Over the past week, American citizens have taken to the streets in passionate, angry protest against police brutality toward African-American people. The murder of Black man George Floyd by a white police officer was a lightning-rod moment, sparking widespread anger into action.
It’s easy to see stories of America on the news and think that this is a problem for someone else, somewhere else.
Police brutality and racial violence against Aboriginal people is a crisis right here in Australia, tearing families and communities apart.
432 Aboriginal people have been killed in police custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Not a single police officer has ever been held criminally responsible for these Aboriginal deaths.
Just this week, a police officer in NSW was stood down after he slammed an unarmed Aboriginal teenager’s face into the pavement.
We don't want to brush over this issue. We are uneducated. We want to learn more. We want to listen.
Nerita Waight from the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service sat down with us to start us on our journey in understanding the plight of indigenous people in Australia.
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