George Floyd’s death and the US Black Lives Matter movement sparked extensive media attention. Why aren’t Australian Indigenous deaths in custody getting the same amount of media coverage?
It’s a tragedy that hundreds have died because the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were not implemented fully.
Tanya Day, Ms Dhu and Rebecca Maher are among the 400 people who have died in custody more than 25 years since the Royal Commission. How could those deaths have been avoided?
Jane Lydon, The University of Western Australia e Donna Oxenham, The University of Western Australia
Noel Pearson has accused the ABC of racism in dwelling on indigenous alienation. But many advances in the status of Aboriginal Australians have been prompted by revealing ill-treatment, which is why Ms Dhu’s family want footage of her last hours made public.
The statistics used to discuss deaths in custody can make us lose sight of the fact that it’s people we’re talking about. People with families and friends, who died prematurely – and often brutally.