Palm Island Death in Custody : Melbourne Indymedia

PALM ISLAND DEATH IN CUSTODY FACT SHEET.
Terry Coker 23/7/05

This fact sheet has been compiled in consultation with & after interview of Cameron’s wife Tracy, members of the Doomadgee family, the Aboriginal elders & leaders directly involved with the Palm Island tragedy. This document is the true story of the tragic, outrageous, & senseless death in police custody of Cameron Doomadgee. It is dedicated to his memory and in honour of this traditional Aboriginal man, and to help bring justice and uphold the dignity of Cameron as the respected & valuable member of the community that he was.

I have strived to be factual & to put the personality of Cameron back into the centre of this controversy, because the Queensland Government and police have in defense of their actions created a media side show of the riot, the tactics of the community’s Lawyers, issues of substance abuse & law and order on the Island. It is evident that Peter Beattie has pulled out all the racist stereotypes & myths about Aboriginal people in order to detract from the central issue of the brutal murder by two senior police sergeants of Cameron Doomadgee. Aboriginal leader & activist Sam Watson high lighted Beattie’s tactic by stating “Beattie keeps repeating his mantra of ‘alcohol management’, in regard to solving the problems of the Aboriginal community” and noted that Beattie’s nick-name is ‘Peter Bottle’ within the Queensland Aboriginal community (Green Left Weekly, pg 6, 9th March, 05). Through this morally bankrupt process Cameron’s integrity and that of the Aboriginal community of Palm Island has been attacked & demonized.

I therefore wish in some small way to confront these injustices, to put Cameron’s murder back on centre stage and in doing so acknowledge the courage, strength of character, honestly, integrity and graciousness of Tracy & Eric Doomadgee, the Doomadgee family, Aunty Erykah, Aunty Elizabeth, Murrandoo Yanner and all the Palm Island community I have come to know as friends and the beautiful proud Australian’s that they are.

Who was Cameron Doomadgee?
Cameron was only 36 years old, a Waanyi man his traditional name is Mulrunji Doomadgee. Cameron was a family man, the loving & proud father of 16 year old Eric and loyal & caring husband to Tracy. Tracy speaks of having a very strong bond and a deeply caring relationship with Cameron. They lived a quiet and traditional life on the Island. Tracy holding back tears said to me “…he was a good man, a traditional Waanyi man we are very close we had a good relationship he looked after me very well …I miss him, miss him a lot.”

Cameron was a traditional Waanyi man is the truest sense, a keen & competent fisherman who loved to take Eric and Eric’s young friends & relatives fishing to teach them the ways of the old people, the ancestral and traditional ways. As a Waanyi man Cameron was proud of his cultural heritage, his cultural & spiritual identity was directly linked to his connectedness to the sea and land. His family and friends state, “…He was a hunter & gatherer a traditional man”.

Cameron worked for the Palm Island Aboriginal Council (PIAC). He was also known as a valued hard working member of the Palm Island Council Development & Employment Project work force. Up to the day of his arrest he had never been in trouble with the law and had no criminal record. Elder Erykah Kyle and chairwoman of the PIAC said of Cameron’s death “…we have lost a very valuable member of our community …one of our best young men …a very good traditional man”. In a press release in reference to Cameron character and personality Cameron was described as one of the communities “…beautiful young men” (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems, ABC News Online, 4/05/05)

Cameron’s mother Ms Doris Doomadgee, a Palm Island Elder was battling cancer in the Palm Island Hospital at the time of Cameron’s death and was too ill to attend her son’s funeral sending a letter to be read at the funeral service instead. The letter spoke of her deep grief and loss of such a loving and supportive son & concluded with these words “…I will join you soon my dear son”. Doris passed away one week later and so on the eve of Christmas 16 year old Eric had lost his father and mentor while contending with the anxiety & stress of his grandmother’s illness and inevitably her passing. All this pain and suffering because of the brutal actions & racial hatred of two out of control police officers.

