Story by John Nebauer and Karen Fredericks
Photo by Miguel Troncoso
While Keating and Hewson primped, preened and consulted their autocues for their televised Mabo speeches, thousands of Aboriginal people mourned the loss of yet another young Aboriginal man, Daniel Yock, who died in police custody in Brisbane on November 7. Yock is the 59th Aboriginal person to have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody concluded in 1991.
In the largest political demonstration Brisbane in for some years, 6000 people gathered in Musgrave Park, traditional land of the Jagera people, to mourn with Daniel Yock's family and friends and to protest against the institutionalised violence against Aboriginal people.
Sam Watson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Centre reminded protesters that over 75% of the Aboriginal population of mainland Australia were slaughtered in the first 70 years of European "settlement", and that in Tasmania the genocide was even more thorough.
Ninety-nine Aboriginal people died in custody between 1980 and 1989, he said. Following a political campaign by Aboriginal people, these deaths were "investigated" by a royal commission. The commission exonerated police and prison authorities in each and every case.
"Despite $65 million and three years of investigation there has not been one finding upon which one police officer has been charged", said Watson. "This lad [Daniel Yock] died in police custody. When will enough be enough?"
The Brisbane march began at 10.50 a.m., with family and friends of Daniel Yock laying a wreath in Bereton Street in West End, where he was arrested. At the Herschel Street watch-house, where Daniel was taken after his arrest, his family burned leaves and timber from Wakka Wakka country near Cherbourg. The Wakka Wakka dancers, the dance group of which Yock was a member, performed their farewell dance to release their fellow dancer's spirit.
Lionel Fogarty, Daniel Yock's brother, placed a small black coffin on the watch-house gate. The coffin was inscribed with the words: "In memory of Daniel Boonie Yock and to all those who passed before him. May he be the last."
In Sydney more than 300 people marched from the NSW parliament to police headquarters in response to the Queensland Murris' call for a national day of action on November 17. The action, jointly organised by the Watch Committee and the Committee to Defend Black Rights, heard from Arthur and Leila Murray, parents of Eddie Murray, who died in a police cell in Wee Waa in 1981, and from Lettie Scott, whose husband, Doug Scott, died in prison in Darwin in 1985.
The official finding of the royal commission was that Doug Scott committed suicide in his cell by hanging himself. Lettie Scott told the protest that evidence which came to light during the commission's investigations proves otherwise, and that she intends to use this evidence in a legal action she has initiated against the Northern Territory government.
"The Royal Commission was an utter whitewash", she said. "My husband was murdered, and no-one can tell me he committed suicide, and nor did all the other brothers and sisters who have died in prisons and lockups around the country.
"The police are supposed to help our people, but they destroy us. They rob us of everything, especially our dignity. These killings have to stop. We want justice in this country. I just don't know what's going to happen if the police and prison officers keep murdering our people."
Lyall Munro of the NSW Aboriginal and Islander Legal Service told the rally that not one of the 339 recommendations from the royal commission has yet been properly implemented in NSW, and that the number of Aboriginal deaths in custody in the state has actually increased.
In Melbourne, Tiddas and Kev Carmody sang to 200 people gathered outside the GPO in solidarity with the Brisbane protest. Margaret Gardiner of the Wurundjeri people spoke of the sadness and anger provoked by Daniel Yock's death. Albert Holt and George Jackson, Murris visiting Melbourne, told of their own experiences of unfair imprisonment and police brutality.
"I can't think of one Aboriginal person from Cherbourg [the community from which Daniel Yock came] who has not been in jail at least once", said Albert Holt. "In a way we grew up in jail — in the way we were taken off our traditional land and rounded up into camps."
In Perth, more than 350 people rallied in Forrest Place. Ben Taylor from the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry told the crowd that he believes the issue of deaths in custody is "a national issue which must be dealt with on a national scale". He said Aboriginal people don't need more committees, they need action.
Activist Clarrie Isaacs called for an end to the terrorism and violence against Aborigines. "Freedom is only a word until you act upon it", he said. "It takes more than talk."
In Cairns more than 150 people marched, in silence, through the city centre. After the march speakers from northern Aboriginal communities, from the Deaths in Custody Overview Committee and from the World Council of Churches called for solidarity and support for human rights for Aboriginal people.
According to Daniel Yock's death certificate, completed following an official post-mortem examination, the 18-year-old dancer died from a lethal combination of cannabis, alcohol and heart disease. Yock's family has acknowledged that Daniel had used cannabis and consumed alcohol prior to his arrest, but they maintain that the action, or inaction, of police was a major contributing factor.
Witnesses to Yock's period in custody have thrown serious doubt upon police accounts of the events leading up to the youth's death. Police had claimed that they arrived at Bereton Street at 6.05 p.m. and that they arrived at the Brisbane City watch-house some 25 minutes later. But Carolyn Davies, a project worker and student, has come forward to say that she saw police with a man lying on the footpath in Bereton Street at about 5.30 p.m. She says that she continued to watch the scene after parking her car at 5.30 p.m. and estimated that the paddy wagon did not leave the site for about 20 minutes.
"The question I want answered is why was he on the pavement? I didn't see how he got there, and I want to know why. If he wasn't well, why was he left in the back of that van for at least 10 to 15 minutes by himself?"
Davies has also expressed concern that the CJC made no attempt to contact her or the other people in the houses directly opposite the spot at which the arrest took place.
"I was home all day Monday, but no-one came knocking on my door. I rang [the CJC] on Monday because I heard what happened on the news", she said. Davies' evidence will be important for the CJC hearings, which began on November 17.
A lawyer for the Yock family attempted to have the CJC public inquiry into Yock's death aborted. Solicitor Tim Carberry told Commissioner Llew Wyvill (who also conducted the Queensland section of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody) that Yock's death should be investigated by the CJC official misconduct division. He said that CJC officials had taken statements from witnesses which "in normal circumstances would lead to prosecution".
"I am here to represent people who want successful prosecutions, not a commission of inquiry", he said.
Commissioner Wyvill rejected the submission and began public hearings on Wednesday. The brief of the inquiry is to determine whether there is any evidence of criminal offences, misconduct or negligence. It will also investigate whether the relationship between the Aboriginal community and police had a bearing on Daniel Yock's arrest.