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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.
Over the past month there have been four Indigenous deaths in custody across Australia.

More than 400 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since a Royal Commission examined the issue 30 years ago.

Now, a new organisation has been created to help their families fight for justice.

Today, journalist and Gomeroi woman Madeline Hayman-Reber on the grassroots organisation supporting families whose loved ones have died - and continue to die - in police custody.

A warning on today’s episode, it contains the names of Aboriginal people who are deceased and descriptions of their death.

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RUBY:

Madeline, you attended the inquest into Tanya Day’s death, held after she died in police custody in 2017. Can you tell me about what happened to her?

MADELINE:
Yeah Tanya Day was a 55 year old Yorta Yorta woman. She had been travelling on a V Line train for Machuca to Melbourne to visit her youngest daughter, Kimberly, who was then heavily pregnant with her first child. And so on Aunty Tanya was on the train for some reason. She had been drinking that day and fell asleep. And when that when the train conductor came along to check her ticket, she couldn't produce one. And she was a little bit confused and disorientated. Instead of calling an ambulance for Aunty Tanya. He decided to call the police instead.

When the train pulled up at Castlemaine Station, the police came on and checked her and got her off the train onto a bench and they could tell that she was drunk. They actually saw some alcohol in her bag. Instead of calling an ambulance for her they also made the decision to take her into custody for public drunkenness.

Archival tape -- News Reporter 1:

"This is the moment a tiny Tanya Day is bundled into holding cell one."

MADELINE:
They have an unofficial rule of four. You stay in custody for four hours to sober up.

Archival tape -- News Reporter:

"The mother of five appears calm, shedding tears as she’s processed, stripped of her pink top and shoes for her own protection."

MADELINE:
So she was in custody and there weren't sufficient checks done on aunty Tanya.

Archival tape -- News Reporter:

Then the door shuts and Tanya is alone for four hours.

MADELINE:
So she hit her head five times while she was in that cell. And one fatal blow ended up causing Hemy paresis or bleeding in her brain.

Archival tape -- News Reporter 2:

"Well harrowing and heartbreaking are just some of the words used to describe the footage we’re about to show you of Tanya Day in a police cell in Castlemaine in 2017."

MADELINE:
That CCTV footage was shown in court as well, and it was quite horrendous to watch.

Archival tape -- News Reporter 2:

"Tanya Day’s children have been pushing for the release of this footage which has been played here at the coroner’s court at the inquest into their mother’s death. They say they want everyone to know how she was treated saying they believe police failed in their duty of care."

MADELINE:
She was in hospital for a few days before she sadly passed away. And what's really tragic about this as well is that Auntie Tanya was a really staunch advocate for deaths in custody and for the families of people who are victims of deaths in custody. So for her to be taken from her own family in the same way is just pretty horrific.

Archival tape -- April Day

"We know that our mum would’ve been treated and still be alive today if she was a non-Indigenous woman."

Today the coroner, in the inquest into our mum’s death referred two police officers for criminal investigation. This isn’t the end of the road but is just the beginning for justice for our mum.

RUBY:

So that was a few years ago now… there was a lot of media attention about it at the time. What has happened since -- have we seen any changes when it comes to Aboriginal deaths in custody?

MADELINE:
So next month, it will be 30 years since the royal commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody with more than four hundred and sixty deaths. Three have happened in the in the first week of March. A woman in her 50s at Silverwater Prison, a man in his 30s at Long Bay in New South Wales, and another man at Ravenhall in Victoria that was all within, you know, seven days of each other.

And just last week, there was a third man who passed away in custody.

Archival tape -- Lidia Thorpe

"To wake up this morning and hear another death in custody is another stab in the heart."

MADELEINE:
He was a barking young man who died during a police pursuit in Broken Hill.

Archival tape -- Lidia Thorpe

"My people are sick of losing people. You know they tried to wipe us out two hundreds years ago - they failed. And we are still trying to survive in this country and they are killing us in the prison system."

