Wayne Fella Morrison is just one of the more than 440 Indigenous people who have died in Australia’s prison system in the last three decades.
Indigenous people are locked up at a horrifying rate, and the trauma that causes to Indigenous communities is immeasurable.
In 1991, the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody outlined 339 recommendations to try and stop Indigenous people dying behind bars.
But despite decades of outrage, before and after that Royal Commission, little has been done to improve the situation.
In fact, in many cases, the picture today is looking worse than ever before.
An inquest into the deaths of two boys who drowned while attempting to evade police will scrutinise the force s relationship with Aboriginal children.
Chris Drage, 16, and Trisjack Simpson, 17, were among four boys who attempted to swim across Perth s Swan River to escape two officers in Maylands in September 2018.
The inquest that began on Monday will look into the protocols WA Police used when apprehend and minors, especially Aboriginal minors.
The families (pictured) gathered on the banks of the Swan River in Perth to remember the boys
One boy made it across the river and another turned back to shore but the other two, referred to as Master Drage and Master Simpson at the request of their families, struggled in the difficult conditions.
March 9th, 2021
Australia’s governments must end health discrimination in its prisons. An incarcerated child must not be a second-class citizen. Nor any adult. We must ask, why are our governments dishing the vulnerable jailed, second-class healthcare?
When evaluating the nation’s carceral system, we are unable to make it to the second level of Maslow’s pyramid before encountering a deprivation of the most basic human rights.
There is no worse discrimination than health inequality. Australia boasts about its double trillion-dollar domestic product economy, but when it comes to the health rights of its citizens, not everybody counts.
Australia’s population is 25.5 million people, of which the overwhelming majority are citizens, thus entitled to receive Medicare. Readers may find this hard to believe, but health rights such as Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), are denied to Australia’s 42,000 incarcerated individuals,
March 3rd, 2021
The campaigns to end homelessness must be relentless. It is up to us to make governments respond to the will of the people. The Federal Government, in December 2014, de-funded Homelessness Australia, the peak advocacy body. Homelessness Australia operates on a voluntary basis, credit to them, and has no employed personnel.
Governments have a bent to smash both systemic and community advocacy. We must stand in the way and ensure the multitude of voices are heard.
As a youth and homelessness advocate, we must be relentless in speaking out. We need to understand our youth are at higher risk to suicide than else. The leading cause of death for 15-to-24-year-old youth, is suicide. In 2019, 461 youths died by suicide. The trend continues, in fact is worsening. Half the homeless are youths aged 25 years or less.