THE AGE `Welcome to pain, welcome to sadness ...' By DENNIS SCHULZ GROOTE EYLANDT Saturday 26 February 2000 It was the final chapter in a young, sad life. A white Toyota four-wheel-drive carried the body of the 15-year-old to the church and he was laid to rest among the gum trees near a swollen creek in the tropical heat of Groote Eylandt. More than 200 mourners sat in the shade outside the Angurugu Anglican Church, listening to the service as a didgeridoo played. The boy's suicide in a Darwin juvenile detention centre has sparked debate from Canberra to the United Nations in New York about the rights and wrongs of mandatory sentencing. The boy, whose first name is being withheld to observe Aboriginal custom, was serving a 28-day sentence for stealing pens and paint and breaking some windows. His funeral marked the end of a week in which discussion of the NT Government's controversial policy of giving the courts no choice but to impose jail sentences for property crimes turned bitter. His grandfather, Murabuda Warramarrba, summed up the day. "Welcome to pain, welcome to sadness, welcome to grief," he said. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
