The Northern Territory juvenile detention scandal is beginning to impact on the referendum to recognise Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the Constitution.Many Territorians are starting to push back against the royal commission into the Giles government's detention record and policies saying guards at the Don Dale Centre were dealing with difficult teenagers who are part of an out-of-control wave of petty crime.But protesters at a weekend rally at Darwin's Raintree Park supporting change to the judicial system said they feared renewed polarisation following the Four Corners report would harm the referendum's chances of passing."They're talking how the plebiscite on same -sex marriage may hurt gays, well how do you think we're going to feel if the referendum fails?" said one Tiwi Islander, who wished to remain anonymous."Look at the way they are saying the stuff at Don Dale is OK."And what about Pauline [Hanson]? She thinks all Australians are the same. Will she support Aboriginals and Islanders being recognised? 
 You'd have to wonder it that referendum can get voted through."The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Mick Gooda???, told the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land that Australia was not ready for the referendum and the process needed to be slowed down."I'm the one who was out there saying we've got to push," he said. "Our first round of consultations tells us we've got to ease up a bit." "I don't think we're going to get anywhere near the 27th of   May next year as the date for the referendum, although there was some symmetry, being 50 years after the 1967 referendum."We've got to get it right; we can't focus on getting it right now."The Recognise movement's outgoing campaign director Tanya Hosch??? said work on the referendum has had to operate in an unprecedented atmosphere of political upheaval over the past four years."We've had so many reasons to lack faith, to lose hope, to feel defeated, to be pushed and pulled and try to protect some basic rights, and yet we're asking people to come together in a magnanimous way to work with every side of politics in the country, because that's what's required, to find something we all agree on," she said."I refuse to think we can't have constitutional change, that we can't have settlements and agreements."The issue of a treaty, or makarrata, was raised by some Aboriginal leaders at Garma but Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion, while happy to talk about it, preferred to support constitutional change and he was optimistic about the referendum."The recognitions of individual nations are part of the respect we need to show our first Australians," Senator Scullion said.Labor Senator Patrick Dodson joined Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's call for two Indigenous co-commissioners to be appointed to the royal commission to ensure that Commissioner Brian Martin had Aboriginal input into his investigations and balance his long history involved in Territory law and order issues as the Chief Justice."Justice has to be done and has to be seen to be down," Senator Dodson said.After taking flak all week over the Four Corner's revelations - the Chief Minister Adam Giles returned to the election campaign trail at Garma, announcing that his Country Liberal Party government had provided $400,000 funding to a film, High Ground, starring Guy Pearce, David Gulpilil and Jack Thompson."Set in the 1920s in Arnhem Land, High Ground will highlight the more confronting experiences in the Northern Territory's history," Mr Giles said."This is an important story that needs to be told, not just for the Northern Territory but Australia wide."Meanwhile the Sunday Territorian editorial told readers "Life will go on despite heartache".To prove it, the newspaper put a photograph of a giant crocodile on its front page.