Grace Tame and cousin will run 437 minutes to raise money for indigenous deaths in custody

Grace Tame will run 437 minutes – one for every indigenous death in custody – for the past 20 years, to raise money and awareness for the tragedies.

HOBART woman, Grace Tame, who became the face of the #LetHerSpeak campaign last year, has embraced a new project for charity.

This Sunday, Grace and her cousin Eloise Warren each aim to run 437 minutes (7 hours and 17 minutes), representing one minute for every indigenous Australian death in custody since 1991.

Money raised will be donated to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Sisters Inside, and The NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

In 2019, Ms Tame became the first woman in Tasmania to win the right to self identify as a sexual assault survivor in media. Since then, the champion runner has won the Santa Monica ‘Better World’ half-marathon in March this year.

Grace Tame and cousin Eloise Warren will be running for 437 minutes straight to raise money for Black Lives Matter. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Ms Tame, who divides her time between Hobart and Los Angeles, says that she was motivated by the Black Lives Matter movement to do more to support human rights initiatives.

“My friends in Santa Barbara hosted a run for 8 hours and 46 minutes in memory of George Floyd. I wanted to do something similar in Australia, but with a more local focus.

“I know I will never be able to fully comprehend the immeasurable pain of racial discrimination” said Ms Tame.

“However, as a united collective we can always act in support of others among us. To make change, we have to get uncomfortable.”

Ms Tame said that in addition to supporting the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, she was particularly drawn to the ‘Sisters Inside’ charity, after learning that a significant majority women in Australian prison have experienced sexual abuse in childhood or adulthood.

Grace Tame and cousin Eloise Warren will be running for 437 minutes straight to raise money for Black Lives Matter. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“We know that about 89 per cent of women who are criminalised in prison have been sexually abused or raped in their lives” said Debbie Kilroy, the CEO of Sisters Inside.

“In 1994, when we established Sisters Inside, we talked to all the women in prison at this time and we asked them what services they needed most. The high majority said sexual assault counselling.”

“When these girls and women are sexually abused, they are often gagged and silenced. They don’t have any support so they turn to illegal drugs to self medicate. Petty quickly, life can spiral to homelessness, then further violation on the street, then being arrested. It’s a pipeline.”

Sisters Inside has recently raised over $1,000,000 to help support Aboriginal women who were at risk of incarceration in Western Australia, where individuals can be jailed if they fail to pay off petty fines in under 28 days.

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So far 396 Aboriginal women have been supported to stay out of jail, and connected with their children and families.

Ms Kilroy says that jail can have devastating outcomes for Aboriginal women. “This year alone, two [of the three Aboriginal deaths in custody] were women” said Ms Kilroy.

The first was Veronica Walker, 37, who was arrested for shoplifting in Victoria in December, last year. She was denied bail and found dead three days later, after being heard crying out for help during the night.

The second death, was a 40-year-old Aboriginal woman who has not been named. She was found dead in her single cell at Brisbane Women’s Correctional Centre on March 21.

There have been two Aboriginal deaths in custody in Tasmania since 1990.

To donate visit the “Minutes 4 Movement” GoFundMe page.