Dave Riley, Brisbane
Members of the Murri community and their supporters rallied and marched on September 1, in the week that the state inquest into the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island on November 19, 2004, wound up. The inquest had been held in conditions of worsening police harassment of local
Aborigines.
As one young Murri woman told the protesters to applause, "Death in custody hurts us as well. It makes them [the police] feel they're more powerful than us. But we're here today to show we're not standing down. We're young. We're the next generation. I'm not giving up and hopefully you won't either."
Determination has been a key motivator in the Murri community, which has been meeting weekly to coordinate a united response to continuing police harassment. Protest organiser Sam Watson said: "We are going to continue to have community meetings because the police across inner Brisbane have this practice of official profiling where they stop, terrorise and cross-examine Aboriginal people on the street. That's unacceptable."
Watson reminded the crowd that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Gurindji walk-off against the Vestey cattle empire in 1966. That strike for fair pay, better living conditions and land rights lasted until 1975. May 27 next year, Watson pointed out, will be the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum in which white Australia voted to finally include the Indigenous population in the national census.
Watson announced to the rally that he is standing as an endorsed candidate for the Socialist Alliance in Peter Beattie's seat of Brisbane Central in the September 9 state election. "It's not incidental", he said, "that Peter Beattie's office is on Boundary Street, which served as the boundary excluding Aboriginal people from the white camp during the early years of white settlement. This is one Aboriginal who won't be excluded."
Watson pointed out, "We're in the middle of a state election campaign and there hasn't been a single mention of Indigenous issues.
"Peter Beattie has been crowing about the 4.5% unemployment rate. He sees that as a proud achievement. But in the Aboriginal communities we have an unemployment rate of 85 or 95%. We have massive overcrowding in our communities. Our people are screaming out for houses; on the reserves, there is a 5-, 7- or 10-year waiting list ...
"Our young people don't have access to a decent education. They have no chance to go to colleges or universities. We don't have access to a decent health-care system. But eight days out from a state election, we don't have one single politician talking about Aboriginal issues!"
The rally heard from many people about their experiences of police harassment. It then marched to Musgrave Park for a cultural celebration.
For more information about Sam Watson's campaign, and to listen to recorded audio of the rally, visit <http://www.socialist-alliance.org/brisbane/>. See also the article on page 7.