Cameron’s cousin Alec is a respected 4AAA Murri radio announcer in Brisbane, a gentle but strong and proud traditional man a keen hunter & a true “warrior”. Another cousin of Cameron’s is Murrandoo Yanner a strong, softly spoken, but assertive and articulate Gungalidda activist & traditional man.

The History behind this tragedy:
Palm Island is located in the Barrier Reef a two & a half hour ferry ride, 65Km’s Northeast of Townsville and was once a penal island. Most of the 3,500 residents are descendants of the Myawaygi people the traditional owners of the Island. A percentage of the Island’s population either were banished to the Island or are descendents of the 1,630 people banished to the Island when it was established as a penal mission in 1918. These people were taken to the Island because they were considered “trouble some individuals” within the colonial missions from around the country, or as a result of dispossession of their lands, culture & personal identity had strayed & broken white man’s laws once too often.

Due to the traumatic and complex social history of the Island population a minority of the Islander’s suffer from chronic substance and alcohol additions from which violence occurs. No one within the Island’s traditional Aboriginal community disputes that there are social issues & challenges of substance abuse on the Island. The community has not sat idle to these challenges and has worked hard through its concerned and caring members and through the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre to deal with these issues.

Dealing with the disaffected individuals who have substance addictions does not make policing on the Island easy. However the situation is exasperated by the attitudes of some of the officers on the Island toward Murri people & the strong racist attitudes that the senior heads of police in North Queensland maintain. Therefore there is a long & complex history of tension between the police stationed on Palm Island & the Aboriginal community. The local Murri Elders & leaders have fought an up hill battle to have their traditions, culture, & protocols respected with any amount of integrity by the local police. For many years Elder Aunty Erykah Kyle has lobbied Judy Spence the Queensland State Minister for Police, the Premier Peter Beattie, & in desperation Prime Minister John Howard to speak with her, to learn directly from the Palm Island Murri Community what measures they believe need to be taken in order to addressed the social challenges on the Island and to help ease the tension between the Indigenous community & the police. To this end Aunty Erykah traveled to Brisbane to seek an audience with Peter Beattie & his ministers only to be turned away empty-handed. Aunty Erykah also traveled to Canberra in the hope of meeting John Howard only to have the doors closed in her face, not even a ministerial representative would meet with her.

As one brave woman, a Brisbane Turribal Elder stated in the presents of the media (shortly before Cameron’s funeral) at a protest organizational meeting at the Musgrave Park Cultural Centre, “…with all Aunty Erykah efforts over the years if Beattie or Howard had only taken the time to hear her, to speak with her …it would not have come to this …Cameron would still be with us …it did not have to come to this …now maybe they will go seek her out, now maybe they will want to talk to her”.

It was reported that Sergeant Chris Hurley had a reputation amongst the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island community’s across North Queensland as a racist “…where ever Hurley has been in recent years there has been trouble …problems & tension between Murri’s & him” stated one Elder “…Any respectful & honest member of the white community could testify to similar tensions & attitudes between police officers & Murri’s in the wider community of North Queensland. As another Murri leader said “…anyone who knows anything about racial attitudes & race relations from Rockhampton to Cairns, & who has an ounce of integrity will tell you how red-necked these towns are” (Elders meeting November 04: Some of the Elders I have quoted wished to remain anonymous as they either live in Nth Queensland or work in Government departments).

It is reported that such attitudes are encouraged by senior police officers within the police force of North Queensland, one Aboriginal officer having reported to an Elder that they were told in a training session that Aboriginal people were to be considered their enemies. In relation to the racist & corrupt bias that exists towards Aboriginal people throughout Australia’s criminal justice system Sam Watson states, “…we need protection from racist police and courts. Across Australia …entire communities have no faith in the capacity of the criminal justice system to rein in police violence and harassment” (Green Left Weekly, pg 6, 9th March, 05).

