The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice, Fremantle, has called for a large ex-gratia payment to the family of Mr Ward. The 46-year-old Aboriginal elder and cultural leader died on 27 January 2008 while being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie, in the back of a privatised prison van. His first name cannot be revealed for cultural reasons.
The report of Coroner Alistair Hope was published on 12 June this year. It concluded that Ward died of heatstroke, and that the WA Department of Corrective Services, the prison transport company GSL (now G4S) and the two drivers were jointly to blame. The coroner said Ward's treatment was inhumane, and a breach of international laws to which Australia is a signatory.
In a statement issued after the Coroner's report, Edmund Rice Institute director David Freeman said the report confirmed fears that this is 'one of the worst human rights tragedies in Australian living memory'.
Aside from the ex-gratia payment, the Institute also urged a complete rethink of the community’s engagement with Aboriginal persons. David Freeman outlined ten points of concern in a statement issued after the coroner's findings. These include a factor that is rarely alluded to, which is that Aboriginal Australians frequently suffer in silence, and therefore much of the suffering goes unnoticed.
'Our society’s de facto expectation [is] that if we don’t hear a peep from Aboriginal people — even when we make it impossible for them to communicate with us — there is no cause for concern.'
He suggested that Aboriginal prisoners deserve a greater duty of care, given the well-known 17-year longevity gap. Mr Ward was only 46 years old, but was regarded as an 'elder' — 46 is effectively 63 years old in non-Aboriginal terms.
David Freeman contacted Eureka Street recently to tell us that there has been little action since the handing down of the Coroner's report on 12 June. Most recently, the WA Department of Corrective Services has talked of terminating the contract of the security firm, when the Department itself was found to share the blame.
Another way forward is evident in a recent speech delivered by Governor-General Quentin Bryce at the Second National Indigenous Courts Conference in Rockhampton. It would seem to address David Freeman's call for a rethink of community engagement with Aboriginal persons. There are various Indigenous Courts in different states, including the Aboriginal Community Court in WA and the Murri Court in Queensland.
The Governor-General spoke