Belgo Geordie: October 2017

CONTAINS IMAGES OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE PASSED ON:
I heard aboot this un from me neighbour who heard it from a lass at Woolies in Metro Marrickville on Saturday morning. So when the Indigenous Social Joostice Association calls (ISJA), yer come runnin' as yer know it is a good cause. Aboriginal deaths in custody. What can yer say? Do folk think on this. Aye, it is in the media regular like. Don Dale, Ms Dhu an we tut tut, boot look, wor Barney's a Kiwi! Wrully? Uxcellunt! Oops he's been tossed oot parliament. Never mind, next - who shot Jack from grassy knoll? Or wot about the next episode of Donald Chump? And then the burning issue: how many days ta Christmas an Woolies is selling Xmas Pud? Nowt changes. Nowt ter disturb the froth on a cappuccino. If the Telly is yer rag of choice then yer don't have ter think at all. They'll do it fer yer. "Aye 'those people' allus end oop in bin. Droonkards. Live off generous hand-outs and look what they do with our taxes. Leaners not lifters! Thems moost ha been bad ter be locked oop in the big house. Probably dodgy tickers from eatin' rubbish food. Or too much grog, probably ice addicts! They bring it on their selves. It's a lifestyle choice don't yer know! Nowt to do with us Telegraph reading folk. An yon coppers, they wouldn't do owt they shouldn't."

Aye, its easy ter look the other way but trooth is a bitter brew ter sup when yer hear the individual stories. When yer think this has been going on and on and on. In 1988 there were a Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in Custody. It shone a light on summat that should not be happening in modern Australia boot it couldn't give the first people justice. It made 300 sensible recommendations that should stop deaths in custody. Aye, this were followed by the great silence as State and Federal Governments refused to implement most recommendations. Since then the ISJA says there have been more than 400 deaths in custody. Yer can mount a strong argument that these should not have happened. Yer can't unknown what yer know. And as poor as mainstream media is we do know. That this is a problem that should not be. Fer one, if yer taken inta custody the polis or corrective services have a duty of care ter keep a person safe. So why is it they don't. And in all of theses deaths no one in an official role has been truly held ter account fer a person dying, being killed, even murdered on their watch? Cases go her court but the accused are cleared regular as clockwork. Yer ask what is is they have to do for a charge ter stick. And indigenous folk are asking same question boot with increasing grief and loss of faith in joostice. Aye in the context of the shamefully high noomber of indigenous folk incarcerated and too many fer daft reasons (non payment of fines, driving offences, droonk in public). An' before yer go on about these are crimes remember how easy white folk and rich folk get bail fer same offences. Remember Ms Dhu died of blood poisoning and she were treated as if she were a druggie trying it on. A young girl. Why? Is this what we are.

Silent march in Parramatta

So today were a silent march ter remember those who died. A small number of twenty plus people, boot all passionate to be there and offer their support. A number of freelance media people supportive of this cause or at least interested in telling this story. As Mr Carmody would have it "From little things big things grow." I were proud to carry a placard fer John Pat, killed in Roebourne (1200 kms north of Perth in Pilbara) Western Australia in 1983. Aye and if that were not a murder, yer left scratchin' yer nuts in amazement like. Boot let Jack Davis tell it like it is in his 1988 poem "John Pat"

Write of life

the pious said
forget the past
the past is dead.
But all I see
in front of me
is a concrete floor
a cell door
and John Pat.

Agh! tear out the page
forget his age
thin skull they cried
that's why he died!
But I can't forget
the silhouette
of a concrete floor
a cell door and John Pat

The end product
of Guddia law
is a viaduct
for fang and claw,
and a place to dwell
like Roebourne's hell
of a concrete floor
a cell door
and John Pat

He's there- where?
there in their minds now
deep within,
there to prance
a sidelong glance
a silly grin
to remind them all
of a Guddia wall
a cell door
and John Pat

And then as we marched in silence in a circle around Parramatta square (ootside Town Hall), people passing to shop at mall, certainly paid attention. Some with that furious look at how dare this be taking place getting in their face when they were on way ter do shopping like. Others with mouths open, some snapping away on their mobiles. Fer me it were a lad on a bike, maybe seventeen- he were riding inta square all big balls on his bike until he clocked the rally. I watched his almost hard face crack as he read the placards and saw the faces of the dead and got what this was about. As we went past him again, he were sitting on the wall, his bike forgotten, his shoulders sunk in and it looked like tears on his face. Aye, it easy ter ferget there is a cost, ripples that spread out from each death, the families, friends, work colleagues and even school mates. Someone else on march said a passer by recognised a face on a placard and said he were a gentle easy going man. Easy ter ferget soom people live this and it hurts deeper than marrow in the bone.

Raul addressing the troops- yer did good

What can be done? Shine a light people. Read the stories of those this march honoured. There are people in media telling story and they are mostly outside mainstream. Think about is it right anyone should die in custody in this day and age. And why so many of our indigenous folk, and young folk at that. And why were they there, locked oop in first place? Does what they did ter get there warrant a death sentence. And have they or their families had justice? As the admirable Ken Canning told us, a mother who lost a child in custody said the grief is unbearable, boot she carries on trying ter get folk ter listen and think! She does it so no other mother should experience the grief of losing a child through death in custody.