Rally against custody deaths: ‘They can’t keep taking our children’
“It has to stop”, demanded Diane Gregory, speaking at a Perth rally against Aboriginal deaths in custody on 23 October. “They can’t keep taking our children and our husbands and our fathers and our grandfathers.” Her niece, 22-year-old Aboriginal woman Ms Dhu, died in custody on 4 August after being denied proper medical treatment.
The rally, numbering 300, marched to parliament house. In a national mobilisation, hundreds more joined similar protests in most other capital cities and the towns of Geraldton and Port Hedland. Protesters expressed outrage over the death of Ms Dhu, who had been imprisoned for an unpaid fine and had complained of pain, necessitating three hospital visits while she was locked up.
Aboriginal deaths in custody are on the rise in WA. The rally heard that there had been another death the night before the protest. In WA’s Casuarina prison, a 31-year-old Aboriginal man allegedly hung himself in his cell. More than 20 years ago, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended the removal of all hanging points in prisons. Most of the commission’s 338 recommendations have not been implemented; those that have been have been done only partially or only in some locations. “There’s been 340 deaths since the Royal Commission”, protest organiser Vanessa Culbong told Red Flag.
Speakers condemned WA’s appalling record of locking up Indigenous people. “Last night one in 14 Aboriginal men in this state were in prison”, said Aboriginal activist Jim Morrison. “That would add up to 140 prisons if white men were locked up at the same rate.” WA’s Aboriginal incarceration rate is the highest in Australia, and nine times higher than that for Blacks in apartheid South Africa.
When premier Colin Barnett appeared on the steps of parliament, there was a turbulent response. He was confronted by an angry crowd. Ms Dhu’s mother, Della Roe, demanded to know why her daughter had died; Barnett had no answer. He eventually addressed the crowd, claiming the two most recent deaths were a “complicated issue” and that the police would investigate.
Red Flag asked prominent Indigenous activist Marianne Mackay what she thought of Barnett’s speech. “He basically didn’t say anything, even though he spoke for 15 minutes”, she said. “How is it complicated? It’s complicated because the government has failed once again.”
No WA police officer has ever been charged for a death in custody. “There’s been police investigations of all deaths in custody, and the result is always the same”, Culbong said.
On why Aboriginal imprisonment rates are so high, Mackay identifies the government’s agenda of stealing and exploiting Aboriginal land. “They see the land as part of the economy. The prisons are just a replacement for the missions, to segregate us and wipe us out”, she said.
Protest organisers demanded Indigenous control of Indigenous affairs, and remained determined to fight institutionalised racism. The criminal justice system has already claimed hundreds of Aboriginal lives. Deaths in Custody Watch Committee chair Marc Newhouse said the campaign would continue until the deaths stop.
