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The town of Roebourne has been blighted by social problems, but the community refuses to give up.

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On any given night, Violet Samson's home acts like a de facto safe house in Roebourne.

She will have upwards of eight or nine people — family members and other children — squeezed into every available space in her small three-bedroom unit on one of the town's main residential streets.

Bring 'em in. Can't chuck them out in the street. Keep them here for sleep, give them a rest and sleep and a feed," the senior Ngarluma elder and great-great-grandmother says.

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She is prepared to do whatever it takes to keep families together and protect children who are otherwise at risk from alcohol, drugs, violence and sexual abuse in the streets or in the overcrowded homes of broken families.

"That's why I've got to be strong sometimes. Drugs came into my family. Separated the mother and father's family. I have to pick up the pieces, looking after the children," she says.

She is one of many women across Roebourne who do the same thing — try to keep the children safe and give them a place to sleep before sending them to school in the morning.

A town in a dark shadow

Roebourne has again made headlines for all the wrong reasons as one of the West Pilbara towns to come under the spotlight in an ongoing police investigation into child sexual abuse.

The numbers are huge. Thirty six men charged with 300 offences and 184 victims. There are scores more suspects.

Police say much of it centres on Roebourne. They know it goes on elsewhere, but the difference is that disclosures by children, young people and community members in Roebourne have allowed police to identify a very large number of victims.

 

 

 

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The drive for positive change is coming largely from the community, with authorities like the Department of Child Protection highlighting the courage of people who have come forward to tell of their abuse.

But the numbers have shocked people in the town, some who say they had no idea this was happening. Some still don't know who was allegedly involved, with cases before the courts and names suppressed.

Others are reluctant to accept the scale of abuse reported, and wonder why their town keeps being singled out when police and child protection authorities say Roebourne's problems are not unique.

It is an extremely raw and sensitive issue, and not one people are keen to talk about, especially to media who are often seen as painting an entirely negative picture of Roebourne.

But there is also an acceptance something has gone very wrong and there is a need to heal the community — to help children and families through the trauma, and to work out where to go from here.

Ngarluma elder Josie Sampson is a strong voice in the community for children's safety.

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"We are going through pain, but it also brings fear to the community as well. And trusting — who can you really trust as well?" elder Josie Samson said.

Her mother Violet knew exposing the paedophiles in the town would tear families apart, but it had to be done.

"They do need to be punished, even if it's our own families doing it," Violet Samson said.

They need to be punished for doing the wrong thing to our children in this community.

The ties that bind

In a town of some 2,000 people, most families are connected in some way and the impact of child abuse is widespread.

Nellie Connors, another Ngarluma elder, warned there could be repercussions.

"If it's a family member that's actually doing it, the other family members will go around and it will be a big chaos," Ms Connors said.

"So those are things we've got to keep in mind. We're all saddened about what actually happened here but we've got to be mindful of the safety of our community and other family members as well."

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According to former police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan — who advocates introducing a cashless welfare card quarantining 80 per cent of welfare payments as a "circuit breaker" to the social problems — a lot of the offences were committed by perpetrators who paid children cash for sex, with alcohol and drugs thrown in the mix.

But that is hotly contested by some members of the community, like local documentary film maker and father Tyson Mowarin.

Roebourne filmmaker Tyson Mowarin maintains the situation is not as bad as made out in Roebourne.

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"That's a sensational headline that will scare a lot of people," he said.

"I live here, I've lived here for long time. I've never heard of that sort of stuff.

"That's bullshit. Personally, I don't think kids are that desperate, not so drugged or alcohol affected, that they are going to do that. That's very insulting.

That's insulting to the kids to think they are so mentally unstable that they would do that to themselves.

Mr Mowarin rejects Mr O'Callaghan's comment in a recent video promoted by billionaire Andrew Forrest's Mindaroo Foundation that the streets were a "war zone".

He said that was treating Roebourne like it was still the 1970s or 1980s before the pub was shut.

He said child sexual abuse in the town was likely to happen in homes behind closed doors, where family life has disintegrated.

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The root of all evil

Pastor Marshall Smith, from the Pilbara Aboriginal Church in Roebourne, traces the breakdown of families back several generations when Aboriginal people were allowed into licensed premises, and booze and violence infiltrated family life.

The old Roebourne jail.

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Pastor Marshall, who is Ngarluma on his mother's side, said many people who were parents now did not know how to parent because they were never parented themselves.

"If our parents stopped disciplining us then, and stopped teaching us our teachings that were needing to be handed down, when I became a parent how can I pass on anything to the kids when I don't know?" he said.

"And that's what's happened, but it's over many generations now."

As a result, Ngarliyarndu Bindirri Aboriginal Corporation chairman and elder David Walker said many children felt safer on the streets than in overcrowded homes where alcohol and drugs were rife.

Ngarluma elder David Walker says there is overcrowding and alcohol in some homes, leading children to walk around the streets at night.

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"They walk around and look for safety, somewhere safe to go, especially at night," Mr Walker said.

"You can't go to a place that is crowded with alcohol.

"Parents are not doing what they're supposed to be doing."

But the streets can be just as dangerous, and children are falling prey to predators.

