The Dogs at Engawala

As I sat there listening to the yelling and screaming coming from the community, I wondered, not for the first time why the Aboriginal Communities in Central Australia became so bad. While there is a lot to understand about the past, how they could become, essentially ghettos where there an outsider, and I might even guess a resident, never can feel truly safe. This afternoon I went for a walk around the community I saw this first hand. The first house I passed had obscenities painted on the wall of the house. This appeared to be a family home with children’s toys in the front yard and a bit of a garden. The washing was hung along the front verandah of the house and for all intents and purposes it appeared an average house. I soon came to see that while painting swear words on the wall was by no means the norm, there were some that appeared to be a lot worse. A few more houses down I came to another, which I first thought mustn’t be occupied. It had boarded up windows, holes in the front block work, rubbish scattered across the yard and peeling paint as far as the eye could see. However, this one was certainly occupied as from out of nowhere several dogs came running out to me barking away. The door opened and a man appeared yelling at the dogs. Another man came from around the other side of the house and did the same. The dogs retreated back to the verandah, keeping their eyes on me all the way.

As I did a circle of the community I noticed that there were many dogs in the community. Most houses appeared to have 5 or 6 with some having what seemed upwards of 15. Some were quietly sitting around the house in the afternoon sun not batting an eyelid at me walking past, others were up and barking as soon as they heard my clomping steps. The dogs are a mixed bunch. Some are aggressive, some submissive, some chase you and others run away whenever anyone comes too close. After walking about halfway round the community I saw a woman throwing a chair at a dog and at another house several dogs attacking another dog with painful yelping coming from somewhere in the blur of bodies. I did not go close. There was nothing that I could do. What may have happened if I had tired to intervene was highlighted just a few more houses down. It was a large black dog. Surprisingly it had a collar around its neck unlike most of the dogs on the community. This dog wasn’t happy. More precisely, wasn’t happy to see me so close to its home. It came out barking and stopped several meters away, its teeth bared, a low growl resonating from somewhere within its bony frame. Nothing happened of course. I moved away from it walking in the grass by the side of the road as I passed the house it was in front of. It advanced on me several times however each time I turned around and started to advance on it yelling, it backed off. As I passed the house and made my way further down the road away from the dog I could still hear it barking and growling away. I’ll admit it certainly was a scary moment.

You never know with dogs on community. Some a friendly, others seem like they would love to rip a chunk out of your leg and then finish you off as you fall to the ground. I never know what a community dog is thinking when I see it no matter what size it is. There are trained dogs and there are wild dogs each living side by side one another. There is nothing wrong with either, each reacting to the way it was brought up which shaped it into what I saw as I wandered around. You can’t judge any dog for doing what it does. That is how it is. You can however try to retrain it. It is my first trip to Engawala however I think I’ll remember it for the dogs.