Newsletter date: 10 December 2012
Contents:
* ABC The World Today Audio: Twenty per cent increase in Indigenous women in prisons
* The Wire Audio Interview: Indigenous women prisoners increased this year
* Rachel Browne, SMH: Aboriginal women in jail surge
* ISJA - Melbourne: Build the movement to Stop Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
* ANTaR: Justice Campaign
* Herald Sun: Slavery buried in Qld mass grave: Islanders
* AHRC: Where do we draw the line between hate speech and free speech?
* ABC THE WORLD TODAY AUDIO: TWENTY PER CENT INCREASE IN INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN PRISONS
- Audio
ABC The World Today: Twenty per cent increase in Indigenous women in prisons
Reporter: Simon Lauder
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3649651.htm
7 Dec 12: "SIMON LAUDER: ... The population of women's prisons has increased by 48 per cent in the last decade, and 8.4 per cent in the last year. That's a rate of growth more than 20 times faster than for men. That's concerning enough, but the reason for that increase is even more alarming. In the last year there was an increase of 20 per cent in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in prison. ...
SIMON LAUDER: Dr Baldry [Dr Eileen Baldry, a Professor of Criminology, University of NSW] says prisons are increasingly being used to lock up women who are marginalised and traumatised and they should be getting more help instead.
EILEEN BALDRY: So what we're doing is we are locking up people who have disability impairment at very high rates but this is very obvious amongst Aboriginal women."
* THE WIRE AUDIO INTERVIEW: INDIGENOUS WOMEN PRISONERS INCREASED THIS YEAR
- Audio Interview
The Wire: Indigenous women prisoners increased this year
Produced by Eduardo Jordan
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=9947
7 Dec 12: "This week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released statistics of prisoners in Australia, showing the number of Indigenous women has increased from last year. The issue throws concerns on creating policies to address the issue. The report shows Indigenous women prisoners have increased up by 20%, compared to an increase of 3% from non-Indigenous women. Experts have concerns whether a lack of support for Indigenous women prisoners have. ...
Featured in story:
Dr Thalia Anthony - Senior lecturer of Law from University of Technology Sydney"
* RACHEL BROWNE, SMH: ABORIGINAL WOMEN IN JAIL SURGE
- Analysis / Opinion
SMH: Aboriginal women in jail surge
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/aboriginal-women-in-jail-su...
7 Dec 12: "A JUMP in the number of Aboriginal women in custody has led to a marked increase in the number of women imprisoned in Australia. A Bureau of Statistics report shows the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female prisoners has risen by 20 per cent since June 30 last year, compared with a 3 per cent rise in non-Aboriginal female prisoners. Prison policy expert Eileen Baldry, of the University of NSW, said the increase should be cause for alarm. ''Over the past 15 years the rate of Aboriginal women in prison has soared,'' she said." By Rachel Browne
* ISJA - MELBOURNE: BUILD THE MOVEMENT TO STOP ABORIGINAL DEATHS IN CUSTODY
- Advocacy
Indigenous Social Justice Association - Melbourne:
Build the movement to Stop Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
http://www.isja-msg.com/campaigns.htm
"The Indigenous Social Justice Association - Melbourne has declared 2012 a year of escalated action to stop Aboriginal deaths in custody. This is urgently needed!
In a shocking start to the year, Terrance Daniel Briscoe was arrested for public drunkenness and taken into "care" on 5 January by police in Alice Springs. Shortly afterwards, the 28-year-old was dead - allegedly the result of a heart attack. However, two men who were also arrested at the same time tell a very different story describing how they witnessed four male and one female cop bashing Terrance.
The year will also mark the 25th anniversary of the formation of a Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. ... "
See:
Indigenous Social Justice Association - Melbourne:
Who we are and what we stand for
http://www.isja-msg.com/index.htm
* ANTaR: JUSTICE CAMPAIGN
- Advocacy
ANTaR - Campaigning for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples:
Justice Campaign
http://antar.org.au/campaigns/justice-campaign
Why do we need change?
