Sleep Out

Well, last Friday night about a dozen of us slept on the church lawns on Todd Mall in the centre of Alice. We did so to protest a buch of proposed Council By Laws which plan to ban people from sleeping on Todd River, confiscate and dispose of their sleeping items, and fine beggars (now there’s a good idea!!). It’s important to note that ALice has a terrible accommodation shortage and lots of people have to come in from remote communities for a range of reasons , including health care, going to court etc. It was an intersting evening. There was a bigger bunch of us who sat there earlier in the evening but then about half left before it was time to settle in for the night. We had some great placards asking for compassion, including “Begging for Respect” (which Martin wrote).  A lot of people approached us and sat down and talked to us, particularly aboriginal people. They would come up to us and ask where we were from and tell us their name and where they were from and tell us about their country and ask what we were doing. Most had no idea about the propsed by laws, despite plenty of publicity. Most were from out of town with nowhere to stay except to camp on the river bed. It was interesting just hanging there on a Friday night watching what happened. Some of it not so pretty - there was drunkenness and one fight between 2 women, one who was obviously pregnant.  However, I have to say, on the whole, it was a really nice vibe. One couple who seemed to be new migrants even offered for us all to come to their place for somewhere to sleep thinking we were from out of town with nowhere to stay.  A bunch of aboriginal people wanted to sleep with us that night. We lent them blankets and in the morning they all got up and left all the blankets. No one took anything, no one hassled us… not even the police, who just went past. The security guards kept a pretty close eye on us but didn’t aproach us. We possibly didn’t have the best sleep we ever had - the pub closed at 2am and the street cleaners started at about 6am and the Mall remains lit all night… but it was great to do it. I really felt we made more of a connection with people in the town. Some people said they would join us if we do it again. If 4 of us weren’t going to Africa in under a week, I think we would do it again next week. I hope some others might it pick up and run with it.

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