MurrandooYanner recalls when Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was starting out as a young police officer stationed in the Carpentaria region, how Chris Hurley used to visit his home & played with his kids. Murrandoo stated at a community meeting how “…Chris stared out good …he was a good bloke” and how that as time passed in his posting he came under pressure from the North Qld police hierarchy to go harder on Aboriginals. At one point Hurley shared deeply with Murrandoo about the pressures on him to “toughen up” & start “cracking down” on Aboriginal offenders to which Murrandoo responded by counseling him to quit the police force & not compromise himself; “…I told him to get out, stay true to himself & not to sell his soul …I think the pressures of his family & career got the better of him, he went for the career …he sold out to the system & from that point he went from bad to worse …it took him down the wrong path” Murrandoo said. As time unfolded in Chris Hurley’s police career up to six complaints of assult & misconduct have been lodged by Aboriginal people to the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) over accusations of Hurley using “…excessive force causing injury …he had also shown disrespect to indigenous police liaison officers and residents” (The Australian, Saturday 23/07/05, pg 3). None of these complaints have ever resulted in remedial disciplinary action to Hurley and in is common knowledge within Aboriginal communities that those individual’s who laid the complaints against Hurley were vilified and harassed into retracting them. Hurley’s history has now been allowed to be presented at the State Inquiry as supporting evidence for the Doomadgee family despite police commissioner Bob Atkinson’s attempts to have Hurley’s CJC’s record’s of the complaints released to the Palm Island Council (The Australian, Saturday 23/07/05, pg3).

For many reasons the most likely being for the sake of the state Labor party’s reputation & prestige, tourism, & the state’s international reputation these truths are not to be discussed in the media or public arena in Queensland. At present there is a “non-publishing restraint order” enforced on publishing details of this story. A legal “gag order” effectively silencing the Doomadgee family, the Aboriginal Community, activists, & concerned citizens while the Queensland State Police Union have had press releases printed & Premier Peter Beattie under parliamentary privilege has publicly slandered Andrew Boe & Associates (the solicitors acting “probono” for the Dommadgee family & Palm Island community) calling Mr Boe & his firm “Leeches …a typical illustration of white lawyers taking advantage of an indigenous community”. Beattie continues to make comments favourable to the police & the State’s case. (The Courier-Mail, February 25th, 2005 refer http://www.thecouriermail.com.au). Another tactic of the Queensland Government, police & the media has been to focus more on the alleged riot that occurred the day after the first coroner’s report, when the local traditional people sensed a cover up in the making.

Aboriginal activist & leader Sam Watson has publicly stated that Peter Beattie “…has not shown one ounce of morale fiber nor decency, or political back bone in the way he has handled this situation” and noted that the opposition leader of the Nationals Lawrence Springborg & Liberal leader Bob Quinn have kept silent on the issue and therefore have not done much better. Neither is much more expected of them since these party’s foundations are built on the 16 year corrupt & deeply racist apartheid area of the Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen regime, which was ended by the damning Fitzgerald inquiry in the late 1980’s.

What happened on the last day of Cameron's life?
The evening before Cameron’s death, Tracy and Cameron had enjoyed a meal and a few drinks together but had retired to bed so Cameron could get up early the next morning to go fishing. Early on the morning of the 19/11/04, Cameron called on his uncle who lived next door to enquire what type of fish or meat he was in need of …turtle it was decided. Cameron then went for a walk to arrange for the use of a boat for the fishing trip, and was walking towards home with two friends when Senior Sergeant’s Hurley & Leafe approached in a police vehicle. Cameron with his cheeky personality started to sing the song “who let the dogs out” and was violently apprehended and detained by Hurley & Leafe.

Sergeants Hurley & Leafe had been on patrol searching for two men involved in an earlier fight. They had already detained two men involved in this fight and were traveling back down the road in search of the other two when they passed Cameron & his friends. During the process of his arrest Cameron’s friends witnessed Cameron being tackled & handcuffed by Sergeants Hurley & Leafe in a very aggressive manor as Cameron questioned them as to why he was being arrested. They have testified that they saw the two sergeant’s crash-tackle Cameron into the back of their paddy wagon. Cameron’s friends believed the degree of force used to apprehend Cameron was unnecessary & excessive. Several other residents have come forward to state that they saw Sgt Hurley beating Cameron in the back of the police vehicle as Sergeant Leafe drove toward the police station.

