The Lives Behind the Statistics: Policing Practices in Aboriginal Literature

Abstract

In contemporary Australia Aboriginal parents, and parents of Aboriginal kids, work to prepare their children for potentially negative encounters with police. Racialised policing practices target and enact state sanctioned violence upon Aboriginal communities. Statistics evidence these practices, with Aboriginal people being over-represented in all aspects of the criminal justice system. This paper explores the stories behind the statistics through a detailed examination of Boori Monty Pryor’s young adult fiction novel Njunjul the Sun. Close reading of this text illustrates how Aboriginal literature can deepen our understanding of social indicators through narrativising the complex and nuanced experiences of police and policing practices, including racist police violence.

Notes

1 In this article I use the terms Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and Aboriginal interchangeably.

2 I recognise that this is a book which is co-written by an Aboriginal person and a non-Aboriginal person. I treat the works of Boori Monty Pryor and Meme McDonald as Aboriginal literary production. I am taking Anita Heiss’ lead where she writes that: ‘While the diversity within Aboriginal Australia might make Aboriginal literacy difficult to define, there is consensus among writers that a work must at least be written or co-authored by an Indigenous person for it to be an Aboriginal work’. Anita Heiss, Dhuuluu Yala (To Talk Straight): Publishing Aboriginal Literature (Aboriginal Studies Press 2001) 26.

3 Irene Watson, ‘In the Northern Territory Intervention: What is Saved or Rescued and at What Cost?’ (2009) 15(2) Cultural Studies Review 45, 56.

4 Aileen Moreton-Robinson, ‘Subduing Power: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters’ in Tim Neale, Crystal McKinnon and Eve Vincent (eds) History Power Text: Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies (UTSePress 2014) 191, 197. Also see Aileen Moreton-Robinson, The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty (University of Minnesota Press 2015).

5 Nicole Watson, ‘Justice in Whose Eyes? Why Lawyers Should Read Black Australian Literature’ (2014) 23(1) Griffith Law Review 44, 54.

6 As above at 58.

7 Jeanine Leane, ‘Rites/Rights/Writes of Passage: Identity Construction in Australian Aboriginal Young Adult Fiction’ in Belinder Wheeler (ed) A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature (Camden House 2013) 121.

8 Paul Collis, Dancing Home (University Of Queensland Press 2017) viii.

9 Jeanine Leane, Walk Back Over (Cordite Publishing 2018) xi.

10 Many Aboriginal authors write about police and policing practices in their work due to their lived experiences. A select example of some excellent work with these narratives follows. Ruby Langford Ginibi, Don’t Take Your Love To Town (Penguin 1988); Nicole Watson, The Boundary (University of Queensland Press 2011); Noel Tovey, A Little Black Bastard (Hodder Book 2004); Jack Charles with Namilia Benson, Jack Charles: Born-Again Blakfella (Penguin 2019); Tony Birch, The White Girl (University of Queensland Press 2019); and Phillip McLaren, Scream Black Murder (Harper Collins 1995). There are many examples in collections of poetry, including Alison Whittaker, Blakwork (Magabala Books 2018); Lionel Fogarty, New and Selected Poems: Munaldjali, Mutuerjaraera (Hyland House 1995); Kevin Gilbert, The Blackside: People Are Legends and other Poems (Hyland House, 1990). For plays see Jack Davis, Barungin: Smell the Wind (Currency Press 1985); Wesley Enoch and Deborah Mailman, 7 Stages of Grieving (Playlab Press 1996).

11 Meme McDonald and Boori Monty Pryor, Njunjul the Sun (Allen & Unwin 2002) 122.

12 As above at 158.

13 Meme McDonald and Boori Monty Pryor, My Girragundji (Allen & Unwin 1998) 31.

14 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 23.

15 As above at 157.

16 ‘A Couple of Stories’ The Age (online) 7 November 2002 <https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/a-couple-of-stories-20021117-gdusli.html> (last accessed 11 November 2019).

17 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 62–3.

18 Katherine Ellinghaus, ‘Regulating Koori Marriages: The 1886 Victorian “Aborigines Protection Act”’ (2001) 67 Journal of Australian Studies 22.

19 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Their Families (HREOC 1997).