And, like in other communities, exposing the horror inflicted upon them is made harder because the children are terrified and sometimes groomed by their abusers into remaining quiet.

It could be the children were ashamed, didn't know who to talk to, didn't know who to trust," Josie Samson said.

"They just didn't know how to bring it out I guess. It was shameful, … the perpetrator could have threatened them, said: 'If you tell this to anyone I'll beat you up'."

Abuse happened under the noses of authorities

But what about the more than 60 government and non-Government agencies, including police and DCP, whose job it was to support and protect the community?

Mr O'Callaghan was unequivocal in his assessment the abuse had happened under their noses and represented "an abject failure by the State to do what it's supposed to do".

Samantha Churnside, who has married into the community and works as a senior program manager at the Ngarliyarndu Bindirri Aboriginal Corporation, said part of the problem was many people in agencies came for 12-18 months and moved on.

But she also pointed out many of those organisations had had their funding cut, meaning there were fewer staff on the ground. That was compounded, she said, by a historical distrust of Government agencies, like the Department of Child Protection, which was associated with taking children away.

"Trust gets developed, a bond gets developed. You need to put in a lot of time working and gaining the trust of Aboriginal people," she said.

The rehabilitation of trust

For many years, there was no trust between police and the community in Roebourne.

The Victoria Hotel, a derelict building in the centre of Roebourne.

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The relationship was long framed by the death in custody of 16-year-old John Pat, who died in 1983 in the town's lock-up after a fight with police outside the now-derelict Victoria Hotel.

But in a remarkable turnaround, local police in Roebourne — led by the widely respected officer-in-charge, Senior Sergeant Gemma Hennigan — have dramatically improved relations.

For several years now, Senior Sergeant Hennigan and her team have worked closely with the community, going to the regular Elder's Yarns meetings to discuss issues, engaging youth liaison officers and generally being seen around town.

They, and DCP staff, have built a strong relationship of trust with the community, to the point where people are now coming forward with information and disclosures on child sexual abuse.

Police declined to be interviewed by the ABC, but it is understood this is a model they want to copy in other towns as their investigation into child sexual abuse continues across the Pilbara.

From the darkness, back to the light

The sun rises near Roebourne in the WA Pilbara.

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Part of their work involves going to the Roebourne PCYC on Wednesday and Friday nights, when a Safe Space program provides activities, food and someone to talk to for up to 90 local children, including victims of sex abuse.

Roebourne PCYC manager Samantha Cornthwaite runs a safe space program for local children in the evenings.

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Youth workers from the local community are there to identify children at risk, and PCYC manager Samantha Cornthwaite said they regularly reported to authorities children they believed had been abused.

The program helped children get to know police officers and feel they could confide in them.

Ms Cornthwaite said it was also keeping children out of trouble.

"We have had quotes from young people, saying, 'I'm tired now miss. I want to go home, I'm full now I'm going to go home'," she said.

So there's no better outcome than the young person going home after engaging in a positive activity rather than on the streets burglarising or smoking.

The community has also devised its own plan to better protect its children and address the town's problems.

Named the 6718 Advantage Plan, after Roebourne's post code, it brings together local people, government and not-for-profit groups to close the disadvantage gap in the town.

It seeks to replace what is seen as the duplication, inefficiency and complexity of current services through a coordinated effort that better responds to problems identified by the community.

There is little support to be found for the cashless welfare card as a way of reducing harm, with backing for alcohol restrictions seen as a more effective measure.

Ngarluma elder Pansy Hicks says there is a lot of talk but no action for the children of Roebourne.

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We would like to see change in the community," elder Pansy Hicks said. "It's got to happen. We want action.

Elders want more housing and a community-run safe house with support services for children to stay overnight and escape domestic violence and abuse.

Ngarliyarndu elder Violet Samson believes a proper safe house should be established in Roebourne for vulnerable children.

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A safe house for them, where they can be safe at night, (rather than) laying in other peoples home drugged up, where they can be touched or anything," Violet Samson said.

And there is a push to teach young people about their culture through dance programs, painting centres, and cultural tourism, to promote a sense of belonging and identity that has been lost to many.

There are also programs to support and teach new mothers, family counselling resources and a rehabilitation and detox centre.

The DCP has set up a recovery group to support abused children and their families, with counselling to deal with the emotional impact, and information on how to keep safe.

Staff also work with schools and other agencies in the child's life to try and ensure no further harm is done and create a sense of safety in the community.

Pastor Marshall, who teaches young people to make boomerangs and other traditional artefacts, is optimistic about Roebourne's future.

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There's no giving up, you know," he said. "And that's got to be the heart of Roebourne, don't give up even though it looks like it's chaos for us.

"There's good people around, there's lots of good people. Even those that are in chaos, they are good people.

"They are caught in something they cannot get out of, and they need other people to help them to see that."

The sun rises, resembling the Aboriginal flag, over the landscape near Roebourne in the WA Pilbara.

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Credits

• Reporter: Nicolas Perpitch
• Photos: Robert Koenig-Luck and Nicolas Perpitch
• Video: Robert Koenig-Luck
• Producer: Liam Phillips