A group of prominent Aboriginal people have lent their profiles to a new initiative funded by GetUp!, and they don’t pull any punches in the two minute video, outlining a series of horrendous statistics around the over-incarceration of the First Australians, and the growing number of deaths in custody.
Activist, actor and historian Gary Foley; journalist, Amy McQuire; rapper Nathan ‘Birdz’ Bird; and activist Meriki Onus star in the video, which zeroes in on jailing rates and deaths in custody.
The campaign has been produced by a new organisation called Colour Code, a Getup! funded initiative which “aims to provide a new space for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and multicultural communities to speak, advocate and organise around issues of racial justice”.
Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated people on earth. Nationally, Aboriginal people are jailed at a rate five times greater than black males were under Apartheid South Africa. In Western Australia and the Northern Territory the figure is eight times greater.
As the video notes, in some parts of Australia, Aboriginal children are 50 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-Aboriginal children.
You can find out more about the important work of Colour Code here. And please share their video on social media if you’re able.
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody: Has anything changed?
Today is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.In Australia, Aboriginal people are still being jailed in record numbers, and still dying in custody.ft Dr Gary Foley, Amy McQuire, Birdz and Meriki Onus.
Posted by Colour Code on Tuesday, August 8, 2017
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