Dennerstein, Lyn --- "Harassment" [1988] AboriginalLawB 11; (1988) 1(30) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 12

• Harassment

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Harassment

by Lyn Dennerstein

["Harass" v.t. Vex by repeated attacks; trouble; worry; from French: harasser, pej. from Old French: harer, set a dog on. Concise Oxford Dictionary]

Harassment takes many different forms; it often leads to intense emotional and physical distress. As a tool for wearing down resistance to oppression, it is most effective. Repeated episodes of harassment can crush the human spirit and literally drive people to death's door. Aboriginal people have endured, and are still subjected to, vicious forms of harassment. Rose Wanganeen of the Committee to Defend Black Rights has almost completed preparation of a questionnaire on harassment, to be called the Harassment Guide which will be circulated to all Aboriginal communities across Australia. The questionnaire is a well-researched sociological document which will record the type, history, extent and duration of harassment of an Aboriginal individual or community (in addition to the name and station of the perpetrator!). The following list is a small sample of incidents of harassment of Aboriginal people, which have recently come to the attention of.AboriginalLB:

• Evidence placed before the Royal Commission inquiry into the death of Kingsley Dixon at Adelaidejail on July 9, 1987, points to a merciless process of harassment which in one way or another may have led to his tragic death.
• On 22 January, 1988 the Fringe-dwellers of the Swan Valley requested the Ombudsman of the West Australian Government to initiate a Government Inquiry into recent incidents which have occurred amidst their community at the Lockridge campsite. Complaints include allegations that shots were fired by police in the middle of a community which included women, children and old men, on the night of 14 January, 1988; that police acted in a ‘neglectful manner’ towards an injured Aboriginal boy, Gregory Bropho, on the same night and refused close relatives and other community members access to the boy to offer assistance. In addition, the Fringedwellers have asked the Ombudsman to inquire as to '. . . why fifteen police cars and vans and three tow trucks was there at Lockridge campsite on the night of the police chase of 14 January 1988'. They have also complained that the police returned 'in force' the following evening 'to arrest one bloke, an Aboriginal man, Morgan Eli Bropho', the uncle of the injured boy. Morgan was subsequently charged with 'being disorderly by creating a disturbance'; it is alleged by community members that he was charged in an improper manner.
• The Western Aboriginal Legal Service sent a letter of complaint to the Police Commissioner, Mr. Avery, on 11 January this year, regarding Bourke police officers' use of their new riot equipment.
• WALS denounced local police for regularly using their batons, shields and helmets to intimidate Aborigines in minor incidents. This unwarranted action has resulted in 'unnecessary and unacceptable violence to both Aboriginal people and the NSW Police Force'. according to Mr. Noel Gillon, co-ordinator, WALS.
• Yarrabah in far north Queensland bcame the focus of media attention in mid December, 1987, when the southern press reported that a "riot" had erupted there. (The local version is totally different, but the situation at Yarrabah too 'sensitive' to justify regurgitating the incident at this late stage. )Community leaders informed the editor of AboriginalLB in early January, 1988, that a lengthy period of police harassment had preceeded the confrontation. During this time, the nightly police sport indulged in at Yarrabah was described as 'spot-lighting'-police beaming powerful spotlights in the faces of Aboriginal people sitting peacefully on their verandahs. Since the stoning of the local police station (read: "riot" in the southern press), this activity of 'spot-lighting' has apparently ceased.

Hopefully, the Harassment Guide may help prevent future instances of harassment; at the very least, it will assist in monitoring a deplorable trend in the treatment of Aborigines and serve to document the names of les chiens which are 'set upon' the Aboriginal people.