Sergeants Chris Hurley & Michael Leafe did not take Cameron to the local Murri ‘Safe House’ which under ‘The Police Powers and Responsibility Act’ is a legal requirement and standard procedure on the Island. At the Safe-House detainees are looked after by trained & culturally aware Murri Elders & liaison officers, while waiting to be processed & released on bail conditions. Instead they drove Cameron to the watch-house lock up. This is highly suspicious in light of what was about to take place. The lock-up is adjacent to the Palm Island police station. Cameron was quickly processed in the police station office, which is equipped with security cameras. The lock-up also has video cameras, but not the walkway between the two buildings.

As Cameron was escorted by these two experienced sergeants (one on either side of him & with Cameron in hand-cuffs), we are told by a police media release that a scuffle broke out in the walk way and that Cameron fell down three steps with Sgt Hurley landing on top of him. Aboriginal police liaison officer Lloyd Bengaroo who was on duty in the office at the time stated “when Sgt Hurley was trying to take Mr Doomadgee into the watch house, a scuffle took place and they both went down together on the cement steps"(http://www.nit.com.au/breakingNews/story; Thursday, 2 December 2004). From this “scuffle” Cameron sustained four broken ribs, a punctured lung, ruptured spleen, & his liver was completely split in two. Cameron was then placed in a cell without medical assistance and within less than an one hour from the time of his arrest Cameron had died a slow & painful death, alone in a cell.

Cameron’s cousin Marrandoo Yanner helped dress Cameron’s body for the funeral & said that it was hard to recognize his close friend & cousin “…a chunk of flesh was missing from under his chin & chunks of hair & bone from off his skull” he said. It has since been reported that other witnesses, two inmates saw the two police officers (identified as Sergeants Chris Hurley & Michael Leafe) beating & kicking Cameron in the walk way. The stations surveillance camera had recorded Sergeants Hurley & Leafe washing blood & skin from off their boots & uniform and was taken by police as evidence, but at the inquest it was revealed to the judge that the tapes had gone missing while in police storage.

Yet the Qld police would have us believe that Cameron died from accidental injuries caused by a struggle that Cameron started while cuffed between two experienced & strong senior sergeants; “…An Aboriginal police liaison officer who was ordered off Palm Island in the wake of the riots that followed says Cameron Doomadgee was not a victim of police brutality” …The Courier-Mail today reported the liaison officer Lloyd Bengaroo as saying both Senior Sgt Chris Hurley and Sgt Michael Leafe had acted properly and professionally in dealing with Mr Doomadgee who died an hour after being taken into police custody on November 19” (http://www.nit.com.au/breakingNews/story. Thursday, 2 December 2004). If the Police Sergeants “acted properly & professionally” why then is Cameron Doomadgee dead? With such horrific injuries why was medical assistance not called for? That in its self constitutes a breach of departmental policy, police procedure & Work Place Health & Safety Law.

As one Murri Elder Uncle Fred said “…I’ve been at the bottom of some pretty savage rugby scrums & tackles in my time & never sustained such injuries, he was murdered ...these cops should be charged with murder …that’s what it was murder …the truth of the matter should be exposed in a criminal court …instead they give us these excuses as if they are the facts …these are an insult to the intelligence of our people …too many of our people have died in police custody, enough is enough it’s time it ended”.

The first Autopsy report stated that Cameron Doomadgee’s blood had traces of “sly-grog” (home brew alcohol) in it, yet Tracy & Cameron’s sisters testify that Cameron never drank sly-grog and was a moderate drinker. Cameron’s friends & family testify that he was not drunk, that the alcohol in his blood was from the drinks of the night before. Early media reports suggested that Cameron’s injuries had come from a car accident it was alleged Cameron had been involved in two days prior, & that the fall down the steps had aggravated these injuries. The car accident & injuries have been deigned by Cameron’s family, friends and elders who had seen & spent time with Cameron in the days leading up to this death. They all testified that Cameron was in very good health and sober the morning of his arrest and the claims of alleged accident were never substantiated by the police.

