Struggling for democracy in remote Australian islands

People power may be possible in democratic regions with self-rule, but people in some of Australasia’s remoter places struggle to get their voices heard. On the latest leg of my #ddworltour I got the opportunity to visit the secluded Tiwi islands, part of Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) isolated from the mainland. There is no jetty in Wurrumiyanga. “Be careful when jumping onto the beach, and mind the crocodiles,” urges the captain of the small SeaLink Ferry which brought us across the Timor Sea from Darwin, Australia. We are a small group of visitors including a team of footy players, who jump one by one onto the beach of the Tiwi capital. Footy is the Australian version of American football, with rules that are incomprehensible to this #ddworldtour notebook writer but are nevertheless my entry ticket to an unknown world. A few times a year the very strict entry rules are waved for non-Tiwis when the local footy team, the Tiwi Bombers, are hosting another team in the local ...