I want to bring it back to #BlackLivesMatterAustralia and share some of the stories/voices of the families that I'm working closely with.

There's 438 black deaths since 1991. There are so many stories you should know. #SayTheirNames
Blak deaths in custody continue at horrific rates - despite 29 years ago a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody which set out a roadmap of why and how to prevent blak deaths. The 339 recommendations have been ignored. Read them here. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/national/vol5/5.html
Blak deaths in custody continue for many reasons but largely the systemic, structural & direct racism in the justice & coronial systems, lack of accountability & because we are mass incarcerated in the first place. Our mob are 28% of prisons but only 2% of the population.
This analysis from @GuardianAus #DeathsInside project is telling. Our people's health concerns are not taken seriously. Racism is a strong element to this. That is why #COVID19Vic prisons is so scary right now.

Many mob in custody die from not getting the medical care they need
Aunty Tanya Day, 55 yo Yorta Yorta woman, fell asleep on the train to Melbourne in 2017, was arrested & sustained fatal head injuries in police custody

Listen to her daughter @LouiseApryl #JusticeForTanyaDay (at 2:38)

#BlackLivesMatterAustralia
Tanya Day should be with her family today. At the time she was arrested, Aboriginal women were 11 times more likely to be arrested for the offence of public drunkenness. It was a #RCIADIC recommendation to abolish the offence.

#BlackLivesMatterAustralia
The 6 week inquest was gruelling. I attended a lot of it. There was a beautiful photo montage of #JusticeforTanyaDay on a wall. There were smoking ceremonies and sit ins out the front of court. Each day there were many family supporters wearing pink ribbons & shirts.
Here is some footage I took of the sit in out the front of #JusticeforTanyaDay coronial inquest which shows the deadly community support for the family 🖤💛❤️

@LouiseApryl
It's horrific and goes to the systemic nature of blak deaths in custody that Aunty Tanya Day would be at many #StopBlackDeathsinCustody #BlackLivesMatterAustralia protests but then herself die in police custody. How many more of our mob will that happen to? #JusticeforTanyaDay
The Coroner found that the train conductor's decision to remove her from the train was influenced by her Aboriginality and the conductor's unconscious bias. Tanya Day was the first sleeping person to ever be removed by that train conductor.

#JusticeforTanyaDay
On the same night Tanya Day was arrested, police officers attended a non-Indigenous woman who was intoxicated. Instead of arrest, the police drove her home.

On the other hand, Tanya Day was fined, arrested, no alternatives canvassed, and died.

#JusticeforTanyaDay @LouiseApryl
The Coroner found on "the totality of the evidence supported a belief that an indictable offence may have been committed" and referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The family wants to see justice

#JusticeForTanyaDay #BlackLivesMatterAustralia @LouiseApryl
The Coroner also found that #JusticeforTanyaDay's death was preventable https://twitter.com/callapilla/status/1248081943079473152?s=20
#JusticeforTanyaDay

On the last day of the hearing, Aunty Tanya Day's family gave evidence https://twitter.com/crystalam/status/1172389585017397249?s=20
Police must stop investigating police

#JusticeforTanyaDay #BlackLivesMatterAustralia
To keep up with their fight for justice, follow #JusticeForTanyaDay on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Justicefortanyaday

Follow @LouiseApryl too
Can you imagine your loved one dying in custody & having to wait THREE YEARS to get answers? And then having even more questions, & having to fight for the Coroner's recommendations to be implemented? What an emotional toll with no guarantee of justice

#BlackLivesMatterAustralia
Most Australians probably have heard of #GeorgeFloyd right now, who in his final horrific minutes said repeatedly #ICantBreathe, but you will likely not have heard of the next two blak deaths in custody I want to yarn about, who also could not breathe.
#BlackLivesMatterAustralia
In 2016, Wayne Fella Morrison was in custody on remand. Due to overcrowding, he was moved to Yalata Prison. CCTV footage shows him pinned to the ground by up to 12 guards, put in a spit hood, carried face down into a van.

#JusticeforFella
CONTENT WARNING
That footage is absolutely heartbreaking to watch. Up to 16 officers surround Fella at points. It appears that some officers are climbing on top of him. It's extremely distressing to see how he was treated.

#JusticeForFella
There were 48 guards involved.

“It was distressing to witness the footage today of the final moments of my brother’s time on remand and to count the number of correctional officers involved in his restraint and in the transport van" @latoya_aroha, #JusticeforFella's sibling
In 2019, @latoya_aroha wrote about 400 deaths & no convictions, and #JusticeforFella:
"I worry that Aboriginal deaths in custody have continued as common practice and in fact, normalised in prisons and police systems... Who is accountable for our deaths?" https://indigenousx.com.au/who-is-accountable-for-our-deaths/
"Three days later, while Wayne was lying in intensive care on life support, @latoya_aroha's family said their goodbyes. Technically he was still on remand, so officers watched on outside his room."

This part gets me every time. The indignity of this horror for his family.
All of these families #JusticeforTanyaDay #JusticeforFella and Nathan Reynold's family are in this powerful @GetUp video

Watch & share: because #BlackLivesMatterAustralia - always have & always will.

It's not over until every family has justice. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=323620348631479
You can follow @IndigenousX.
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