MADELINE:
So those deaths are absolutely, obviously devastating, not just for the family, but for the community. Every single time one of our community members dies in custody. Families of these victims, you know, experience excruciating pain. And despite that trauma, they have to go through all of these steps that no other family would really ever have to experience or deal with, like coronial inquests, dealing with the media, financial stress, having random people, you know, approaching them, wanting to do rallies.

And the other aspect of having someone die in custody. You know, you have to really you have to break cultural protocol to be able to get any kind of justice in terms of, you know, saying their name and having their father out in the public when we shouldn't be doing that. So it's it's really difficult.

RUBY:

Mm and you’ve been speaking to April Day - Tanya’s daughter about this. What has she been telling you?

MADELINE:
So I spoke to April

Archival tape -- April Day

"You go through so much while going through the coronial inquest..."

MADELINE:
and she said that, you know, after experiencing everything with Mum going through the coronial inquest and realising how difficult the process is in terms of grieving, healing, advocating and the procedural stuff behind it, it just really highlighted the flaws in the system and how families can fall in between the cracks.

Archival tape -- April Day

"And it’s the whole lead up to it, and just trying to navigate through that in terms of how you run a successful campaign while also making sure the person that you lost and that died in custody isn’t lost in the process as well…"

MADELINE:
She said that seeing how the community rallied behind us and how lucky she was and how she had really great media attention and then watching other families struggle really, really bothered her.

Archival tape -- April Day

"A lot of other families don’t get that at all. They don’t even get people supporting them enough to show up to the inquest to have an interview there or put out a written article. And that’s a horrible thing for that family because their family and their loved one deserve justice as well as recognition."

MADELINE:
If they're not getting the media attention and not getting the public's attention about their loved one dying in custody, then there's less likelihood that they're actually going to get justice in any kind of way.

Archival tape -- April Day

"The news should be reporting on this as breaking news. Because it is. Because we have growing numbers of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people dying in custody and they’re just not acknowledging it."

And I just thought I don’t want another family to have to go through what we’ve gone through. Or go through what we’ve gone through with less support than what we had.

MADELINE:
So after going through that for years and years, April has decided, you know, to start effecting change herself.

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Madeleine, can you tell me more about what exactly it is that April day is embarking on in the kind of change that she is hoping to make?

MADELINE:
So one of the things that April's doing is actually setting up this foundation, the Dadua Foundation.

Archival tape -- April Day

"It sort of blows my mind that we’ve had a RC into Aboriginal deaths in custody, we’re nearly 30 years on from there, and there hasn’t been something established that’s just for families."

MADELINE:
So the Dadua Foundation, its grassroots, and it's got absolutely no government influence. And grassroots care is sort of in terms of, you know, like doing all of that work that families find really, you know, hard to deal with when they're going through something like this, like organising rallies and supporting like with emotional support and, you know, just giving them a call or something like that, organising legal support and doing all of that work that seems like, you know, very overwhelming when something like this happens to you.

Archival tape -- April Day

"When something like this has happened and they can just get directed as the best thing to do at that time. And that doesn’t necessarily mean just because their loved one had passed away that week that they need to be in the media, no they need to take their time. But having somewhere that they can have a yarn through that is really important..."

MADELINE:
So since then, she's carefully selected a board to be made up of four other families with lived experience of having a loved one die in custody. So some of those board members include Samarrah Fernandez Brown, the cousin of 19 year old Kumanjayi Walker who was shot in Yuendumu in the Northern Territory by police in his home. Michela Reynold's, she is the sister of Nathan Reynolds, who was just 36 years old when he died having an asthma attack while in custody. Aunty Carol Ann Lewis, who has sadly had many of her family members die at the hands of the system, and Troy Brady, who's the nephew of Aunty Sherry Tilbury, who died last year in Brisbane, watch house.

RUBY:

Mm and so the way the foundation is being set up, it's really prioritising people who have lived experience. Right. Can you tell me how important that is? Because we know that often organisations in this space, they can be formed in this sort of top down way. And this seems to be a completely different approach.