Events since Cameron’s death:
With the release of the first autopsy report supporting the police’s story the local Aboriginal community sensed a cover-up. The Elders called a community meeting which planned a traditional payback for Cameron’s murder, which resulted in approximately 300 residents marching to the courthouse & the police station and ordering the staff from the buildings. Once all the police officers and staff were safely out of the buildings, nineteen men initiated the traditional payback by setting fire to the buildings. After watching the building burn to the ground the crowd disbursed.

The locals understandably took out their frustration & anger on the symbols of their oppression, the police station & courthouse, which they very calmly & deliberately burned to the ground. This action though radical by white standards came to be known as the Palm Island riot, but from a traditional Aboriginal perspective it was payback. As Aboriginal activist Adrian McAvoy stated at a public rally “…riot is the wrong word, it was pay-back, tribal law, planned and controlled pay-back …not a riot”.

The action was extreme but it must be noted that no one was physically injured and given the respect & affection Cameron was held in and the history of police & community conflict and the history of black deaths in custody, it is not difficult to understand why the community took this action. Ask yourself what actions you would take if your innocent loved one was bashed to death by the use of extreme & unjustifiable violence, by the people we pay taxes to protect us? And if there was a long history of members of your community & friends dying in police custody and when the words & actions immediately after the fact smacked of a cover-up. Aboriginal deaths in police custody have become an all too common phenomena throughout Australia’s history, with over 400 deaths recorded. Aunty Erykah told me of the death in custody of her own son several years ago …this is not uncommon Aunty Erykah said in a phone conversation “…we all know folks who have lost a relative in police custody, we all carry this grief and pain, it is a fact of life up here”.

On the 26th November in response to the alleged riot Peter Beattie declared a state of emergency on the Island and ordered “whites & good blacks only” (mainly government employees) to be ferried off the Island and the Qld Police Minister Judy Spence ordered in The Tactical Response Group (TRG) which was created to respond to terrorist threats. The Palm Island airport was secured & cordoned off by the police, allowing eighty members’ of the TRG to be transported by helicopters to the Island. At the Island they slid down ropes to the tarmac from the helicopters in full combat gear (including machine guns) and wearing helmets & balaclava’s as if a terrorist attack had occurred.

All nineteen central figures involved in the traditional pay-back walked out of their homes into the street with arms raised & dressed only in their underwear for fear of being shot by the TRG commandos and where detained by the Police. After their arrest the TRG conducted numerous police raids on the remaining residents (Murri community only). These raids commenced between 3am to 4am in the morning for maximum effect and were justified as a procedure to round up any remaining rioters or trouble makers but these actions are widely interpreted by the community, elders & activists to be “collective punishment” for the symbolic civil disobedience act of burning down the court & police station and to intimidate the community from taking any further action against the Government. The TRG was very effective in bringing state sanctioned terror to the homes of an innocent community in mourning as if they were terrorists & murderers.

Again during the raids the commandos wore balaclavas, bulletproof vests, & were armed with automatic rifles. They broke down the doors of sleeping residents, forcing the occupants outside to lie face down onto the ground. This included dragging children as young as two & women as old as ninety out of their beds and two people in wheel chairs where also thrown out of their chairs & onto the ground. The commandos pointed guns with red laser lights on to their victim’s heads, while ordering them to shut up & not move as their arms & legs were cuffed. No women, children, disabled or the elderly where spared this terror. They were expected to stop screaming and not to cry, as their houses were ram-sacked.

