Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, on 13 April, NITV re-screened Richard Frankland's 1993 documentary Who Killed Malcolm Smith?
Watching it, it became totally clear to me about Manus Island and Nauru.
That's why. That's why our nation, our government can torture with impunity. And why, despite this torture being almost common knowledge, we let it go on. Perhaps as a nation it — this violence, this contempt of the 'other' by mainstream Australian society — is in our DNA.
When Malcolm Smith became an incarcerated youth offender, nothing was allowed in his cell. Hours upon hours with simply nothing to do. Forced only to do nothing. Surely that's a form of torture. During the day, both as a youth offender and later as an adult, there was only hard, useless labour to fill in the hours.
As an 11-year-old Aboriginal boy, Smith and his two younger brothers had taken other children's pushbikes, ridden them for a while and then abandoned them. Surely a childhood prank. Yet the wholehearted punishment was immediate. The welfare system immediately became prosecutor, judge and jury — the three brothers simply taken, their dwelling deemed unsuitable, the father not informed. Smith was sent to the Kinchela Children's Home. So many rules to obey: 'only rules and regulations, no love and affection'.
As a 15-year-old still under government 'care' he was sent to Sydney. Illiterate, despite years of 'schooling' in a government institution, the young country boy was seemingly abandoned in a huge city where he knew no one. How was he meant to survive?
Malcolm Smith didn't survive.
"Only later did I fully understand the rightness of Lillian Crombie's dance to the classic 'Brown Skin Baby', intertwining the two issues: the children of the Stolen Generation becoming many of the adult Black Deaths in Custody."
In one of his 1992 programs, national broadcaster Philip Adams saw Smith's death as 'inevitable — just the product of his life ... I have never seen or heard of a more appalling story.'
In 1984, Charlotte Walker's brother died in custody. A South Australian, he died a violent death in Fremantle prison. Already there had been many calls for a royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. In the Sydney Town Hall I witnessed, at her request, the first night of the national tour of the family members of victims, one of them being Charlotte herself. Following the extraordinary, sorrowful, puzzled and angry speeches of family members, came the never-to-be-forgotten finale: the solemn liturgy of the rolling screen and the accompanying slow and seemingly interminable spoken roll call. Smith's name must have been among them.
With the support of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, Charlotte and I became part of the Adelaide group planning our South Australian meeting with its aim of forcing the royal commission. Held on the fourth anniversary of the 16-year-old John Pat's violent death in Roebourne, WA, one thousand people came, over half Aboriginal. This gathering too was a kind of liturgy. Only later did I fully understand the rightness of Lillian Crombie's dance to the classic 'Brown Skin Baby' — intertwining the two issues: the children of the Stolen Generation becoming many of the adult Black Deaths in Custody.
The royal commission examined 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody and made 339 recommendations. Aboriginal people were completely over-represented in the Australian prison system — imprisoned at seven times the rate of the mainstream population.
In 2018 what has changed? Aboriginal long-term advocates like Tauto Sansbury have been warning for decades that 'Aboriginal Australians are the most disadvantaged, ostracised, criticised and victimised group in society'. Last month's Pathways to Justice report of the Australian Law Reform Commission confirmed that the imprisoned rate is now 14.7 times for men and 21.2 times for women. Three per cent of the population makes up an extraordinary 27 per cent of the adult prison population.
On 6 April, in article titled 'The latest report on Indigenous incarceration must be the last', the president of the Law Council of Australia Morry Bailes stated: 'As a nation, we must ask ourselves why we continue to tolerate these numbers and why our governments, despite numerous reports and recommendations, have failed to act.'
Tauto Sansbury has an answer: 'Government must understand that we as Aboriginal people have a right to be heard ... stop talking about us, start talking to us and act on what we tell you. Until this happens, nothing will change.'
In 1992 Philip Adams claimed that Who Killed Malcolm Smith? needed to be compulsory viewing for all Australians. Why? In 2018 Pope Francis names it as the beatitude, 'knowing how to mourn with others'. Maybe it's only this that will lead to the next: the 'hungering and thirsting for righteousness' so needed in today's world.
Michele Madigan is a Sister of St Joseph who has spent the past 38 years working with Aboriginal people in remote areas of South Australia and in Adelaide. Her work has included advocacy and support for senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy in their campaign against the proposed national radioactive dump.
Main image: Still from Richard Frankland's 1993 documentary Who Killed Malcolm Smith?