Legal (r)Evolution: "Indigenous Legal (r)Evolution" Jill Prior, VALS Part 1 of 2

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this program contains the names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are now deceased and may cause distress to some viewers.

In her powerful presentation, Jill Prior highlights the interconnecting disadvantages accompanying Aboriginality that brings Indigenous people into contact with the law. Her presentation has a strong focus on the people behind the statistics, in the context of the 20th year since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Jill illustrates the need for law reform to take these factors into account:
• Poverty
• Homelessness
• Substance abuse
• Mental health problems (intergenerational trauma)
• Police racism and over policing
o Visibility
o Gathering in public places

Jill highlights Aboriginal people do not simply "fall" into these categories, but are placed into them by the history of colonisation and therefore it was our responsibility, as a community, to redress the injustice.

Jill further demonstrates the need for law reform through two illustrative case examples of VALS clients, Paul Carter and Melissa Kulla Kulla.

Paul Carter was a Mildura man who had come into contact with police due to mental health and substance abuse problems. In 2007 he died in custody as a direct result of police racism.

Melissa Kulla Kulla, whose Aboriginality "put her in situation where she lives in the margins and suffers intergeneration trauma", was incarcerated on manslaughter charges and had her disadvantages seriously compounded and overlooked by the justice system.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• RCIADIC
• Aboriginal
• deaths in custody
• Aboriginality
• Intergenerational trauma
• Disadvantage
• Community
• Poverty
• Substance abuse
• Mental health
• Police
• Police racism
• racism
• over-policing
• Domestic violence
• Drunk and disorderly
• Suicide
• Melissa Kulla Kulla
• Justice Betty King
• Mildura
• Paul Carter
• VALS
• Jill Prior
• conference
• Progressive Law Network
• Australia
• Victoria
• legal
• law reform