A seven year old boy ‘Douglas’ described how he was dragged from his bed and cuffed while a gun was pointed at his head “…a red dot was on the floor beside my head then on my nose, the bully-men shouting …like da movies …thought I was have’n bad dreams …my heart was pound’n”. The term ‘bully-man’ is commonly used by Aboriginal people throughout regional areas of Australia to describe police officers. It has been reported that one such raid was carried out in response to a rumor that a semi-automatic gun had been stolen from the TRG …no weapon was recovered & the accusation never substantiated. It is to be remembered that this occurred after the 19 accused rioters had surrendered to police & were being held in three different locations in Townsville & in regional precincts in Nth of Townsville.

As at June 2005 with the state government having refused to repair the damage caused
by these raids the residents still live in houses with their doors kicked in. On New Years
Eve after several weeks of calm on the Island a peaceful bon-fire party was raided
at gunpoint by the TRG & closed down. The country was told by the Queensland
Government that these measures were necessary in order to secure law and order on the
Island. Law and order or state sanctioned punishment perpetrated upon a grieving,
peaceful & defenseless black community in typical colonial style.

The Crime & Misconduct Commission inquiry has since declared that the raids by the
TRG “may have been unlawful” because “The Public Safety Prevention Act” does not
authorize police to unlawfully enter peoples homes and use the excessive force that they
did including illegally handcuffing people, but other than some retraining in points of law
no disciplinary action will happen and again to date no apology (The Australian, Tuesday
26/07/05, pg 2). How is it possible that the TRG who’s role it is to uphold and work
within the legal framework of The Public Safety Prevention Act actually do not know
what is lawfully within their power to do? In plain language this means the TRG police
officers do not know the act. I find this proposition farcical and very disturbing, but to
the intelligent these statements again smack of a white washing of the illegal bullying
and intimidation of the state & its police officers.

Put in plain English under the Public Safety Prevention Act the raids and orders from the
Police hierarchy to do so were totally illegal, but it’s ok for the police to break the law
and the lack of disciplinary action of our Police Commissioner and Peter Beattie
condones such acts & the abuse of police power. This a very disturbing precedent that
should concern us all, when the checks & balances within the criminal justice system in
Queensland is “Public Safety Prevention Act” corrupted by these events.

However Peter Beattie’s Labor Government justifies the state’s response these things are clear: (1) The TRG brought fear & terror into the lives of the Palm Island community which has been demonized & vilified since the alleged riots. (2) That public attention has been deflected away from the central issue of Cameron’s murder and onto the riots, the trauma suffered by the police officers on duty on the day of the alleged riot & the property they lost (for which they received counseling & compensation). (3) The TRG illegal actions had the dual purpose of trying to silence any legal action by the Palm Island community over Cameron’s murder. Beattie’s lack of appropriate action and his statements since these events which protect the officers involved in the murder indicate he is conspiring to sweep the matter under the carpet and that Beattie’s main objectives is to protect his political arse.

In April of this year Murrandoo Yanner traveled to Brisbane to speak at several community meetings about Cameron’s murder and race issues in the country. One non-government organization ‘The Youth Affairs Network of Queensland’ (YANQ) that had invited Murrandoo to be their key note speaker at their annual human service workers conferences was contacted by a senior government official on the eve of the conference and told if they went ahead with Murrandoo as their speaker that the organizations funding would be withdrawn for the next financial year. All government department social workers were told not to attend the conference and were warned if they did their jobs would be at risk. YANQ proceeded with Murrandoo as speaker at the conference as planned and are in the process of re-applying for their annual funding for this financial year.

However these events have only galvanized the Aboriginal community into a marginalized community determined to see justice done and that will not be bullied. The Palm Island Council of Elders also believe that the 19 accused rioters (who are now out on bail) were separated as an intimidation tactic but they would not be broken …so much so that the guard's became afraid of their prisoners & reported they were glad to see them released. The 19 had bail conditions that did not allow them to return to their homes on Palm Island for Christmas nor attend Cameron’s funeral even though they were friends & relatives of his. In fairness it was reported that in another instance the police assisted a pregnant Murri woman in labour to get to the hospital when they saw her trying to get there on foot. The woman did not seek police assistance out of fear …that was tangible in the Island‘s atmosphere at the time.