20 Australian Government Productivity Commission, ‘Report on Government Services 2019: Part F, Chapter 16, Child Protection Services’ (online) 2019 <https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2019/community-services/child-protection> (last accessed 21 January 2020).

21 Susan Chenery, ‘“I Call It Racism”: When They Took the Children, It Was in Police Cars’ The Guardian (online) 26 May 2018 <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/26/i-call-it-racism-when-they-took-the-children-it-was-in-police-cars> (last accessed 17 June 2019).

22 Boni Robertson, ‘The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence Report’ (Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development, 2000) xiii.

23 Anita Heiss, ‘Our Truths: Aboriginal Writers and the Stolen Generations’ (The BlackWords Essays: AustLit 2019) <https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/15446532> (last acessed 17 June 2019).

24 As above at 1.

25 Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler, Black Cockatoo (Magabala Books 2018) 44.

26 ‘Jaja – grandmother/granddaughter; a respectful term of address used by both members of the pair.’ As above at 60.

27 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 20–2.

28 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 13 at 31.

29 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 89.

30 Aileen Moreton-Robinson, ‘Subduing Power: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters’ in Tim Neale, Crystal McKinnon and Eve Vincent (eds) History Power Text: Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies (UTSePress 2014) 193.

31 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 71.

32 As above at 70.

33 As above at 74.

34 John O’Sullivan, Mounted Police in NSW (Rigby Press 1979).

35 Lisa Ford, ‘Thinking Big about New South Wales History: Colonial Law in Global Perspective’ (2011) 34 Australian Bar Review 204, 209.

36 Irene Watson, ‘In the Northern Territory Intervention, What Is Sacred or Rescued and at What Cost?’ (2009) 15(2) Cultural Studies Review 54.

37 It was called ‘hamburger with the lot’ by criminal solicitors I worked with whilst in the community legal sector in Victoria, Australia; ‘Being black in a public space’ is from Jo Kamira, Indigenous Participation in Policing: From Native Police to Now—Has Anything Changed? Paper presented at the History of Crime, Policing and Punishment Conference, Canberra, 9–10 December 1999 <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.489.9251&rep=rep1&type=pdf> (last accessed 30 June 2019) 5.

38 As above at 5.

39 Chris Cunneen, Barry Goldson and Sophie Russell, ‘Juvenile Justice, Young People and Human Rights in Australia’ (2016) 23(2) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 178.

40 Elliot Johnston, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody: National Report, Overview and Recommendations (1991) vol 1, [9.4.1].

41 Tamara Walsh and Angelene Counter, ‘Deaths in Custody in Australia: A Quantitative Analysis of Coroners’ Reports’ (2019) 31(2) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 143, 143.

42 ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deaths in Custody: A National Shame Set to Worsen’ Human Rights Law Centre (online) 28 August 2018 <https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2018/8/28/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-deaths-in-custody-a-national-shame-set-to-worsen> (last accessed 18 July 2020). For the most up-to-date and complete list of the deaths in custody, and the circumstances surrounding their deaths (where available) see the Guardians website tracking each Indigenous death since RCIADIC at ‘Deaths Inside: Indigenous Australian Deaths in Custody 2019’ The Guardian (online) <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody> (last accessed 21 January 2020).

43 Like Bond and others (below note 45), in observance of his Aboriginal Nation’s custom, I also use the name Mulrunji that is the traditional name of the deceased.

44 Chloe Hooper, The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (Penguin Books 2008) 23.

45 Chelsea Bond, Bryan Mukandi and Shane Coghill ‘“You Cunts Can Do as You Like”: The Obscenity and Absurdity of Free Speech to Blackfullas’ (2018) 32(4) Continuum 415, 421.

46 Calla Wahlquist, Nick Evershed and Lorena Allam, ‘More than Half of 147 Indigenous People Who Died in Custody Had Not Been Found Guilty’ The Guardian (online) 30 August 2018 <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/30/more-than-half-of-147-indigenous-people-who-died-in-custody-had-not-been-found-guilty> (last accessed January 21 2020).

47 ‘Overview of the Coronial Inquest into the Death in Custody of Tanya Day’ Human Rights Law Centre (online) 2019 <https://www.hrlc.org.au/tanya-day-overview> (last accessed 17 April 2020).