MADELINE:
Yeah, I think, you know, there's a lot of other organisations which can be either partially government funded or something like that. And they have people who work for the organisations who do have lived experience. But unfortunately, they kind of, you know, constrained in terms of what level of support they can give families.

So something like this has been really needed, especially having those families who all have lived experience. They're all able to relate to the people, you know, that they're helping, which is super important. And as April said to me the other day, she doesn't even have to. They don't the families don't even have to say anything to her when she sees them because she already knows how they feel and what they need.

Archival tape -- April Day

"Because we’re able to connect on that level because of what's happened - and then we’ve grown - friendships have just grown because we’re there to support one another."

MADELINE:
So I think having, you know, the board and able herself, all having lived experience, that's super important because until it happens to you just really have no idea how it feels.

RUBY:

And when you reflect on the foundation and its necessary role, it is impossible not to think that the reality that the foundation is needed at all is an indictment of the reality of the situation in Australia. As you mentioned before, there have been four deaths in custody in the past month and to change that, systemic change is needed. Can you tell me where you think we are at as a country on that?

MADELINE:
So I've been thinking about what Greens Senator Lydia Thorpe was saying at the front of parliament the other day.

Archival tape -- Lidia Thorpe

"This whole system is set up against us, it’s part of the colonial project, right? It was here to get rid of us."

MADELINE:
You know, about the way that the colony was set up was to be like racist to blackfellas for us to be disadvantaged and, you know, put to the back of the line.

Archival tape -- Lidia Thorpe

"And every law that they’ve made since it’s been established in 1901 has been been to the detriment of Aboriginal people in this country. The oldest continuing living culture in this country."

MADELINE:
And that's exactly what is still happening because there's been no real review of the police or any real change.

Archival tape -- Lidia Thorpe

"So yes there needs to be coordination. There needs to be accountability and those people that are responsible for killing our people need to be held to account."

MADELINE:
There's just no way that you're going to get systemic or systemic racism or blatant racism is really what it is out of any of the police forces in this country until, you know, you abolish them and start again.

Realistically, though, I don't know if, you know, the government would ever agree to abolish the police and restructure it. Obviously, it would cost a lot of money for one and for two. It's they just don't no one sees what the problem is other than kind of Aboriginal people and our fellow advocates.

Personally, I think, you know, at the first level of contact that people have with the justice system, I think the police need to be abolished and restructured and I mean, a lot of people listening might think that abolishing the police is a really radical thing to do, but if people are serious about changing things for Aboriginal people in this country, then radical change is required for those radical type of results.

RUBY:

Madeline, thanks so much for your time today.

MADELINE:
Thank you.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today -

Archival tape -- Scott Morrison

"Afternoon, everyone. It is my intention today to advise the governor general of a number of proposed changes to my ministry…"

RUBY:

The Prime Minister has been forced to reshuffle his front bench, following weeks of revelations about the treatment of women in federal politics.

Archival tape -- Scott Morrison

"I've always wanted to ensure there is a strong voice of women in my government. And there has been. I think what we're announcing today goes further than that."

RUBY:

Attorney-General Christian Porter and Defence MInister Linda Reynolds have been dumped from their senior ministerial positions, but will remain in cabinet.

Archival tape -- Scott Morrison

"He's a very capable minister and I'm sure he'll apply his considerable talents to that portfolio, to the best of his abilities..."

RUBY:

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has moved into the defence portfolio, and Michaelia Cash has become the Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister.

The Prime Minister also announced a new cabinet taskforce on women’s equality, safety, economic security, health and wellbeing, to be co-chaired by himself and the Minister for Women, Marise Payne.

Archival tape -- Scott Morrison

"Minister Payne will effectively become the leader of that group of women. She is effectively amongst her female colleagues, the prime minister for women, holding the prime ministerial responsibilities in this area as the Minister for women."

RUBY:

And Brisbane went into a three day lockdown yesterday afternoon after four more cases of community transmission were detected.

There are now fears Covid-19 may have spread into NSW, after two cases travelled to Byron Bay and visited venues while unknowingly infectious.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am, see you tomorrow.

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