On January 2, 2020, Veronica Marie Nelson Walker died in a Victorian prison less than two days after being locked up.
The 37-year-old had been arrested for alleged shoplifting, and the ABC reports she died withdrawing from drugs.
Four months on, her family is still waiting for a definitive cause of death, even though inmates reported hearing her screaming for help.
Veronica loved art, poetry and talking about her Indigenous culture.
She is also one of more than 400 Indigenous Australians who’ve died in custody since the end of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991.
We explored this injustice in an episode of The Quicky, Mamamia’s daily news podcast, earlier this year. Post continues after audio.
In that time, close to 30 years, there have been zero convictions as a result of these deaths.
In November last year, Kumanjayi Walker was shot dead by a police officer 300km from Alice Springs.
Constable Zachary Rolfe, 28, has been charged with his murder, and granted bail with his pay suspended. His trial has been adjourned until June 25, 2020, due to COVID-19.
When the young officer was charged there were cheers from protesters across the country. Because like Veronica, Kumanjayi’s death has left his loved ones with so many unanswered questions.
The 19-year-old was shot on his girlfriend’s grandparent’s property, allegedly for breaching conditions of a suspended sentence for break and enter.
It took 10 hours for police to confirm he was dead.
In 2017, Tanya Day died in a police cell after being arrested for public drunkenness.
The 55-year-old was left alone in a cell for four hours, despite repeatedly falling and hitting her head.
She died after suffering catastrophic brain injuries.
A coronial inquest was held last year into whether systematic racism was a factor in the way she was treated by authorities. In April 2020, the coroner referred the case to prosecutors for further investigation stating that "there was the possibility an indictable offence had occurred," the ABC reports.
Tanya, Kumanjayi, and Veronica's stories are just three of hundreds.
To make matters worse, 1991 wasn't even the first royal commission that had been held in regards to Aboriginal deaths in custody.
In 1987, a commission looked back at First Nation deaths in custody over a 10-year period, and gave 330 recommendations, most of which are still valid today.
Very few, however, were ever implemented.
It's the same story for the 339 recommendations that came from the 1991 investigation.
In fact, Aboriginal deaths in custody are only rising.
An analysis by Guardian Australia of Indigenous deaths in custody in the 12 months between August 2018 and August 2019, found the proportion of deaths where "medical care was required but not given" had increased from 35.4 per cent to 38.6 per cent.
It also found Indigenous women were "still less likely to have received all appropriate medical care" prior to their death, and that in cases where an Aboriginal woman had died in custody, authorities were "less likely to have followed all their own procedures".
In April 2020, a coroner ruled that Jonathan Hogan - who died by suicide in prison in February 2018 - received "inadequate treatment" for mental health issues in the months leading up to his death.
Deputy NSW coroner Harriet Grahame saidMr Hogan’s death could not be treated as an “isolated tragedy”.
It's a story that just keeps on repeating itself.
January 26 is one of the most complex dates on the Australian calendar.
Ultimately, there are a disproportionate number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our prison systems.
The most recent national snapshot shows they make up more than a quarter — 28 per cent — of Australia's total prison population, even though Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up just three per cent of the broader population.
In 2018, an inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission described the over-representation as a "persistent and growing problem" and a "national disgrace".
ANTaR National✔@ANTaR_NationalOver 400 fatalities since the 91 Royal Commission w zero convictions, ANTaR President Peter Lewis speaks on community and Australia’s response to the recent death of 19 yr old Kumanjayi Walker https://www.mamamia.com.au/podcasts/the-quicky/400-deaths-zero-convictions-why-australia-is-prote/ … @Change_Record @JustReinvest
Keenan Mundine, founder of Deadly Connections Community and Justices Services, is trying to fight this issue, having experienced it first-hand.
The Biripi and Wakka Wakka man went to prison for the first time when he was just 14.
He's now in his 30s and back living a fulfilling and successful life in the community, but has spent half his life behind bars.
He explained to The Quicky that he was taken aback by the blatant racism he experienced behind bars.
"It was a difficult process for me to understand. When I got into the adult system, I didn't know how notorious they are about profiling inmates, and housing inmates by their cultural identity. So I was only housed with other Aboriginal inmates, and I was really, really shocked by that," he said.
Since getting out of prison, Mundine is determined to provide an alternative solution to the Indigenous incarceration crisis (one of the many commission recommendations that hasn't translated into real positive change).
Deadly Connections is just that - positive change in the form of a community-led solution.
Mundine is doing his part, but says widespread change is what's needed to really make inroads and change this narrative.
He has this message for the Australian justice system:
"Take a more humanistic approach. Stop policing Aboriginal communities with an outlook that you're bound to find crime. If you patrol any community long enough you'll find some kind of crime. It's about working together and giving both sides a seat at the table to be aware of the impact that policing has, and to give our people and our community the understanding of what good policing actually looks like."
Feature Image: Facebook/Getty/Facebook: Justice For Tanya.
This post was originally published on January 26, 2020, and updated on May 29, 2020.
It sounds like your saying that all 400 deaths were because of officers (police or prison) not doing their jobs properly, when that simply is not the case.
Natural causes is the biggest killer (48%), with hanging coming in second (34%) (long term averages, there are occasional years where another cause jumps up for a short period).
This is true of indigenous and non-indigenous, though the percentages change a little when you drill down to specific groups.
The age with the highest death rate is 55+, to be expected when natural causes is the biggest killer.
Indigenous deaths account for 18% of all deaths, and as you pointed out they account for 28% of the population in custody, therefore they are slightly under represented in the statistics.
As for overall death rate - indigenous are at 0.14, non-indigenous are at 0.19 (per 100 prisoners).
Statistics from Crime Statistics Australia - Deaths In Custody.
The people dying in custody is terrible and those who allowed / caused it to happen need to be held accountable.
It is true as some pointed out before being howled down as racist, that the white rate of deaths in custody does significantly exceed the Black rate, consistently over decade after decade. But nobody cares about white men, certainly not about white male prisioners.
THE biggest and most compelling reason you go to jail in this country is not the colour of your skin, it’s if you commit a serious crime. There are genuine problems with drugs, alcoholism and domestic violence in the aboriginal community. If, as you seem to suggest, police should back off and not maintain law and order in the community, those problems won’t get better, they will get much worse and in the main it will be aboriginal woman and children who will suffer the greatest as a result.
Aboriginal communities outlook won’t be improved either by the soft bigotry of assuming them to be perpetual victims who lack agency. Your position on Australia Day is an example of enforcing a message to them that they are just victims. Stop it please, you’re making things worse. Things would be better if we encouraged everyone to be part of the great success our nation is rather than divide us based on skin colour.
Source : https://www.mamamia.com.au/aboriginal-deaths-in-custody/