Dean Wickliffe: From the Badlands.

First time I've watched one of Nigel Latta's 'Badlands' shows but did so with particular interest because of the subject Dean Wickliffe someone who I know fairly well. First off, I'll admit I was surprised by the quality and presentation of the show which had a title 'Badlands' evoking perceptions of sensationalism. Not the case at all.

I knew part of the DW story from both reading about and knowing the man fairly well. I knew about his tough childhood but not the extent of it. I'd no idea about his late father being a returned serviceman, and like for many others of my age there would have been characteristics  recognised for those who had fathers who returned from war changed men, often noticeably changed from once having been happy go lucky, or outgoing, to being introverted. Certainly not a universal situation but one which will be recognised by quite a few, the booze and violence - together or singularly. If we call those returned soldiers the first generation, and those of DW's time, the second, there is an argument that the first passed onto the second problems, again not in all cases -  but in some.

From Nigel Latta's explanation, along with personal experiences, it is easily argued that during the time of Dean's childhood it wasn't well  appreciated that youngsters were absorbing patterns and information that would be with them for the rest of their lives in most circumstances. Hopefully today's generations accept more readily that a 4 or 5 year old that sees his or her mother beaten or abused in someway has to 'adjust' to an enormous horror and in lots of cases absorbs silently something few may escape. The message that violence is king, that violence is acceptable even if very awful and frightening. As one of DW's friends said it was the norm and not much spoken about. Some may think that I am gravitating toward excuses but I'm not. I'm looking at something written about by Steinbeck where he described how child hood heroes when they fall, fall mightily and what might become a child who has seen his or her protector reduced to fallen among the debris of a life once considered to be great and all protecting.

I'm also looking at the failure of one generation, not blame of course - because these were men returned from unspeakable horror with a mind crossed over by what they'd seen and often worried about what they'd come home to and how they would cope. Many of course didn't cope well, and we see them  now as the generation that didn't say much. Virtually a generation that were given no help to come to terms with their time at war. We weren't in those times much fussed about the horrors that had gone on and perhaps were unable to fully appreciate that much like, for a 4 or 5 year old DW, things were buried within minds and replayed often, in some cases without control. Many returned servicemen and women did cope remarkably well, apparently able to understand that the messages given to youngsters was important, for after all it was those youngsters and generations to come who were fought for. The very reason why many of us admired these men and in some cases feared them from understanding they were those among us who had literally killed, in many cases, despite being now dressed in a suit and apparently no different outwardly than the next man.

From the show we discovered that DW's father drank at home. Probably because of the fact that being Maori he wasn't allowed to drink in the pubs along with this white brothers in arms, perhaps feeling he wasn't good enough, or trusted, despite putting his life on the line for his own country. So it would be fair to say a lot was contained within DW's father which he unfortunately expressed in such a way that the wrong message was absorbed by at least one of his children, who from the show, we know was beaten, along with his poor mother, for whatever it might be a 4 or 5 year old could do wrong to deserve the fists of his father.

So Dean eventually drifted off and found himself inside D Block, described for many years, as the end of the road. Nobody we could assume could hurt your feelings in D Block without giving you the opportunity to strike back at some point. If feelings were an issue Dean was safe there, nobody could hurt him or send him further down the road of which he'd already reached the end. I should say now that escaping D Block once, let alone twice, ranks as a superhuman feat. DW spoke about the buzz of it and the training he did in advance. The buzz of accomplishment. Something overlooked by more than a life time of being involved with authorities as a prisoner. D Block is for intractables, those that might be described as unable to be aided in anyway. I think that was a point Nigel Latta was making that despite 40 years inside, the prison system hadn't been able to deal with one man and questioned the point of it all. DW's fight against his murder conviction is fairly well known, and finally the charge was reduced to manslaughter but the sentenced remained the same. Was  DW the only party with an intractable logic or had the system failed to show enterprise and leadership in a case that clearly was close below the hardened surface Dean presented to the world.

I recall somebody on the show talking about Dean being isolated outside, no longer the 'big fish' in Parry with the 'prestige. of 2 escapes behind him and the longest serving D Block prisoner. The recognition of that is also a recognition of where Dean needed assistance on his few releases from prison. His sister said that Dean needed help from somebody perhaps who had walked in his steps. I'm not sure if my memory is correct but I believe Dean has a daughter and obviously has spent little or no time when her on the 'outside.' Her story is another of interest, a son isolated from his father by war, in turn isolating himself from his own daughter by prison. That's about where I want to make a point - the 'handing on.'

DW's greatest challenge was to avoid doing what his dad had been unable to do, a challenge it would seem greater than the high concrete walls of D Block, that of not passing on problems, of being bitter and resolute only enough not to dwell on what can't be changed and accept the 'gift' of making one's own decision. However dire the circumstances, not to pass on hate or turmoil - but rather to pass on love. There may be no place in D Block for love but we saw there was a place in Dean's heart for the love he found with his late partner. Dean would have been smashed to bits more than once in solitary confinement and reacted with his life long armour: hate. Each of those baton blows he may have identified with, because he had understood them from the age of 4 or 5 and would not cower. It was no longer  his father raining blows upon him but a system that could not bend him, not a system that might step back realising that Dean Wickliffe has never succumbed to hate or mistreatment but met it with his own.