Death of Ms Dhu

Julieka Dhu^[1] (commonly referred to as Ms Dhu in Australian media for cultural reasons)^{[n 1]} was a 24-year-old Aboriginal woman who died in police custody in 2014. Between 2 and 4 August 2014, she was detained in custody in a police watch house in South Hedland, Western Australia on unpaid fines. On Monday 4 August, at 1:39pm, she was pronounced dead.^[2] Dhu's was the 340th Aboriginal death in custody since the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1992.^[3]

Dhu's death created controversy in Western Australia after police were called out to a disorderly to assist her but instead after a background check arrested her on unpaid fines totalling $3,622.^[4] Western Australia remains the last jurisdiction in Australia to not have put an end to the jailing of fine defaulters.

Human Rights Law Centre lawyer Ruth Barson, who assisted Dhu's family, said, "Well if we look at Ms Dhu's example she was somebody who was very poor, she was somebody who had absolutely no means to pay and she was also someone who was in a domestic violence situation. So it's essentially not a fair and not a flexible system, it's an automatic system that doesn't take into account why a number of people cannot pay their fine for very good reasons". Academic and researcher, Gerry Georgatos, who has also been assisting the family, and has campaigned for the establishment of the Custody Notification Service in Western Australia and for an end to the jailing of fine defaulters said, "Fines being unpaid should be a civil matter, they're not a criminal matter, shouldn't be a criminal matter. My experience, having worked with people pre-release and post-release is that people in general come out worse from the prison experience than what they went in. We should be doing everything possible to keep people out of the prison experience, not doing everything we can to get them in to the prison experience".^[5][6][7][8]

Coronial Inquiry

Dhu's family campaigned for a coronial inquest into her death.^[9] The findings of the inquest by State Coroner Fogliani were delivered on 16 December 2016.^[10] Beginning in November 2015, the inquest heard that Dhu had been a victim of domestic violence, was in physical pain, complained of being in pain and begged for medical attention. Police took Dhu to the Hedland Health campus on two occasions but the Coroner's Inquest heard that triage staff reported Dhu had "behavioural issues". The Coronial Inquest heard police officers had believed that Dhu was "faking".

The Coronial Inquest was shown disturbing footage of police officers dragging Dhu, apparently unconscious, along the floor of her cell and into a corridor, where she was then carted her by her arms and legs to the back of a police wagon and locked her inside. At the Hedland Health campus, one hour later, she was pronounced dead.^[11]

The Coroner's Inquest heard that Dhu was life-threateningly ill while in custody, that she had gone into septic shock and died from septicaemia and pneumonia. Counsel to the Coroner, Ilona O'Brien stated, "By the morning of 4 August 2014, Miss Dhu’s clinical state rapidly worsened and although it was not appreciated by the police officers involved, some of whom believed that Miss Dhu was feigning her illness, she was in an advanced state of septic shock and only hours from death."^[12]

Senior medical officer Ganesan Sakarapani rejected the suggestion that the Hedland Health campus had a culture of institutionalised racism, telling the coronial inquest that staff have access to cultural awareness programs. He also rejected the suggestion that Dhu would have been treated differently if she was white.^[13] Georgatos, whose PhD research was in understanding racism, describes it is impossible that there is no institutional racism at Hedland Health campus and stated, "I heard a medical director of the Hedland Health Campus “categorically reject the notion of institutional racism” at his hospital... He claimed that there has been significant cultural awareness training at his hospital... He does not understand what institutional or structural racism is and means. Cultural awareness and anti-discrimination training require one to acknowledge that racism exists in every institution, in every workplace, among the most well-meaning and best of people. All structures are people. Of course there is racism at Hedland Health Campus, just like there is at the South Hedland Police station. Racism has many veils and layers. Racism is not limited to the overt and often visible harm that one can do to another but includes also what people think of others."^[14]

Lawyer George Newhouse, who is also assisting the family, said that recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody have not been implemented in Western Australia, "Now those recommendations were made over 25 years ago, and if they had been implemented in WA it's quite likely Ms Dhu would not have passed away."^[11]

A campaign has commenced to end the jailing of fine defaulters in Western Australia, which for instance in NSW ended in 1988, and also for the implementation of the Custody Notification Service (to be coordinated through the WA Aboriginal Legal Services) which would have provided Dhu a trained legal advocate at the time of her detainment.^[15][16] In addition there are calls, led by the CEO of the WA Aboriginal Legal Services, Dennis Eggington, for more to be done by the State to reduce the high arrest and incarceration rates of the State's Aboriginal people, which are the highest in the nation and among the highest in the world.^[17][18]

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