Aboriginal advocate alleges arrest over racism research
Sarah Spina-Matthews |
A First Nations advocate has alleged police kicked down her hotel room door during the night because of work she was doing around Aboriginal deaths in custody.
At a royal commission probing anti-Semitism and social cohesion, Marcia Langton gave evidence about racism that she experienced in her personal and professional life.
The Yiman and Didjara woman and senior academic was a key contributor to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody from 1989 to 1992, with her team gathering evidence from people living in remote Aboriginal communities.
On Wednesday, Professor Langton told the hearing she was arrested by NT police who were unhappy with her work, alleging police were behind an incident where the door of her Darwin hotel room was kicked in during the night.
“The door was broken; it was off its hinges, so it sounded like an explosion, and the (hotel) manager was stumped and obviously frightened,” she told the commission.
“The matter didn’t go any further.”
Prof Langton’s royal commission research found evidence of medical racism, including a case of a man who died in his cell after being denied medical care in the NT town of Katherine.
The man was taken to hospital by police and then left outside on a nature strip for police to retrieve, she said.
Segregation of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people was normal during Prof Langton’s childhood in south-west Queensland.
She was expelled from a Brisbane high school after objecting to her teacher reciting a “very racist” poem to the class.
That racism towards First Nations people remained part of Queensland’s culture to this day, Prof Langton said.
Aboriginal and Jewish people have a long-standing alliance because both communities experienced genocide, she said, and that bigotry against both groups was informed by “myths and lies”.
As part of a group of other leading social science experts, Ms Langton recommended the government implement a coordinated response to all forms of anti-Semitism, racism and social division.
“At the moment, the approach is split up with all these committees and working groups, and we need to bring it all together and tackle racism and xenophobia in a systematic way, in a coordinated way,” she said.
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AAP