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<\/p>\nGaliwin’ku residents say a teenage girl who was killed in an alleged domestic violence murder in the remote Northern Territory community earlier this month was a “sweet”, “gentle” person who was “more than a statistic”.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old girl, who cannot be named for cultural reasons, was found dead in a home on Elcho Island, 500 kilometres east of Darwin, on July 6, from what police allege were blunt force injuries.<\/p>\n
Jordan Garrawurra, 34, has since been charged with her murder, with police alleging they were in a “domestic relationship” at the time of her death.<\/p>\n
The East Arnhem Regional Council has since united local authority members across the region to urge family and community members to call out domestic violence.<\/p>\n
‘Sweet’ girl remembered<\/p>\n
Ganygulpa Dhurrkay, a family member of the girl who died, says her loss has left her devastated.\u00a0 (Supplied: East Arnhem Regional Council)<\/p>\n
East Arnhem Regional Council member Ganygulpa Dhurrkay said the girl was “more than a statistic, more than a number”, she was a family member.<\/p>\n
“I though these were just things that happen in movies but it’s not,” she said.<\/p>\n
“She was only a girl and that hurts so much.<\/p>\n
“When I was shown a photo of her, I remembered her, I know her.<\/p>\n
“She was beautiful, her smile; when I saw the photo that was shown to me, I just couldn’t hold back, I screamed ‘no, not her’.<\/p>\n
“I used to visit her grandmother’s bigger sister, we are cousins, [and] she used to be hanging around that place \u2014 I was so devastated.<\/p>\n
“She was sweet, gentle.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The community of Galiwin’ku is in mourning for the girl. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n
Council Deputy President Stephen Dhamarrandji has been in Galiwin\u2019ku since the girl\u2019s death and said the community, especially the school, had been in mourning.<\/p>\n
“The school [had] the smoking ceremony because this was her last year to finish\u00a0year 12,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The family at the moment are having the silent grieving, but they are showing the love that overflows from their heart.”<\/p>\n
‘No more, not on my watch’<\/p>\n
Council President Lapulung Dhamarrandji is one of three councillors who are urging local authority members from across the region to help stamp out domestic violence in the wake of the tragedy.<\/p>\n
“We need to bring that awareness that it will never happen again in the lives of our own people,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We need to preserve our young people, our next generation, heart to heart, soul to soul, by taking care and respecting each other.”<\/p>\n
At the recent meetings with local authorities, the councillors called on residents to speak up against domestic violence when they saw it.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Lapulung Dhamarrandji says communities in the region need to take care of their young people. (Supplied: East Arnhem Regional Council)<\/p>\n
Ms Dhurrkay said locals could no longer afford to keep waiting for someone else to solve the problem.<\/p>\n
“I was so hurt and angry, but also feeling this is no time to just be sad and cry and say that nothing would happen, no,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
“To say no more, not on my watch.<\/p>\n
“We can rise up to this giant.<\/p>\n
“It’s time to do action, it’s time to say no more will I put it under the carpet.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Family and domestic violence support services:<\/p>\n
If you need help immediately, call emergency services on Triple Zero (000).<\/p>\n
Mr Dhamarrandji said the East Arnhem community, as well as the wider Australian community, needed to promote respect.<\/p>\n
“We, as the members of the community, the family, we have to stand up and find the solution, find the best [way] we can make a pathway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“We all have a role to play.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Galiwin’ku residents say a teenage girl who was killed in an alleged domestic violence murder in the remote…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61985,24046,22,21,2717,4841,8852,61984,61983,1938,30310],"class_list":["post-58387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-17-year-old-death","tag-arnhem-land","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-death","tag-domestic-violence","tag-dv","tag-dv-death","tag-galiwinku-death","tag-northern-territory","tag-tribute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}