"Australia’s First People’s are dramatically over-represented in prison statistics. Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise only about 2.5 per cent of the Australian population, they make up 26 per cent of the total prison population. This is an imprisonment rate 14 times higher than the non-Indigenous rate.
ANTaR is campaigning to change this unacceptable situation. Significant campaign activity has been instigated around the release of 'Doing Time - A Time for Doing : Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system'; the Standing Committee of Attorneys General recommedation that specific COAG targets be set; and the 20th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Our campaign goals are to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in prison and to end Aboriginal deaths in custody. ... "
- Related Audio
ABC The World Today: Twenty per cent increase in Indigenous women in prisons
Reporter: Simon Lauder
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3649651.htm
7 Dec 12: "JACQUELINE PHILLIPS: One of the things that we have been lobbying for are targets to reduce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment at the federal level as part of the Closing the Gap targets which we have as I said on health, education, employment. We've been lobbying COAG (Council of Australian Governments) for these targets now for about 12 months. COAG meeting today and yet again those targets are not on the agenda for discussion and I think with the statistics coming out this week, the 20 per cent growth in the Aboriginal women population in the last year, it really highlights a failure and a blindness by COAG on this really fundamental and urgent issue.
EMILY BOURKE: That's Jacqueline Phillips from Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, speaking to Simon Lauder."
See:
ANTaR Statement of Purpose
http://antar.org.au/about/purpose
* HERALD SUN: SLAVERY BURIED IN QLD MASS GRAVE: ISLANDERS
- News
Herald Sun: Slavery buried in Qld mass grave:Islanders
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/slavery-buried-in-qld-mas...
7 Dec 12: "HIDDEN under an old cane plantation outside the Queensland sugar city of Bundaberg lies an awful secret. Beyond the weeping fig trees the bodies of 29 South Sea Islanders are buried in an unmarked grave. Local Islander leader Matthew Nagas says they could be his ancestors. And he believes they were probably worked to death "like pieces of machinery". "If they weren't working anymore, you just pushed them aside and covered them with dirt," Mr Nagas told AAP." By Marty Silk
- Related News
Courier-Mail: Slavery link in mass grave uncovered at old sugar cane plantation outside Bundaberg
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/slavery-link-in-mass-grave...
7 Dec 12: "A MASS grave uncovered outside Bundaberg earlier this week is an historically significant find that shines further light on a dark period of alleged slavery in 19th century Queensland. Bundaberg Regional Council has confirmed ground radar technology identified 29 unmarked graves of South Sea Islanders on an old sugar cane plantation just east of Bundaberg yesterday morning. The graves are in rows of 13, 10 and six, with one child buried among 28 adults." By Michael Madigan
Courier-Mail: Farm graves central to sugar slave story
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/farm-graves-central-to-sug...
30 Nov 12: "SUGAR slaves brought to Queensland to cut cane more than a century ago might finally rest in peace on a farm outside Bundaberg. The state's sugar industry was built on the backs of 62,000 South Sea Islanders shipped in as cheap labour from 1863 to 1904. Their contribution has largely been forgotten and many lie in unmarked graves along Queensland's east coast because they were not allowed to be buried in town cemeteries until the 1940s." By Kristin Shorten
* AHRC: WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN HATE SPEECH AND FREE SPEECH?
- Media Release
Australian Human Rights Commission: Where do we draw the line between hate speech and free speech?
http://humanrights.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2012/111_12.html
6 Dec 12: "Where do we draw the line between hate speech and free speech? Jurist, author and renowned public speaker Hon. James Spigelman AC QC will tackle this topical debate in his keynote speech at the Human Rights Awards on Monday December 10.
The Eatock v Bolt case under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and the recent ‘Aboriginal memes’ Facebook page have prompted much debate about the balance between freedom of speech and freedom from racial hatred and vilification. Have we got the balance right?"
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