It has also been confirmed that school children were intimidated in the streets. In one instance detectives took three school aged kids into custody and interrogated them for several hours without their parent’s knowledge. After their release police told the community that “it all had been a mistake …a case of mistaken identity”, they stated they were looking for a 25 year old. The detectives excuse is so flawed it reveals the true intention of continued intimidation of the community & racist police payback.

The practice of apprehending & interrogating the residents to get them to re-state their statements about the day of the alleged riots became common practice. It involved residents being taken to the make-shift police station, stood over & interrogated by up to four detectives at a time over & over for hours. An elder who wished to be un-named stated that “…our old people & young children are frightened, our men angry …they are trying to break us, we will not be broken …they give you no warning, just take us and don’t let us have our legal people, we don’t have rights, they just do it” (9.12.04).

As news of Cameron’s death first broke an inside Labor party ‘friend’ of the Brisbane Aboriginal community leaked information to the Brisbane Murri Community that the vast majority of time & energy of the first emergency cabinet meeting (called by the premier) “was spent talking about methods & processes of damage control in the media & public arena” & how this situation could potentially bring down Beattie’s government. Nothing was debated about the Queensland Government’s sorrow or regret over Cameron’s death or who maybe responsible for Cameron’s death.

To date the enquiry into Cameron’s death and the events of the 19Th of November 2004 has had its first stage in Brisbane. The second & final stage to take place on the Island was to have been held two months ago but has been delayed by the police’s legal team arguing technicalities against the evidence presented by the Palm Island community. This is viewed by activists and elders alike as a stalling technique in the hope that witness memories and resolve may fade. Whatever the outcome of the inquiry it is to be noted that no criminal charges can be laid as a result of its findings, and as one respected human rights solicitor commented “…these inquires are set up to produce an outcome favourable to the State”.

Leading up to the start of the inquest & after the national protests a second autopsy was conducted & the subsequent coroner’s report stated three likely scenarios that could have contributed to Cameron’s death: that his injuries were entirely consistent with a severe beating; or a catastrophic accident; and the third least likely of these scenarios being that he had sustained the injuries from a heavy fall. The police & press chose to run with the least likely scenario …why? Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley has been promoted & assigned a posting on the Gold Coast and is under going Government funded trauma counseling.

In Conclusion:
As eye opening & disturbing as this story is, it is nothing new to our Murri brethren & the Aboriginal communities of Australia. Since 1991 when National Commissioner Elliot Johnston handed down The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, some 400 Aboriginals have died in custody and out of the 329 recommendations in the report only 39 have been implemented. Nothing of any significance has changed while the list of the dead grows ever longer and white Australia prospers on the back of the neglect, pain & suffering of the proud first people of this nation. Good people like strong, brave, and unbelievably resilient Tracy Doomadgee weep silently in private for her husband & Eric for his father so senselessly & needlessly taken from them.

Our white leaders look on with self righteous justification, confident in the privileged protection their power gives them; covering-up the facts with lies, half truths & innuendo for political expedience. While we in the white community do little to stand by our Aboriginal brothers & sisters to make the government accountable and help bring change and justice to the Aboriginal people …their’s is the land we prosper on. Hardly a voice is raised in anger over such grave injustices.

It is my belief that the white leaders, media, & Government institutions of this nation have perpetrated the lie that all is well & good with Australia. That we are all playing on an even playing field in a free, egalitarian & multicultural society, yet with brutal murders such as Cameron Doomadgee’s occurring with no outcry from the white community and little justice prevailing how can we kid ourselves that this is so? In an interview with journalists from the Green Left weekly Sam Watson states in relation to Australia’s present racist attitudes that until John Howard is removed from power and until a government is elected that is prepared with honest sincerely to bring true reconciliation to Aboriginal Australia that “…this country is doomed to repeat the mistakes & travesties of the 200 years of racist terrorism” (Green Left Weekly, pg 12-13, 26th January, 2005).

