For years the Salvation Army has run an addiction recovery centre service for Indigenous men in Alice Springs. However, the program seemed to have limited success. That was until 2019 when they asked a local First Nations service to come on board. The collaboration has seen dramatic results.
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00:00 For Tyrone Lynch, it's been a long path out of addiction.
00:06 Pretty much out of nowhere, you know.
00:08 Where do you go when you've got nowhere to go?
00:11 Battling alcoholism for years, the Arinda and Amidjira men
00:15 eventually found freedom through Red Dust,
00:18 an Aboriginal-led service providing culturally safe healing
00:22 for Indigenous men in Alice Springs.
00:25 I got to release myself from the baggage I had on my back.
00:29 But the program hasn't always looked this way.
00:32 For about a decade, it was operated by the local Salvation Army
00:36 with limited success.
00:38 We noticed that we weren't having a huge uptake in that program
00:44 and something really had to change.
00:46 In 2019, the Salvos approached Red Dust,
00:50 asking if they'd be keen to partner up
00:52 and help turn the program into a culturally safe space.
00:56 Suddenly, their clients surged from seven a year to 30 in a single month.
01:01 And it's kept rising, with hundreds of men engaging in the years since.
01:06 We provide a place where people feel safe,
01:09 where fellas have the opportunity to share their knowledge
01:13 and have that valued.
01:15 Today, the program runs yarning circles, camps and elder groups,
01:20 all focused on building a man's sense of cultural identity,
01:24 strengthening his family life and helping him find meaningful work.
01:28 All of our men, including myself, have all been clients of our program,
01:32 but also now success stories of our program
01:34 because we've offset our suffering with meaning and engagement
01:38 and joy and passion.
01:41 Now, Tyrone hopes his experience can help other men heal.
01:45 If I can do something to get them off it,
01:48 or make them not go down that road in the first place,
01:51 then I'll do it.
01:52 Looking to the future, Red Dust hopes to keep expanding the program
01:56 so more men from across Central Australia can find freedom from addiction.
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