FOREWARNING: this post and the following links contain the names of people who have passed.
A lot of Australians seem to feel detached from what’s going on in the States right now, including our idiot prime minister (who had the audacity to tell us not to “import things happening in other countries here to Australia”) but there is a similar BLM/Indigenous Lives Matter movement here protesting the unjust treatment of our indigenous population, particularly the fact that 432 indigenous deaths have occurred in police custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths, and that “not a single police officer in any criminal jurisdiction in the Commonwealth has ever been convicted of any offence relating to an Aboriginal death in custody”.
Additionally, I think it’s important to note:
incarceration rates are disproportional to the percentage of the population Indigenous Australians represent (27% IR despite being only 2% of the population)
Aboriginal people in the prison system/out of home care are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19 restrictions
that there Have been protests/noise made against cases of police brutality against indigenous population as recent as 2019 (1 2 3)
that THIS year police put indigenous children under “preventative” surveillance
Here are some legal funds you can donate to help:
NSW/ACT (+ Wirringa Baiya Legal Fund)
VIC
QLD
NT
WA
SA
TAS
Free Her GoFundMe for indigenous women in prison
Justice for David Dungay Jr GoFundMe
general list of indigenous focused charities
These last two links are updated Guardian pieces about the 432 indigenous deaths that have occurred in custody (which, again, there have been no convictions for), the last one in particular I think is a good reference.
This database tracks every known Indigenous death in custody in Australia from 2008 to 2018
Aboriginal people whose family members have died in custody express solidarity with people on the streets of US cities protesting against th
I want to note that I’m not indigenous myself and this is just a collection of information I’ve found or read in the past few weeks that I’ve found important.
