Over the mid-semester break, we were asked to read The Tall Man in preparation for discussion on the treatment of Aborigines in the Australian judicial system. This book chronicles the investigation into the death of Cameron Doomadgee in the Palm Island police station and the subsequent trial of Senior Seargent Chris Hurley for physical violence that lead to Doomadgee’s death. The events were significant because it was the first time a policeman had been tried for the death of an Aborigine in custody.
Unfortunately, the class tended to get hung up on debating whether or not Hurley was guilty of manslaughter. That debate was possible is testament to the great writing of Chloe Hooper who, despite clearly believing him guilty, managed to present the case in all its complexity. Hurley was on Palm Island partly due to ambition, but partly to prove to himself that he wasn’t racist. He spent much of his time arranging events to keep the Aboriginal kids active and just before Doomadgee’s arrest, he had taken an Aboriginal woman to the hospital so she could get her medicine. Doomadgee died from a cleaved liver, but it was unclear what would have been capable of the force required for that to happen.
Of more interest were the events leading up to and following the death. The Queensland police involved acted to protect their own rather than seriously consider the death as a crime. Hurley wasn’t isolated before giving his statement – in fact he had dinner with the investigators – and the case was set aside many times despite the evidence of foul play. Much of this could have been avoided if the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had been followed – such as full camera coverage in every police station. Ironically, the trial inspired the Queensland police force to demand the recommendations be followed for their own protection.
More interesting questions raised included whether any of this would have happened if the victim had been White or if the policeman had been Aboriginal. The first question breaks down into smaller components such as whether a white man would have been arrested for similar drunkenness and swearing, whether he would have resisted, how he would be treated if he did and how the police force would have reacted to such a death.
The second question was of particular interest to me. How would an Aboriginal policeman act if an Aborigine had died while in his charge? How would the police force react? Would it be left to the families of victim and policeman to settle amongst themselves? Would there have been a riot as there was against Hurley? We have an ethnically and culturally diverse class, but of course all these questions are academic without even one Aborigine to present their views. I can’t imagine why an Aborigine would join a class focusing on understanding Aboriginal issues, but I felt the absence last night.
It also made me think more about the Bhutanese reaction to my book, Dragon Bones. Although it wasn’t written for a Bhutanese audience, I think that their response will be as important as the book itself. Only one Bhutanese person has read the book so far (all the way through, I believe) and the response was overwhelmingly negative. This person, that I respect deeply, rejected it utterly as ‘shallow and lopsided’. She would have preferred me to write purely about happy experiences of Bhutan – as everyone before me has done. I find the response ironic as she works to address some of the very issues I explore in the book, but I have to wonder whether there are other perspectives of the issues I didn’t come across. I am looking forward to (and dreading) hearing the responses from Bhutanese friends and others who document complex views on their culture, such as Sonam Ongmo and PaSsu.