Indigenous man Joshua Kerr died in custody, leaving his mother to plan his funeral on his birthday

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following story contains an image of a deceased person.

When Aunty Donnis Kerr’s uncle died as an Aboriginal man in custody in the 1970s, she never imagined she would later bury her own son in similar circumstances.

Donnis Kerr hopes an inquest into her son Joshua’s death can provide her family with answers.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Joshua Kerr, 32, was found dead in his cell at Port Phillip Prison on August 10, 2022. Aunty Donnis has been told her son’s body was covered with bruises consistent with him being left to roll on the floor for hours before he died.

“We’re going through hell, this has emotionally destroyed us,” Aunty Donnis said.

“I’m angry and frustrated at the system. You wouldn’t wish this on your worst enemy.”

On Monday, the Coroner’s Court of Victoria will begin an inquest into Kerr’s death and examine his treatment while in custody.

Aboriginal man Joshua Kerr died in custody in 2022.Credit: Supplies

In the weeks before he died, Kerr was granted leave from prison to attend a family funeral in Echuca, and when he returned to jail, he was kept in isolation because of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions in place at the time.

He was in custody after being arrested in July 2021 over an aggravated carjacking in the state’s north, and was due to appear in court in September 2022.

In the hours before his death, Kerr lit a fire in his cell and had to be transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital for treatment to burns on his hands and arms.

His family claims despite his behaviour appearing erratic, he was returned to the prison without a mental health assessment. Kerr was found dead in his isolation cell three hours later.

Joshua Kerr was a talented artist.

An autopsy found he had methamphetamines in his system, and a coroner’s court hearing last year was told positional asphyxia and drug use might have contributed to his death.

Kerr was the son of Yorta Yorta and Gunnaikurnai parents. He spent his childhood in care and lived in Deniliquin, NSW with extended family before he began using drugs and alcohol in his teenage years to ease the pain of a traumatic childhood.

Aunty Donnis said that when her son was an adult and out of prison, he always came home, where he was adored by his family.

“He was an absolute gem and a character. He was always laughing,” the mother said.

“My uncle died in a NSW prison in the ’70s when he was only 23. We never found out what happened. Now this.

“I planned my son’s funeral on what would’ve been his 33rd birthday.”

Aunty Donnis has been advocating for the rights of Indigenous Australians for years, marching through the city streets in the ’80s and again in 2020 following the death of US man George Floyd.

She said she never imaged her son would end up as another statistic.

Joshua Kerr’s family finds comfort in his artwork.

Kerr had followed in the footsteps of his late father, Steven Thorpe, and became an artist, and his family now seeks comfort in his works.

Sisters Maggie and Patricia said they hoped the coroner would help uncover just what happened to their brother.

The Kerr inquest comes a year after coroner Simon McGregor paved the way for significant changes to the way Indigenous Victorians are treated by the criminal justice system after the death in custody of Veronica Nelson.

McGregor, who was brought to tears during a four-hour reading of his findings last year, took aim at a litany of systemic failures within the criminal justice, health and corrections systems that he said led to Nelson’s preventable death in inhumane and degrading circumstances.

He found from the time of Nelson’s arrest on December 30, 2019, to her death four days later at a women’s prison, she was culturally isolated and her human rights were repeatedly breached while she was on remand for alleged shoplifting.

Australian Productivity Commission data released last month shows six Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died in custody in the 2022-23 financial year, up from three in the previous 12 months.

For 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).

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