McGrath, A. “Chapter 10: The Legacy of History”. In The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Vol 2., 8-39. Canberra: Government Printer, 1992. (Author acknowledged; published under name of E. Johnston, Royal Commissioner.) (original) (raw)
'Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in Colonial Australia, 1805–1860'
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 2012
The majority of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia in the nineteenth century were European, yet a small number of colonial subjects were also incorporated into Britain's Antipodean penal settlements. These included Aboriginal prisoners from the New South Wales frontier. By the 1850s a few Aboriginal convicts were incarcerated at Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour, where their comparatively high rate of death attracted administrative attention. This article situates these deaths in custody within the broader history of convict transportation. As well as an analysis of comparative death rates it uses a series of case studies to explore the factors that contributed to the higher death rate experienced by Aboriginal convicts in colonial Australia.
Another Aboriginal death in custody: uneasy alliances and tensions in the Mulrunji case
Legal Studies, 2008
The death of an Aboriginal man, Mulrunji, in an Australian police cell in 2004 precipitated an extraordinary response from the community. The usual distinctions between the roles of police, coroner, prosecutors and politicians became confused and merged in the media maelstrom that followed the death. Uneasy alliances developed which qualified the binary response of right versus wrong. Could the coroner's findings be reconciled with the decision of the prosecutor not to try the police officer involved? Was the government's response of overriding the decision of the independent prosecutor justified? What does this case tell us about the adversarial and inquisitorial approaches to evidence? This paper examines the tensions at play in the response to the death of Mulrunji and explores the wide reaching implications for law and justice in death in custody cases.
Missing Subjects: Women and Gender in The Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
2018
Although the Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) tabled its National Report over a decade ago, its 339 recommendations are still used to steer Indigenous justice policy. The inquiry is viewed by many policy makers and scholars as an important source of knowledge regarding the post-colonial lives of Indigenous people. It began as an investigation into Indigenous deaths in custody, but its scope was later broadened to encompass a wide range of matters affecting Indigenous Australians. There have been numerous criticisms made about the way the investigation was conducted and about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the recommendations made. Of particular relevance to this thesis are those criticisms that have highlighted the failure of the RCIADIC to consider the problems confronting Indigenous women. It has been claimed that although problems such as family violence and the sexual abuse of Indigenous women by police were acknowledged by both t...
A Post-Modern Panopticon: The Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Australian Journal of Social Issues, 1993
Travelling was not less popular in ancient times than nowadays. People would set out for distant lands with various purposes: to trade, to do sacred sites, and last but not least, they travelled with political-administrative purposes. Those who returned from these voyages often shared their exotic experiences; sometimes they even put them down on paper (like Herodotus, Pausanias, Caesar, etc.). When somebody's journey or delegation had not been very successful, they could still cosmeticize the story when telling it in the City, in case there had not been any witnesses to tell otherwise. On the other hand, such cases could easily be exploited by the prosecutor in critical situations such as a trial: Cicero used this exact method in his attack against Piso.
‘They were subject to our laws’: Aboriginal defendants in NSW courts 1850–1914
History Australia, 2020
We now know a good deal about how Indigenous peoples came to be British legal subjects in settler colonised Australia. But we know very much less in any systematic way about the experience of Aboriginal accused, especially in the eastern half of Australia. A significant barrier to understanding the presence of Aboriginal defendants in colonial courts has been their common erasure from official statistics. Laborious historical investigation is essential to advance any understanding of the frequency of appearance of particular populations, or indeed of any patterns of process and outcomes affecting such. This article reports the outcomes of a systematic reconstruction of the prosecution of Aboriginal defendants. Drawing on Prosecution Project data systematically recorded for all criminal trial events in New South Wales between 1850 and 1914, I establish identity through information available in court records, colonial newspapers and police gazettes. I analyse the crimes for which defendants were prosecuted, and their consequences including both convictions and acquittals, and resulting sentencing outcomes. The discussion of results will focus on questions of justice and fairness in legal procedure as they are discoverable in this history.
2018
The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) undertakes high-quality, independent research to further the social and economic development and empowerment of Indigenous people throughout Australia. For more than 25 years, CAEPR has aimed to combine academic and teaching excellence on Indigenous economic and social development and public policy with realism, objectivity and relevance. CAEPR maintains a substantial publications program, including Research Monographs, Discussion Papers, Working Papers and Topical Issues. Topical Issues present a broad range of documents relating to contemporary issues and debates, and are produced for rapid distribution to enable widespread discussion and comment. They are subject to internal peer review. All CAEPR publications are available in electronic format for free download from CAEPR's website: caepr.cass.anu.edu.au CAEPR is located within the Research School of Social Sciences in the College of Arts & Social Sciences at the Australian National University (ANU). The Centre is funded from a range of sources, including ANU, the Australian Research Council, industry and philanthropic partners, and Australian state and territory governments.
Historical reasoning about Indigenous imprisonment : a community of fate?
2015
The high rate of Indigenous incarceration is a problem for public policy and therefore for historical and social analysis. This paper compares and contrasts two recent attempts at such analysis: Thalia Anthony's Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment (2013) and Don Weatherburn's Arresting Incarceration: Pathways Out of Indigenous Imprisonment (2014). My question is: what difference do these books' contrasting narrative models of Australian history make to our thinking about contemporary Indigenous incarceration? My reading reveals several differences and similarities in their perspectives: how they position themselves in relation to the values that shape Australian debate about punishment; their historical understanding of the institutions of 'protection' and of the impact of 'assimilation'; whether the law and order apparatus is systemically biased against Indigenous Australians; and whether Indigenous Australians should be understood as a 'community of fate'.