home | news

aboriginal deaths in custody

death in custody of respected Warburton community elder mr Ian Ward

On the 27 January 2008 respected Warburton Aboriginal elder Mr Ian Ward collapsed in the back of a GlobalSolutions Limited van after a four-hour trip from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in Australia's remote West. Mr Ward died a short time later at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital. The 46-year-old elder was being transferred to face a charge of drink driving. He was found unconscious in the back of the van in the middle of the afternoon when temperatures outside exceeded 40 degrees.

It is understood the van's air-conditioning may not have been operational. The van is part of a fleet owned by the Western Australian State Government but managed by the private prison management GlobalSolutions Limited.

The State Government's controversial deal with Global Solutions Limited, the group responsible for prisoner transport, could be tested, depending on the outcome of the investigation into Mr Ward's death. It was reported that "A GUARD sobbed as she told a hospital doctor it was "bloody hot" in the back of the van in which Aboriginal leader Ian Ward was locked for up to 4½ hours before he collapsed, vomited and died on the weekend." (The Australian 31st January 2008)

Police and the state government are refusing to release details of Mr Wards postmortem.

The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee of WA is currently undertaking a campaign for justice for the "former Warburton Aboriginal Chairman, father of five and one of the last nomads born in the Gibson Desert".

Who talks for my country now? (Ian Ward) was once inscribed on the wall of the national mining museum by respected Warburton community elder
Ian Ward (Kalgoorlie, WA)

Palm Island death in custody of Mulrunji

Palm Island photo courtesy Jose Calarco

12 May 2008 - Media Release - A new book, written by a journalist who closely followed the story of the death in custody of Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004, is calling for the full release of compelling evidence which is still being kept secret. Gone for a Song

20 June 2007 - Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was found not guilty of either assaulting or unlawfully killing Mulrunji.

"The unanswerable question was asked again yesterday following the acquittal: would this have been the result if the "tussle" had ended with the black man getting up, dusting himself off and walking away, and the police officer lying on the concrete floor with four broken ribs, bleeding to death from a liver held together by only a couple of blood vessels?" By Tony Koch, published in The Australian

"An Aboriginal man dies in custody of internal injuries. His son and cellmate commit suicide. The arresting officer walks free. Also by Tony Koch, The Australian

Queensland's acting coroner Christine Clements last week published findings concerning the death of Mulrunji in Palm Island. He was found dead in a police cell in November 2004, less than an hour after being arrested for swearing as he was walking home. Clements found that Chris Hurley, a senior sergeant, angrily punched him several times while he was on the floor and that these actions "caused the fatal injuries".
Source: Andrew Boe - Shame of palming off report; The political response to a judicial inquiry is out of order

aboriginal deaths in custody - news index

external links

• AIATSIS
  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resourse links
• Australian Institute of Criminology Indigenous courts and justice practices in Australia
• Black Search for Meaning: Aboriginal Suicide
• Deaths in Custody: 10 Years on from the Royal Commission
  Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice No. 203, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, April 2001
• Disinformation article on mandatory sentencing
  The cases are harrowing: Jamie Wurramara sentenced to one year in jail for stealing A$23 worth of biscuits. Johnno Warramarrba sentenced for stealing A$90 worth of stationery to a juvenile detention center, dying in custody (suicide) just a week before his scheduled release. Both were from Groote Eylandt, an outback mining region that is home to several indigenous communities. The cases are only the tip of the iceberg: the result of draconian two-strikes 'mandatory sentencing' laws promoted by Australian Northern Territory Chief Minister, Denis Burke, who coldly claimed that "there will always be deaths in custody."
• Individual death in custody reports
• NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council
• Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
  National Report (Volumes I-V), Commonwealth of Australia, 1991
• Sydney University's Institute of Criminology
• The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (Western Australia)
• UN report on mandatory sentencing
• Australian Amnesty International
• Australian Human Rights Commission
• Aboriginal Legal Service (WA)
• Queensland Coroner Report; Finding of Inquest into the Death of Mulrunji Doomadgee (PDF) 27 September 2006
• Boe Lawyers Brisbane: Reports on legal aspects of Case
• Human Rights and Equal Oppurtunity Commission Interventions
• Gone for a Song; Death in Custody on Palm Island
  12 May 2008 - Media Release - A new book, written by a journalist who closely followed the story of the death in custody of Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004, is calling for the full release of compelling evidence which is still being kept secret.

|| click to go to the top of this page