A couple of weeks ago, as part of some ongoing discussion I’ve been posting about police violence following the shocking footage coming out of Mardi Gras, I posted an interview with Ray Jackson, the President of the Indigenous Social Justice Association. Ray and I discussed the links between police violence towards Indigenous communities, and that which we saw at Mardi Gras, and following the interview I thought it would be worth quickly reflecting on what he had to say.
I think there were two really important parts of the interview with Ray Jackson that is worth reflecting on. First, is his statements around the origins of police violence.
“I always start the answer to this question by saying we have to go back in history (what issues to Aboriginal people face in relation to the police). We have to go back 225 years to when the boats first sailed into Sydney Harbour. The troopers who were with them were later used to ‘clear the land’, as they were commonly known to do, which meant of course the genocide of the Aboriginal mobs around Sydney and the outlying areas.
“When the police were formed, they were formed out of the troopers. So there’s been, I would argue, a historical ethos of the police in their attitude and their handling of Aboriginal issues. It’s always been a war, and it always will be a war. More bad than good has happened over the years of course.”
Understanding the history of the police in this way is really telling in the way that we deal with them now. Because, when you look at the history of the police, what you see is a history of an organisation based in the oppression of particular groups. It shows a structural problem with the organisation. And as Ray said, this is not just relevant to Aboriginal peoples.
“As I said at that rally, I link the gay mobs and the Aboriginal mobs into one basket. For 225 years both our mobs have been discriminated against, ostracised and abused by the police.”
What this says to me is that we can’t solve police violence by tinkering around the edges. In other words, external investigations and meetings to talk about how we can work together will not solve the problem. We need to directly challenge the structure of the police, a structure based in oppressional systems.
And in doing so, I agree with Ray that indigenous and queer communities can and should be working together:
“As I said at that rally, it is high time that both our groups worked together. We have one common enemy in this situation and that is violent police. We need to curb the violence of the police.”
We do have a common enemy here, and although the histories with the police are very different, they are also in some ways the same; that is that they are based in a history of oppression. In this sense, queer issues are indigenous issues. And for me, this means that it is time some in queer communities (I can’t really speak for indigenous communities in this context as I am not a member of those communities) put aside some our prejudices (dare I say, some of our racism) to work better with indigenous communities. That’s clearly a bigger issue, but I think it is one that is holding us back, and one we need to address. In doing so we could create a greater union, and truly challenge the police more effectively.