Self-determination for Australia’s First Nations people is the “unfinished business” that must be addressed nationally to prevent Indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice system and deaths in custody, NSW’s top coroner has said in a call to action.
More than 455 Indigenous people have died in custody since the report was released on April 15, 1991. This includes the deaths of five First Nations people in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia in the four weeks between March 2 and April 3. Taylah Gray, proud Wiradjuri woman, lawyer and PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle, is a vocal advocate for change.“What good is a royal commission if it’s just promises written in the sand?” Ms Gray said. “First and foremost, stop locking black people up.“We are not an inherently criminal people. We have been trying to survive ever since colonisers set foot on this land and declared that their sovereignty sits above ours.
Limiting police powers was also vital, Ms Gray said. She had sat in a cell with “an 18-year-old boy who’s been kicked out of his home with a drug addiction and he’s been locked up for stealing food”.
Coroners are the problem. They refuse to hold police and correctional staff responsible
Yet not per capita where non-indigenous are more likely to die in custody.
Bottom line is our establishment ethos just doesn't care. They lowered the Aboriginal flag to half mast for the shocking racist Prince Philip. Says everything about our priorities.