48 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 20.

49 As above at 22.

50 As above at 20.

51 Australian Law Reform Commission, Pathways to Justice—Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (Final Report No 133, 2017) 21.

52 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Youth Justice in Australia 2015–16, AIHW Bulletin no. 139. Cat. No. AUS 211 (2017) Table S147: Population of young people aged 10–17, by Indigenous status, states and territories, December 2006 to December 2015; As previous at Table S75a: Young people in detention on an average day by sex and Indigenous status, states and territories, 2015–16.

53 Caro Meldrum-Hanna, ‘Australia’s Shame’ ABC Four Corners (TV episode, 25 July 2016) <https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/australias-shame-promo/7649462> (last accessed 20 July 2020).

54 ‘Royal Commission and Board of Inquiry into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, Findings and Recommendations, Final Report–Volume 2B’ (Commonwealth of Australia 2017) 259.

55 National Justice Coalition, Change the Record (online) 2015 <https://changetherecord.org.au/get-the-facts> (last accessed 21 June 2019).

56 As above.

57 Price Waterhouse Coopers, Indigenous Incarceration: Unlock the Facts Report (report, May 2017) 68.

58 Office of Police Integrity Victoria, ‘Talking Together – Relations between Police and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Victoria: A Review of the Victoria Police Aboriginal Strategic Plan 2003–2008’ (report, 2011) 11.

59 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 12.

60 Kelly Briggs, ‘Yes, Aboriginal Children Are Taught to Fear Police—As They Should Be’ Crikey (online) 21 January 2016 <https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/01/21/yes-aboriginal-children-are-taught-to-fear-police-as-they-should-be/> (last accessed 21 June 2019).

61 Ian Dudley, ‘Growing up Beige’ in Anita Heiss (ed) Growing up Aboriginal in Australia (Schwartz Publishing 2018) 60.

62 Brian McCoy, ‘Aboriginal Australians Inherit Racial Fear’ Eureka Street (online) 29 May 2012 <https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/aboriginal-australians-inherit-racial-fear> (last accessed 21 June 2019).

63 For example, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service has produced a card for youth to carry in their wallets about what to do if they encounter police called ‘Legal Rights with Police for Koori Youth’ <https://vals.org.au/assets/2015/06/Legal-Rights-With-Police-Wallet-Card-for-youth.pdf> and pamphlets for parents and youth about police cautioning ‘Koori Youth and Police Cautioning’ <https://vals.org.au/assets/2015/06/Koori-Youth-and-Police-Cautioning.pdf> and the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia has a booklet ‘Young People and the Law’ <https://www.als.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/young-people-and-the-law.pdf>.

64 Meme McDonald and Boori Monty Pryor, The Binna Binna Man (Allen & Unwin 1999) 41.

65 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 26.

66 For more on this see Walsh and Counter above note 41 at 148–50.

67 See, for example, Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (Seven Stories Press 2003); The CR10 Publications Collective (eds) Abolition Now! Ten years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex (AK Press 2008); Bree Carlton and Joe Sim, ‘Death in Sites of Confinement: A Continuum of Routine Violence and Terror’ in Sue Read, Sotirios Santatzoglou and Anthony Wrigley (eds) Loss Dying and Bereavement in the Criminal Justice System (Routledge 2018) 54.

68 Boori Monty Pryor and Meme McDonald, Maybe Tomorrow (Penguin Books 1998) 136.

69 As above at 138.

70 As above at 4.

71 As above at Cover.

72 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 128.

73 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 68 at 75.

74 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 75–6.

75 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 29.

76 John Foster, ‘White Voices/Black Voices: Indigenous Children’s Literature’ in John Foster, Ern Finnis, and Maureen Nimon (eds) Bush, City, Cyberspace: The Development of Australian Children’s Literature into the Twenty-First Century Literature (Elsevier 2005) 52–62; Judith Ridge, ‘Stories to Make Mountains Start Breathing’ The Horn Book Magazine 2006 (March/April) 157–63.

77 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 163.

78 McDonald and Monty Pryor above note 11 at 163.

79 Ridge above note 76 at 161.