Trouble by Kieran Finnane

Author:Kieran Finnane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Queensland Press

After a while the Ryder family were ready to speak to reporters. It continued to be extraordinary, the way they summoned the strength to do this.

‘I appreciate them’ for apologising, Therese Ryder said of the two women. ‘It sort of makes me feel satisfied. I’ve been waiting for that time, for the mothers, parents and that to come up and apologise and say sorry to me. Because I never ever blamed the families. They were at home not knowing what was happening, like me.’

She was asked why she had left the courtroom. She said she ‘couldn’t stand’ being in there any longer – ‘hearing about what happened, the story being read out about my son lying on the ground and being kicked’. About her angry comment accusing the offenders of racism, she said: ‘For a mother like me, the feeling inside me, I’d say anything.’

She also spoke of Kwementyaye: ‘There was no story read out about my son. He was a local himself, he was born here in Alice Springs, went to school here, made friends with a lot of white kids. There’s still a lot of friends out there that miss my son as a good mate. And he also was a hard-working man. He was a good young bloke, he never got in trouble with the police in his life before. That’s why I miss him so much, he was the happiest in the family, he brightened up everything for the family … the pain will go on in me for as long as I live.’

Karen Liddle was standing closely at Therese Ryder’s side and now she also spoke: ‘Myself personally I feel sad for everybody, for us, for our loss, and also for those families too, for how foolish those boys were in what they did. They ruined their lives, their families’ lives, our lives, and [now they should] just stand up and be men and do their time, for their sake and their families’ sake.44We’ve got a lot of family support and we’re just happy with the outcome today.’45

The community can learn from these events, she said: ‘We all live in this community as Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and long-term residents must stick together. We’re satisfied with what has happened. They are only young men and their sentences – they are going to spend a long time in there.’

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