Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains names of deceased persons.
CW: This article includes mention of police violence, death and suicide.
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Protesters gathered on Bidjigal land, outside Long Bay Correctional Centre, today to protest the ongoing deaths in custody of First Nations people and hear from the families of victims.
The protest was organised by the Blak Caucus, with the weekly Palestine Action Group protest in Hyde Park moved to 2pm so activists could attend both rallies.
Paul Silva, a Dunghutti man, opened the protest on the grass outside the prison. He lamented that there have been over 600 Indigenous deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission.
“We as First Nations people have been standing up against the Australian system for 230 years,” he said, “this system is trying to kill off First Nations people in so-called Australia.”
Protesters then marched to the gates of Long Bay chanting, “Too many coppers, not enough justice,” and “they say accident, we say murder.” Police officers flanked the protestors, and cars driving by honked in support.
Silva positioned his megaphone against the front gate, directly addressing the officers inside, as he recounted the murder of his uncle, David Dungay Jr — a Dunghutti man who was killed in Long Bay correctional centre in 2015 . “This is a fucking slaughterhouse, not just for First Nations people, but for anyone who steps behind there. This system kills people and gets away with it…They abuse and they inflict physical and mental trauma on our loved ones.”
Justice, Silva said, was coming for the men who killed his uncle. “I’ll tell ya what, that six corrective officers… who took my uncle’s life, they will be seeing his fucking face every time they close their eyes.”
During Silva’s speech, the crowd stepped back from the gate to allow families in for visitation. Speeches continued on the laws outside the correctional complex.
Lizzie Jarrett, a Dunghutti, Gumbaynggirr, and Bundjalung woman, spoke next. After years of activism, she said, “nothing has changed, there’s still bodies behind those doors…same people being brutalised, same people keeping their jobs.”
Jarrett then invited activist and academic Paddy Gibson up to the microphone. He condemned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his inaction on Indigenous deaths in custody. ”He doesn’t give a shit about Aboriginal people or Aboriginal rights,“ Gibson stated. “You have a look at what has happened since Anthony Albanese took power … the number of Aboriginal people in prison has gone from 12,500 to 15,000… 30% to 35%.”
Gibson pointed out that most First Nations people in custody, including three who died in Silverwater’s Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre (MRRC) this year, were on remand and had not even been found guilty of a crime.
Gibson went on to criticise the use of stolen Aboriginal land in the ongoing genocide on Palestinians, specifically referring to the Pine Gap spy base in Alice Springs, a joint US-Australian intelligence facility.
Student activist Rand Khatib spoke next, highlighting the collective struggle of all First Nations people across the globe. “Just as these lands were colonised…so too were my lands colonised,” she said. Khatib emphasised the violence of settler-colonialism, “You see videos of killed children, elders, disabled people, queer people… the bomb does not discriminate.”
Khatib noted that NSW’s first private prison is currently being built, and concluded by calling for abolition, emphasising that “prisons are not rehabilitation.”
Gomeroi woman Darlene Mason spoke next, recounting her father, Mark Mason Sr.’s, “brutal and extremely painful death at the hands of NSW police.” Mason criticised inconsistencies in the police narrative of her father’s death, stating that while police claimed he was shot in the arm, “the autopsy revealed the fatal shot was through his back”. She added that taser footage of the death has still not been released.
Mason ended her speech by stating that while “the long, hard road to justice is filled with contempt and perjury” that “justice will continue”.
Silva then spoke again, asking where the politicians within the system are, stating that the “only person in there I see standing up is Lidia Thorpe.” Silva then called for those within the system to “step outside the box and really look at how this system treats people”.
Following this, Gloria Donahue spoke of her nephew, Aubrey Donahue, who was shot and killed by police on March 25, 2023. “You always hear about it, but to actually know it’s my nephew”, she stated, reiterating that “everybody knows what’s happening” and that this is “what Australia is really about, shooting our mob and sweeping it under the carpet.”
She spoke of “the layers of trauma” experienced, stating that “we’re just trying to survive.” Donahue then played a song by her brother Joshua Duffin before asking, “when will I get my answers?”
After a minute of silence “for those lost, behind bars, bombed, martyred… [and] without justice or peace,” Jarrett handed over to Judy Deacon, whose son was shot and killed by police while experiencing a schizophrenic episode on July 20, 2023.
Deacon explained that her “main goal… is to get the federal government to fund mental health” and that she “can’t grieve until something is done for everyone”.
Silva concluded by saying, “don’t be cowards. Give people and give families justice…we are carrying First Nations trauma… and we will continue to carry the strength of our ancestors.”
“There must come a time when these lands are returned to the First Nations people, the original custodians,” Silva said.
The Blak Caucus is organising another rally at Town Hall on International Human Rights Day, December 7, to continue building the movement for First Nations justice and to end Aboriginal deaths in custody.
The Sydney Basin Aboriginal Tent Embassy also opened in Victoria Park yesterday.
