We have questions to answer, Australia. Questions about who we are as a people, what behaviour we expect and accept from our leaders and how we address the abuse of individual and societal civil rights. Aboriginal deaths in custody is a touch point for a bigger issue – the ongoing racism experienced by people look and/or identify as First Nations.
Why is a woman in Victoria left unattended in her cell calling for help, ignored and found dead the next morning in 2020?
How was a prisoner in the custody of Western Australian Corrective Services in 2019 so severely battered that he died just under two weeks later with head and neck injuries?
Why after a man is shot is an ambulance delayed in 2019 in the Northern Territory, resulting in his death.
How does a man in the custody of Corrective Services NSW die by falling 10 metres in the transition between Gosford Hospital and the Kariong Correctional Centre in 2019? Why in 2018 did they ignore the cries of other inmates in Windsor for at least 20 minutes costing the life of a 19 year old man from asthma?What compels them to shackle a man to his bed in 2017 who ultimately dies of a brain haemorrhage? Why did they ignore the protests of a man being restrained by them in 2015 who complained that he couldn’t breathe?
Black Lives Matter protests across Australia this weekend was about the lives of these men and women, but it was also about so much more. Yes, they are protests in solidarity with African-Americans protesting after the death of George Floyd, but to view the massive marches in the major capitals and regional areas solely through the lens of Deaths in Custody is to miss the underlying message. If we don’t arrest the current surge of nationalism and pseudo-Christian supremacy, the deaths will again rise.
There have been multiple voices decrying the protests, arguing that they risk a spike in coronavirus infections. All the facemasks, hand sanitizer and attempts at distancing won’t be enough, they say. But two weeks ago, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers marched in their thousands in multiple cities without the same concerns or attempts to stop their protests by police in Sydney. The Prime Minster himself stated that “It’s a free country” after the anti-vax protests, but displayed his standard hypocrisy when he asked people not to protest for #BLM. The underlying premise of the PMs thinking is disgusting and reinforces the subtle racism at the highest levels of government.
First Nations Australians comprise just 2.4% of the population by represent 28% of those incarcerated. It’s the highest rate in the world. A First Nations person in Australia is 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than an African –American in the USA. So whilst the rate of death among Aboriginal Australians decreased, the number of incarcerated individuals has increased by 41% in the space of the ten years to 2016. For every one First Nations man there are 1.6 First Nations women deprived of her liberty. An ATSI woman is 21 times more likely to be incarcerated than a non-ATSI woman.
If we assume 43,000 incarcerations, then 12,040 of those people will be First Nations. Between the, they will have 77,00 children, children without a parent who will go on to struggle to find work and support his family.
By any comparison these statistics are damning of Australia’s response to Closing the Gap. The Guardian’s Deaths Inside monitors the causes of death and progress of inquests regarding First Nations deaths in custody. What it does not do is list the reasons for incarceration. Blak and black has previously reported on the inequities in arrest and sentencing. There is ample evidence that the law is not even handed in its practices for people of all backgrounds. Black Lives Matter is about much more than just deaths in custody. It’s about equality, about addressing the historical disproportions in the applications of rights so that those families who had not opportunity to advance are provided with the opportunity to do so now.
Black Lives in Australia have been defrauded of their wages, land and rights for over two centuries. It’s past time for Australia to correct over two hundred years of disadvantage and to come to the table with the genuine intent to rectify over two hundred years of inequality and racism.
