Vol. 72/No. 43      November 3, 2008

Wotton, 40, a Palm Island leader, is pleading not guilty to a charge of “rioting with destruction,” which can carry a life sentence. He is the last of 18 Aborigines to face trial over events on Palm Island in north Queensland four years ago.

The rally was also part of national marches timed to protest the ongoing federal takeover of remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, as Canberra released a review of the move.

On Nov. 26, 2004, the Aboriginal settlement on Palm Island boiled over in protest after an initial report cleared the cops in the death of a Black man in custody. A week earlier, Mulrungji Doomadgee, 36, died in prison an hour after his arrest by Senior Sergeant Christopher Hurley. He had four broken ribs and his liver smashed in half against his backbone.

After the official whitewash of the cops, 300 islanders gathered in angry protest, burning down several police buildings. Queensland cops retaliated with a massive, heavily armed police dragnet of the island, terrorizing Aboriginal residents. The unrest and subsequent national protests induced the government to try Hurley in 2007 on manslaughter and assault charges over the death of Mulrungji. He was acquitted by an all-white jury.

Smallwood told the October 4 rally that “it was political mobilizations” that forced Hurley’s unprecedented trial. This was the first time a cop had been charged for killing an Aborigine in Queensland’s history. Greg Eatok, an indigenous leader of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition (ARC) in Sydney, told the Brisbane rally that “police have been used as the army of occupation” from the long colonial war of land theft to now. “This is why Aboriginal people are still constantly bashed and killed by cops today,” he said.

On October 13 a panel review of the federal government takeover of Aboriginal communities, which authorities call “intervention,” was released. The report had been delayed and rewritten to approve the move, despite criticizing aspects of the “emergency” measures begun under the previous government.

The report calls for reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act and making management of welfare payments for Aborigines in the prescribed communities “voluntary” in some cases. However, it backed continued federal intervention with heavier policing.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin promised to “consider” the report while reaffirming government commitment to the intervention.

The report cited the “injustice” felt by Aboriginal people over being blamed for “problems within their communities that have arisen from decades of cumulative neglect by governments in failing to provide the most basic standard of health, housing, education and ancillary services enjoyed by the wider Australian community.”

About 350 people in Alice Springs, led by “prescribed areas” representatives that includes 73 Aboriginal communities and joined by supporters from around the country, protested the federal takeover of outlying Aboriginal communities September 30. Some 100 protested in Sydney September 27 with similar marches in other cities.

ARC in Sydney is to hold a public forum at the Redfern Community Center November 1 to discuss and protest government attacks on Aboriginal communities across the country.  
 
 
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