In the state of Qld are the apartheid & corrupt police state control days of the Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen regime really over, when at the end of 2004 in the mist of the festive season we witnessed yet another brutal black death in custody, a violent & cowardice murder of a good man with the state police & government lying in the press, suppressing & censoring the truth to protect themselves & their mates from accountability & prosecution. In contrast across the Tasman in New Zealand this would have brought a national out cry of major proportions from Pakeha (European) & Maori alike demanding the arrest of Hurley and Leafe, anything short of an appropriate just response from the government would not be thinkable let alone be acceptable to the population. As it stands stronger protests by Pakeha’s were carried out in N.Z than in Australia. On the eve of the news of Cameron’s murder breaking in N.Z protesters raided the Australian embassy in Wellington city painting anti-racist slogans on the walls of the building and red dye was put in its fountain. A contingent of over 3,000 Maori activists pledged to travel to Queensland to help support and protect the Palm Island community.

For Australia to truly become the multicultural land of equality it professes we in the white community must take up the challenge to join the concerned citizens, activists, politician’s, and human service workers already struggling for change within the reconciliation movement. This must become a united effort by both black and white Australian’s to commit us to fight for permanent and real change. We all must stand and be counted. Those who are not with us are against us. It is time we asked our leaders, the Police and the courts to also stand and be accountable by writing to them, joining the Aboriginal reconciliation movement and truly stand beside the Aboriginal communities on protest marches and at rallies.

Silence is the voice of the complicit! Take a stand against racism in the streets, pubs, clubs, workplaces, boardrooms, the courts and the parliament’s of this nation. Let us display the courage and tenacity of the Aboriginal people who have fought for decades for equality and justice and join them so permanent change becomes a reality.

Written in honour of Cameron Doomadgee and that the truth of his death is not covered up nor his death in vain!

STOP BLACK DEATHS IN CUSTODY!

By Terry Coker: terry_coker@hotmail.com
23/07/05.
Mr Sam Watson, Activist & Academic: Email: sam.watson@uq.edu.au
Elder Erykah Kyle (Head Chairperson of the Palm Island Aboriginal Council): Email: erykah.kyle@piac.com.au

HELP STOP BLACK DEATHS IN CUSTODY …GET INVOLVED!

Australian’s for Native Title & Aboriginal Reconciliation: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/antar-news

antar-news@riseup.net

antar-news@lists.riseup.net

Additional recommended research reading:

http://www.koorimail.com/index

http://www.nit.com.au

http://www.accq.org.au/comm/palm.htm

http://www.safecom.org.au.2004/12/palm_island_will_indigenous_

http://www.greenleft.org (Article by Sarah Stephan)

Complaint contact list:

Hon Peter Beattie MP, Queensland Premier,
P.O.Box 15185,
City East,
Brisbane,
Qld 4002.
Australia.

E-mail: Premiers @ qld.gov.au
Phone: 0061 - 7 -3224 4500
Fax : 0061 - 7 - 3221 3631
Hon Judy Spence MP
Minister for Police and Corrective Services
GPO Box 15195, City East, Brisbane, QLD 4002, Australia.
E-mail: Police@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Phone: 0061 7 3239 0199
Fax: 0061 7 3221 9985
Queensland Police Service
Bob Atkinson APM
Commissioner of the Police Service,
GPO Box 1440, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia.
E-mail: commissioner@police.qld.gov.au
Phone: 0061 7 3364 4391
Fax: 0061 7 3364 4650

Noose case inflames race tensions:
By Journalist Steve Connolly;
19th May, 2005.
‘One law for whites, another for blacks. Aboriginal leaders are convinced that's the state of play with the justice system in Queensland. Small fines handed out this week to a white man and his son who assaulted an indigenous teenager and dragged him with a noose around his neck have inflamed already tense race relations on the Queensland-NSW border.’
(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15339403-1248,00.html>http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15339403-1248,00.html)