Answers needed, 17 years after indigenous man’s death

PROUD indigenous man Barry Turbane-McAvoy was arrested by police in April 1993 for an alleged unlawful use of a motor vehicle – two days later, he was dead.

NOT FORGOTTEN: Barry Turbane-McAvoy, holding his son Barry Jr, just before he died in April 1993 while in correctional custody.

PROUD Wakka Wakka and Wangan Jagalingou man Barry Turbane-McAvoy was arrested by police in Brisbane in April 1993 for an alleged unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

Two days later he was found dead in Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, supposedly by his own hand.

Mr Turbane-McAvoy, who grew up on the Darling Downs, is one of the more than 430 indigenous Australians who have died in police or correctional custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

As potential protests are formed in Toowoomba this weekend to continue the Black Lives Matter movement, his sister Lyndell said she is still troubled by the circumstances of his death.

Ms Turbane said she seriously questioned the coronial inquest ruling, which determined his death as a suicide by hanging.

She also alleged police beat him at the Holland Park watch house, while he was holding his infant child Barry Jr.

"They then took him to the watch-house in the city (on April 5) and they rung us up and said he was suicidal," Ms Turbane said.

"My brother had never been suicidal - mum was trying to get in there, ringing the watch-house up and they wouldn't let her see him.

"They took him out to the prison, put him in isolation at Arthur Gorrie and he was assessed - they assessed he was suicidal, and the next day they came in and said he wasn't and put him in general population.

"April 7 - that's when he was supposed to have hung himself.

"When they had the coronial inquest, that nurse (who was supposed to be checking on him) was first on the scene said he couldn't recall (details).

"How do you not recall a person dying in prison on your watch?"

Ms Turbane said along with questions about the investigation, her brother's humanity was lost in the process.

She described him as a loving man who loved his family and valued his Aboriginal culture highly.

"Barry was a protective brother, he was my younger brother but he was very protective and family orientated," Ms Turbane said.

"He loved his children - his daughter Karissa and his son Barry.

"He was very cultural, we've got lots of photos of him dancing (in traditional ceremonies).

"I've done up a book, a diary for Karissa, so she could see what he was like - she goes up to his grave every year."

Mr Turbane was one of five indigenous people to die in custody in 1993, according to an Amnesty International report released the following year.

The world is in the grips of protests in relation to police brutality, sparked from the death of African-American George Floyd last week at the hands of police, and Australian versions of the movement have focused on indigenous deaths in custody.

Ms Turbane said she hoped the anger would lead to actual reforms of how indigenous people were treated by police and law enforcement.

"The Royal Commission was finished in 1991, two years later my brother died in custody," she said.

"All these things, reports and reforms - (more than) 400 people have still died since 1991.

"It's just a waste of money, because they never implemented everything that was set out (in the 1991 report).

"One of the things that could've changed it was to allow Barry access to his mother - they wouldn't let her talk to him (and) family is everything to us and our culture.

"Something needs to change - we can't keep losing our family."

Representative for the Darlo people of the Wakka Wakka nation Patricia Conlon said she hoped the protests would lead to real reforms around indigenous deaths in custody.

"Brother George (Floyd)'s incident in America has made people aware that racism and injustice is still alive and it's happening in 2020 here in Australia, in our own backyard," she said.

"So, what are we as a decent people or community going to do to stop this from happening in our own backyards?"

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