THE EXILE

I don't claim to be guilty 

But I do understand 

There's a Law, there's an Arm, there's a Hand 

- Leonard Cohen "The Law"

THE EXILE by Whispering Jack

Liam Jurrah's exile began when his flight landed at Melbourne Airport yesterday afternoon. An elder of the community of Yuendumu caught both within and between different cultures, he stands charged by the law of the land with unlawfully causing serious harm and being armed with an offensive weapon at night after an alleged machete attack left a relative in hospital with serious head injuries.

The charges will be dealt with at a future time but it must be remembered that nothing alleged has yet been proven and it has been reported that Jurrah has told Melbourne Football Club officials that he did not commit the assault.

One thing that is certain is that Liam Jurrah will spend the coming months living in a place far removed from the home and the community which was central to his being for the first two decades of his life. 

Three years ago, he moved out of the desert to undertake an AFL career, an endeavour that had the full support of his elders who decreed that he was doing so "on Warlpiri business". We don't know whether he will complete the task but that is only part of what has become a tragic story for the player and his troubled community.

For Jurrah's part, the physical and mental challenges that faced him were already daunting when he and another man from his tribe entered the Little Sisters Town camp in the remote Yuendumu community on Wednesday night but today they must seem almost insurmountable. 

His injured wrist will heal over time but Jurrah also has to contend with new systems introduced at the football club requiring a different style of game. It is still unclear as to whether he can adapt to those changes even without the emotional issues swirling in a background of unresolved conflicts among his own people far away in the remote desert settlement from which he has now been banished. 

The club and the player also need to deal with allegations that the events over which he was charged were fueled by alcohol. One would expect a player in rehabilitation to refrain from alcohol and if the allegations are true, this raises a team discipline issue that needs to be addressed - a matter requiring more than a modicum of wisdom given the cultural boundaries to be traversed in dealing with facts and issues and observing the various laws at play. Not the least of these is the powerful law that drives Liam Jurrah and is paramount to the people of his tribe and of who he is now an elder in exile.

There's a Law, there's an Arm and there's a Hand.