUSIC ENDS)

(FIRE CRACKLES)

DUJUAN: I'm gonna be singing my own song.

# I see what's happening, yeah

# You're face-to-face with greatness, and it's strange

# Don't even know how you feel

# So, well, anyway, let me say

# You're welcome for making you be a good kid

# You're welcome

# You're welcome

# I can do anything like helping

# I'll fix you up and make you better

# Because I'm a Ngangkere, I can do anything

# I can use them on you 'cause, anyway, when you sick,

# I use it

# You'll feel better again

# 'Cause when I'm not around, you'll be sick

# We'll go to the hospital

# But when I'm right there, I'll help you

# You're welcome

# You're welcome. #

It's just me releasing my story.

(BLOWS)