SA Police must follow NT’s lead on an official apologies to Aboriginal people | Douglas Smith
Grant Stevens’ northern counterpart has just made a big step towards reconciliation that SA Police needs to follow, writes Douglas Smith.
Opinion
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If the South Australia Police are serious about reconciliation with the state’s Aboriginal communities, a formal apology for past harms and injustices carried out by SA Police for the past 186 years is crucial.
In fact, it’s the least any police force in any state or territory in Australia can do when you consider how much damage has been done to Aboriginal families over the generations at the hands of police.
Entrenched racism with historic roots within police forces around the country have determined generations of racist police practices in Aboriginal communities which we still see today.
Historically, policing in Australia has been at the forefront of the murder of Aboriginal people, land dispossession, the removal of thousands of Aboriginal children from their families (Stolen Generations), and the over-policing in our communities which has resulted in the over-representation of Aboriginal people in custody today.
In a nutshell, police in every state and territory in Australia have been used as the tip of the spear for racist government policies that have been created over the decades to widely disempower Aboriginal people.
Like police in every state and territory, SA Police have been a symbol of fear and anxiety for Aboriginal people since the beginning, and it’s still the same today.
In writing this I think about comments made by SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, who on Wednesday, revealed that discussions have already been had among SA Police executives on whether the force would issue a formal apology for the mistreatment of Aboriginal people.
Mr Stevens said he did not have a position yet and that it was not one he would make as an individual.
“I did note Michael Murphy’s apology the other day and Shane Patton from Victoria police has also made an apology as well. So, that’s something we are talking about,” he told ABC Radio.
His comments come after Northern Territory police commissioner Michael Murphy delivered a historic apology to all Aboriginal people in the NT over the weekend at the Garma Festival in East Arnhem Land.
“Truth-telling is a key part of the reconciliation process, and I am committed to ensuring that the police service acknowledges and learns from its past mistakes,” Mr Murphy said.
The Commissioner formally apologised for the “hurt inflicted upon Aboriginal people” by the NT Police over the past 154 years, and said the NT Police were committed to doing the “hard work” to transform its relationship with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory; but I guess only time will tell.
In delivering this apology, Mr Murphy the third police commissioner ever, to formally apologise to Aboriginal people for past mistreatments, following Western Australia in 2018 and Victoria just this year.
An apology may not seem like a practical solution to many, in that it would not bring positive effective change to Aboriginal people’s lives, but for the people it is directed at, the Aboriginal communities and leaders who have been calling for it for years, it means more than you would think.
It’s an opportunity for SA Police to reset and build a better relationship with the state’s Aboriginal people.
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