Jo Faith, Newtown
The ongoing campaign for Justice for First Nations People and Deaths in Custody took a remarkable turn recently with First Nations warrior woman Letona Dungay launching an International Human Rights case on behalf of her murdered son, David Dungay.
Letona was supported by Australian human rights lawyers. Internationally, she will be supported by the human rights lawyers who are legally supporting and representing Julian Assange, a journalist who is serving a long cruel sentence, involving mental and physical torture, for exposing western war crimes In Iraq to the global public.
David died in Long Bay Prison for refusing to hand guards a packet of biscuits he was eating. David was diabetic. Like George Floyd he died muttering the words ‘I can’t breathe’.
Since the Royal Commission over 30 years ago Australian deaths in custody are climbing towards 480 First Nations people. Letona aims for justice for David and international social recognition exposing the entrenched, systemic and structural racism in Australia.
More good news. Locally, Professor Baden Offord, was awarded on the Queens Honours 2021 list. Baden is the most progressive thinker/teacher/writer I have ever encountered. He is tertiary educator at Southern Cross University addressing human rights, social justice and cultural diversity He states ‘I see culture as the life blood of political social activity’.
He sees clearly ‘the critical relationship between lived experience, intersectionality and the everyday encounter and negotiation of structural and epistemic violence faced by many on account of their markers of difference’ – whether its race, disability, gender, age, sexuality and so on.
We may again view majesty, and experience the enchantment of biodiversity and natural systems as we Australians come to terms with the ongoing institutional horrors of our racist settler society.
Time to deconstruct the old ideological stains and cruel legacies. Cleanse mind and soul. The Law will not support us, but a humane civil society will lead us to face the ongoing genocidal ‘sins of the fore-fathers’ as we walk with First Nations Peoples towards Treaty.
We can begin this cultural journey by acknowledging spiritual rights and demand that sacred site country be stamped in perpetuity, as the LEGALLY rightful country of First Nations Peoples.
We can do this locally. Protectors are the voice of the future.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
