Cultural warning: This article contains names of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Protesters gathered outside the Marrickville office of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week, demanding sanctions against the Country Liberal government in the Northern Territory for racist policies against First Nations people.
Organised by First Nations-led social justice group, The Blak Caucus, demonstrators came together on Gadigal land for a national day of action initiated by Justice Not Jails. Protests were also simultaneously held outside of the NT Parliament House in Darwin, as well as the Alice Springs Courthouse.
The action called on the federal Labor to suspend funding to the Territory government until it abandons 'tough on crime' policies the protestors described as racist and harmful to communities.
"The Albanese government's silence and inaction on the crisis of human rights in the NT enables Lia Finocchiaro's government to continue violating the rights of First Nations, people and children," said Ethan Lyons, Wiradjuri man and social activist, reading a statement from the NT and Uncle Ned Hargraves.
"The CLP's lawmaking and policies are going directly against the knowledge of Elders, family and communities, against the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and against all evidence-based advice.
"This week marks one year since the CLP came to power in the NT, and it has been one year too many. The CLP government must be held to account. It's time for the Albanese government to uphold human rights in the Northern Territory."
'Tough on crime' policies spark backlash
Since taking office last year, the CLP has introduced a series of measures including lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 10, reintroducing spit hoods in youth detention, and expanding mandatory sentencing.
Widely condemned by legal and human rights advocates, these measures have been criticised as disproportionately targeting First Nations children and communities.
The Territory government has also amended the Weapons Control Act regulations to permit certain people to purchase oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray/pepper spray, with the 12-month trial of the measure beginning earlier this week.
"Many people, many Aussies and many people within society don't know this, but the Northern Territory is a testing ground on our people," said Dunghutti man and social justice activist, Paul Silva.
"They are testing and implementing not only OC spray, but they've done it with tasers. They've done it with other things within the communities. They are testing it on our people, like we are animals."
In June, Acting Convenor of the NT Greens, Nic Carson, said "legalising civilian use of a restricted chemical weapon risks encouraging vigilantism, which is already so often racially motivated against Aboriginal communities".
Wiradjuri, Māori and Te Ātiawa person, Latoya Aroha Rule, criticised the CLP's reintroduction of spit hoods.
In 2016, their brother, Wayne 'Fella' Morrison, died in custody while on remand, where "a spit hood had been implicated in his death".
"I have already outlived my 29-year-old brother, despite the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody and its recommendations being older than I am, and despite the warnings from Don Dale footage in the NT played across the national media about the use of spit hoods only a month before my brother's death," they said.
Leading the National Ban Spit Hoods Coalition, they believe a national ban is long overdue. But they remain steady in their mission by counting small wins, such as government acknowledgement of spit hoods as "an instrument of degradation and torture as something they have agreed risk the lives of children and adults".
"It does not mean that change is not again possible. Actually, as history would tell us, change and transformation are probable," Rule said.
What's next?
Before demonstrators began their march down Marrickville Road, Mr Lyons presented a list of demands that The Blak Caucus and Justice Not Jails have arrived at, including: Sanctioning the CLP for its ongoing racist policies; Ending Black incarceration and deaths in custody; Justice for Kumanjayi White; Abolishing the use of OC (pepper) spray; Banning firearms on public transport; Ending discriminatory practices in public housing; Implementing national minimum standards for prisons and youth justice systems; and aligning laws and policies with international human rights instruments, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT)
The protest also called for an urgent meeting between community leaders, the NT Chief Minister, Prime Minister Albanese, and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy to address what organisers described as a "human rights crisis" driven by CLP policies.
A broader pattern of injustice
Earlier this year, CLP Chief Minister of the NT, Lia Finocchiaro, was criticised by justice advocates for downplaying key findings from the inquest into the police shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.
Similarly, an independent investigation into 24-year-old Kumanjayi White's death had been rejected by NT police and Chief Minister Finocchiaro this year.
This past Sunday also saw extreme-right demonstrators attack Camp Sovereignty in Naarm / Melbourne - an encampment on sacred First Nations burial grounds initially set up as a space for Aboriginal protest movements in 2006.
"Was there justice with Kumanjayi White? Was there justice with Kumanjayi Walker? Was there justice with any of the over 600 Black fellas who died, died in custody, in this colony? Too many coppers, never any justice," said Mr Lyons, echoing the slogan repeated throughout the protest.
"When I opened this rally, I said that the racism in the government, the racism we saw at the weekend, does not exist in isolation, does not exist by itself, and that violence was brought by governments like the CLP, by racists that are already in Parliament and voted by the same Nazi white supremacists.
"Like Brother Paul said, the NT is an experimental ground for the racist government. And it won't be long until those same things are happening down in Sydney and across New South Wales and all across this country."
Looking to the future
"We're always feeling voiceless, no matter where we go, and the war is now on our people. So if you are going to stand with us, make sure you stand with us," said Gloria Duffins, First Nations woman and protest speaker.
"That's what this country is built on, ignorance, greed and very racist people. That's what this country is about. Now that the whole world is looking at us and saying, 'what's happened to the Indigenous people now', people want to stand up and look.
"Our elders told us before you stay humble at heart, don't try and race with everybody because they're in the rat race and we're here standing strong. And we will always stand strong."
Latoya Rule said the justice movement stands "at a crucial point where safeguarding the future of our young people, particularly indigenous young people, is paramount to the future of this continent".
"The state-sanctioned violence and brutality directed at them, especially in the NT, is part of a targeted, long, continuing attack, but one that has also been met with long-standing resilience and resistance," they said.
"Those who love peace must learn to organise as effectively as those who love war. It's clear that the CLP and their friends are waging the greatest war to date. They are racist, dangerous, unhinged thugs who support the doctrine of white supremacy."
But while the fight is ongoing, Rule believes that the community formed in the face of injustice cannot be underestimated:
"What they continue to neglect is the legacy of the struggle of the people in the NT, their allies across this continent and beyond. And, of course, those children who are going to inherit the staunch work and courage of all of us gathered here today - children who will be even more empowered than we are," they said.
A second national day of action has been set for 13 September:
SYDNEY - 12 PM, Belmore Park, Haymarket
BRISBANE - 12 PM, King George Square (back to Musgrave Park)
GRAFTON - 12 PM, grassed area between the two Grafton bridges
CANBERRA - 12 PM Civic Square
MELBOURNE / NAARM - 11 AM Flinders St and Swanston St intersection
ADELAIDE - 11 AM Tarntanyangga (Victoria) Square
PERTH / BOORLOO - 11 AM Kings Park march to Forrest Place
More information is available online.
