A testimony of injustice

African American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) once said “If one really wants to see how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policeman, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most - and listens to their testimony.”

Watching the recent Palm Island death-in-custody saga unfold in the comfort of national lounge chairs it has become patently obvious to all and sundry that Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has failed dismally in his handling of the Mulrunji controversy that simply won’t go away.

Disappointingly for Indigenous Australians, especially grieving relatives and friends of Mulrunji Doomadgee, Peter Beattie’s political incompetence on this matter has been nothing short of breathtaking

Now there are more expressive words than breathtaking that one could use but to me, sitting in solitude behind my computer, it is the one word that comes to mind for a myriad of reasons: judicial thuggery, police brutality, bureaucratic cover up and intimidation, media bias, political deceit, family anguish, personal despair and plain old historically rooted bigotry.

Writing in The Courier-Mail, January 8, 2007, Emeritus Professor Helen Hughes, a Senior Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, speaks bluntly on the specifics of the national controversy:

So after a spot of fishing in the morning of Friday, November 12, 2004, Mulrunji, together with most other Palm Island men, cashed his welfare cheque at the Post Office so that he could start drinking. A little later, already inebriated, he made a rude comment to a policeman arresting blokes mixed up in a "domestic", was arrested and on arrival at the police station, according to the coronial inquiry, took a swipe at a policeman and later died.

The eminent Emeritus Professor goes on to paint a bleak picture of Palm Island by describing it as “… a typical victim of the apartheid-like policies that have denied Aborigines mainstream Australian lives since the 1970s. Any group subjected to the same policies would become dysfunctional.”

Contributing an analysis from a different outlook to Hughes on the absorbing debate Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership director, Noel Pearson, in The Weekend Australian, January 6-7, 2007, speaks in more positive terms by identifying young Palm Island leaders; Brad Foster, Alfred Lacey, Lex Wotten, Robert Blackley and Mayor Delena Foster and then challenging them collectively to “… find the means to rise above the fractiousness of a distressed community, and have the courage to lead their people out of victimhood with a preparedness to embrace new policies and to develop new thinking”.

This is how the case has panned out so far:

• an unprofessional and inept investigation for a police report;
• Acting Chief Coroner’s (Christine Clement) report recommends charges be laid against the offending officer (Sergeant Chris Hurley);
• Director of Public Prosecution (Leanne Clare) states there is insufficient evidence to bring about a successful prosecution;
• Queensland Premier (Peter Beattie) tells everyone to accept the umpire’s decision
• State Attorney General (Kerry Shine) announces a review into the decision of the DPP, but not of the DPP performance
• The Australian (Chief Reporter Tony Koch) provides an exclusive front page story on the conflict of interest of the retired judge (Pat Shanahan) on his appointment to undertake the review because he was on the selection committee that gave the DPP her current job;
• retired judge (Pat Shanahan) stands down;
• Prime Minister (John Howard) recommends an interstate judicial appointment;
• Indigenous leaders call for an interstate judicial appointment;
• Premier (Beattie) announces he has confidence of an imminent appointment from within Queensland;
• acting State Premier (Anna Bligh) announces retired NSW judge (Sir Laurence Street) to head up the $5,000-a-day review

It would appear that everyone has formed an opinion one way or the other on the community of Palm Island.

I have only fond memories of the paradise island from when I completed my primary school teaching practice there in the early 1980s and from visits made since then. Most Indigenous people in Queensland have a family connection to Palm Island, established as a penal settlement in 1918 for Queensland’s “troublesome blacks” or any black who had “leprosy”; the lepers were summarily rounded up and sent to nearby Fantome Island.

My interest in Palm Island became more personal when I researched all sides of my family for my autobiography (The N word: One man’s stand - 2005), and discovered archived state documents concerning my father’s half brother, Robert “Bobby” Bismark. Bismark was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and was sent several thousand kilometres from Cunnamulla to Fantome Island on August 8, 1953.

It was nine months before I was born, in early 1959, that dad and mum had a visit from health officials and the police to their fringe camp home in Cunnamulla. Unfortunately the visit was unannounced and took the form of a house inspection; in much the same fashion I would imagine as a renter would get with a thorough inspection today from a real estate rental officer.

In this instance neither of them were at home or aware of the inspection. Dad only found out about this inspection well into his 70s when I uncovered the state documents.

A letter sent on March 3, 1959 from the Superintendent of Palm Island to the Protector of Aboriginals Cunnamulla read:

The Director General of Health & Medical Services has authorised his (Bismark) release from Fantome Island as he is now clear of Hansen’s disease. Bob has requested that he return to live with his brother Jimmy Hagan whose address is given as Camp Reserve, Cunnamulla.

It is asked that you let me have a report on the suitability of accommodation offering …

A response on the March 24, 1959 from the Office of Protector of Aboriginals, Cunnamulla read:

… I have made inquiries accordingly and have come to the conclusion that such request should not be granted. Jimmy Hagan is still resident at the Council Camping Reserve, Cunnamulla, with his wife and family, none of who are wards of the Department of Native Affairs.

The home occupied by Hagan is a three-roomed hut of wood and galvanised iron construction, is in extremely bad state of repair, and consists of two bedrooms and a kitchen.

… the home and surroundings are dirty and untidy and only the barest minimum of furniture and household utensils are provided.

When I showed Dad a copy of these letters in 2004 he informed me that neither Mum nor he gave permission to or were present when the inspection took place. Dad said he was distressed to read the description of his residence as being “dirty and untidy” as both Mum and his mother Jessie were meticulous with their cleanliness around the hut. He said they were always sweeping the earth floor with a brush, fashioned from branches of a gum tree, and added that they would cart water from several hundred metres away to sprinkle on the ground to prevent dust within the shelter.

Sadly Bobby Bismark had no option but to live out his life on Palm Island and on April 23, 1969 the following message was sent at 10.35am from the Manager Palm Island to the Manager Woorabinda via Duaringa.

Robert Bismark died Fantome Island today 23rd. Please inform relatives funeral today.

Unless his relatives and friends had access to a Lear jet to fly from Woorabinda to Palm Island, Bobby Bismark would not have had a single one attend his funeral (Bobby previously worked in the cattle industry in and around Woorabinda). Dad told me that he was not aware of anyone from Cunnamulla travelling to Palm Island for the funeral or being notified of his death.

Bobby Bismark never did get to visit his people in Cunnamulla since leaving under duress in 1953 for treatment on Fantome Island.

The many friends and family members of Bobby Bismark living on the Cunnamulla Yumba weren’t afforded the right to provide for a man who had fought and overcome the dreaded disease of leprosy but could not defeat the evils of bigotry of the government of the day.

I’m sure there are many other Bobby Bismark stories out there, of that time, which would’ve followed a similar racist conclusion.

On my recent birthday I travelled to the Mulrunji protest gathering in Brisbane’s Queen’s Park. And during the successful march to Parliament House down George Street I thought of the family of Mulrunji Doomadgee and the trauma the government had put them through in their handling of his case and in a moment of reflection, mid march, I also cried out words of protest for Bobby Bismark who suffered injustice at the hands of a bigoted government of another era.

Which brings us back to the celebrated words of the brilliant African American writer James Baldwin: “If one really wants to see how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policeman, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most - and listens to their testimony.”