Media constructions of Indigenous women in sexual assault cases: reflections from Australia and Canada

ABSTRACT

In 2011, in Australia and Canada, two Aboriginal women – Lynette Daley and Cindy Gladue – died in suspicious circumstances suggestive of sexual homicide. At the time of their deaths, little media attention was given to their cases. However, several years later, as their cases progressed through the criminal justice system, the media would become intensely interested and numerous reports were subsequently published. These news stories, however, demonstrated that when colonialism, racism and sexism intersect they result in victims being to apportioned blame for their subsequent deaths. This paper reports on findings from a research project that examined print and online news media from 2011 to 2018, as these cases traversed the criminal court system. It illustrates that, when taken together the colonialism, racism and sexism prevalent in the news reporting served to characterise the victims as unworthy of the public's sympathy. This paper also provides a reflection on what it might take to reform the media's engagement in cases such as these, to achieve a reimagined justice where Aboriginal women's lives are valued and respected as victims of crime.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• Canada
• Indigenous women
• news media
• sexual assault

SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION CODES:

• include these here if the journal requires them

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 By way of background in Lynette Daley’s case, Adrian Attwater was charged in April 2011 with manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault; Paul Maris was charged with being an accessory after the fact and with aggravated sexual assault. These charges were dropped in March 2012. Coronial Inquest proceedings started in June 2012, they concluded in 2014 with Coroner Michael Barnes recommending that charges be re-laid against the alleged offenders (Barnes, 2014). The Officer of the Director of Public Prosecutions declined sighting ‘insufficient evidence’ (Ford & Vukovic, 2017). In May 2016, a special investigation into Lynette Daley's death was aired on the ABC Four Corners program (Meldrum-Hanna, 2016). This was prompted by the family who had endured both the death and criminal matters privately and who felt a public recognition was due (Meldrum-Hanna, 2016). Following the program, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution reviewed the case and charges were laid for a second time. The trial commenced in August 2017, with a jury reporting a guilty verdict to all charges for both offenders on September 6th, 2017. On December 8th, 2017 Attwater was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment, with a non parole period of 14 years 3 months; Maris was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment, with a non parole period of 6 years 9 months (R v Attwater, R v Maris [2017] NSWSC 1710). On March 13, 2020 Adrain Attwater lodged an appeal to his sentence in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, this matter is still to be determined. In respect of Cindy Gladue's case, Bradley Barton was charged with first degree murder in June 2011. In 2015 the case was finally heard, it involved several stops and starts as decisions were made about the admissibility of particular evidence including the exhibiting of Cindy Gladue's bodily tissue from her pelvic region (Razack, 2016; R v Barton [2015] ABQB 159). A month long trial too place in February/March 2015, and on March 18, an 11-person jury – nine men and two women, none of them Indigenous – acquitted Mr. Barton of first-degree murder and chose not to convict him of the lesser offence of manslaughter, after a day and a half of deliberations (Granzow & Dean, 2016). The Crown appealed this decision in R v Barton 2017 ABCA 216. The Court of Appeal found a number of legal errors were made in the original trial including directions given to the jury as well as how the of victim was presented in Court in contravention of s276 of the Canadian Criminal Code. This section of the Code protects the equality and privacy rights of complainants and dealt specifically with the admission of evidence relating to Cindy Gladue's sexual history, profession and Indigeniety that may have biased the jury. The Court of Appeal in recognising the errors ordered a new trial in an attempt to rectify the errors (Plaxton, 2018). Barton then appealed this decision and the case was heard in Canada's Supreme Court R v Barton 2019 SCC 33. The Supreme Court handed down their decision on 24 May 2019 upholding the Appeal decision and referring the case back for retrial on manslaughter charges. The Supreme Court decision recommended important changes to the law including instructions that judges must provide juries in cases of sexual assault involving Indigenous women. The decision acknowledged that the prejudices and bias against Indigenous women and girls within the legal system require ongoing attention and reform and that specific instructions to juries may assist in addressing this problem (R v Barton 2019 SCC 33 at [7]).