“I acknowledge my mother, and if she was around, I know she would be very proud of me and others as well”
This year Gurindji Elder Charlie King OAM won the 2023 Northern Territory NAIDOC Awards Male Elder of the Year for his tireless work as an advocate and founder of the No More campaign and initiative working towards reducing and preventing the prevalence of domestic and family violence across the Northern Territory.
The award came as a surprise to Charlie King and he says it felt very special to receive the Male Elder of the Year for the work he has done.
“I acknowledge my mother, and if she was around, I know she would be very proud of me and others as well,’ he says ‘ I know it’s special, I don’t make any bones about that I know it’s a special award and I’ll treasure it forever.”
Charlie King works as a sports commentator for the ABC and on his days off he continues to work in the family and domestic violence space with the NO More AU initiative. He says life wouldn’t be the same if he stopped working. He says by combining sports and raising awareness on domestic and family violence prevention it allows for him to reach out to more people in remote communities.
Charlie shares the important story on how he first started to travel through remote communities to talk about pornography with men and it was because they knew him from his work in sports the men would show up to see him and that was a good way to connect and talk about the issues.
He says since 2016 the program is being tweaked to fit in with what is happening in each community. “I can’t stand organisations that connect to the communities but don’t empower to take responsibility.”
He talks fondly of the Walpiri men and Mr Jakamarra Nelson (deceased) a senior Walpiri man from Yuendumu who he spoke with about the issues of family and domestic violence across Australia. Jakamarra laid down the law and shook his finger and said NO MORE, NO MORE! Charlie says he understood what that meant. Another Senior Walpiri man Mr Ned Hargraves said ‘all men should link up’. These messages initiated the No More Campaign to Family Violence and the beginning of football teams linking arms when they ran onto the ground to make a stand against family and domestic violence.
“Pride in the tribe, I think there’s an answer there, there’s so many great tribes, stand up and be proud of who we are”.
The biggest barrier Charlie King faces is that there is only enough funding for the NO More model to be delivered in two remote communities across the Northern Territory and his goal is for all communities to be able to have the same opportunity. He says the Closing the Gap funding does not cover his work in Men’s behavioral change and with the current inquest in the Northern Territory on family and domestic violence he has the chance to speak at the inquest and that will provide the opportunity to mention that if there was at least one person working in every community on the issue of family violence and if they were given 20 communities to work in with training they could see what ideas they come up with.
“We’ve done that work in communities before when we ask what they think should be done.”
“I think this whole model of ‘engage to empower’ I think is really important, I think that’s where the answer lies to fixing this problem,’ Kings says ‘ we’ve seen it in the past when the community has an idea and you back them up to do it, it makes a difference. They know what best works for them.”
Charlie also talks about an issue he said he spoke loudly about at last year’s NAIDOC march about people being proud of their identity.
“We’re not Aboriginal, we are not Indigenous, we are not First Nations we are what our tribe is”.
“Pride in the tribe, I think there’s an answer there, there’s so many great tribes, stand up and be proud of who we are”.
The issues of intergenerational poverty and racism are contributing factors to stress in the communities that can lead to the use of violence in families.
Charlie says people understand the insult of racism and they are yet to discover a way to deal with it and move on, they pack it away and it sits there, and they get frustrated, and they get angry and see red.
Behavioural change looks at those issues and changing the way how they see things and respond including jealously self-esteem and control.
It’s got to be seen for what it is, it’s a lack of respect.”
Charlie says change is coming but it’s coming in slowly and more work needs to be done in the broader community and in schools for young people to learn about healthy relationships.
“I’d like in my time to see a difference and I’m putting out a call for help”.
He says changes in the system and institutionalised gender-based violence needs a big commitment and that includes what has been happening behind closed doors in parliament.
‘It’s got to be seen for what it is, it’s a lack of respect.”
“I’d like in my time to see a difference and I’m putting out a call for help”.
“Where are the ideas?’ he says ‘where are the strong people to come forward and stand up and take this problem and make a real difference.”
