Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "AboriginalLB Interview: Alice Dixon - Alice Dixon's Son Kingsley Died in Adelaide Gaol in 1987" [1989] AboriginalLawB 7; (1989) 1(36) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 10

• Alb Interview: Alice Dixon

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AboriginalLB Interview: Alice Dixon

Alice Dixon’s son Kingsley died in Adelaide Gaol in 1987

What do you hope the Royal Commission will Achieve?

I hope the Royal Commission will open the wider Australian community's eyes to what is happening to the Aboriginal people under the white man's system that the Aboriginal has had to adapt to without fully understanding.

What sort of action has the Royal Commission taken to protect you from repercussions from your involvement with it?

Nothing. I'm facing these trumped up charges, which I'm attending court at the present moment for. Assault police, hinder police and resist arrest, and so is my daughter in court for hindering police. However we were successful in getting my niece's charges withdrawn, they could not find a case against her, so that was one minor victory. All my family appear to be hounded by the police and brought to court on charges that can be labeled as serious.

If this is taking place while the RC is on foot do you feel optimistic about the outcomes?

Yes, I do. I think that the change will come about if we work hard enough for it. Probably not all the changes, no one can expect a hundred per cent result, nothing will be given to us on a plate. We will have to fight for it. Education is needed for the European community to realise that it is not all hand outs.

Do you think there are suspicious circumstances surrounding Kingsley's death?

I do believe quite frankly that my son was murdered. The inquest brought nothing out, it only brought out suicide. The inquest, as are all inquests into Aboriginal deaths, was totally inadequate. Having the Commission and sitting in on it and listening to all the evidence has only confirmed my view that Kingsley was murdered.

Do you believe that the stories are coming out in the Royal Commission and that the truth is being heard?

They are beginning to come out and white people are going to have to face that fact. They feel quite comfortable with suicide, but very uncomfortable with allegations of murder against police and prison officers.

Do you think that the Commissioners are willing to consider that perspective as fully as the relatives are going to put it across?

No, not as fully. I believe that in fairness one mustn't just say "Yes, well we'll agree with the Aboriginal families that it is murder." They are doing their best to investigate the deaths fully, the social backgrounds, the people and their communities, the person who dies, his or her environment during their growing up years, if they have been in trouble - as you can imagine, most have been in trouble as a juvenile and then they progress into the adult system, the prisons.

It has been commented that one factor contributing to the deaths in custody is the over-detention of Aboriginal people.

To cite one example, with a lot of people who have died in custody we know that alcohol has been a very important factor, but it is only a partial factor. A lot of people who have died in custody have been picked up drunk and no sooner are they placed in a police cell than an hour or two after they are dead. Yet if they were left on a park bench, they're able to wake up the next day and if they are alcoholic, to go for a drink. No death. Why can you survive on a park bench without the comfort of a bed and a blanket, whereas they put you in a cell with a bed and a blanket and you end up dead. How is that accounted for?

Commissioner Muirhead's Interim Report recommends that drunkenness be decriminalised, but that police as a last resort should still be responsible for picking up intoxicated people.

I believe that police should not pick Aborigines up if they are drunk or under the influence of drugs. They should strongly recommend that we have our own Aboriginal de-toxification units, safe houses for them to be taken straight to, that are run by an Aboriginal group and not be picked up and taken to a police cell.

Has Kingsley's death and your participation in the Royal Commission affected you and your family's relations with the police and other state agents?

This Royal Commission has given us a chance to challenge the system and we find that those government agencies, namely the police and prison authorities, juvenile detention agencies and indeed government agencies, don't like the challenge this Royal Commission is putting out to them. We in the Aboriginal community find a lot more resentment from those people. They think we're just being, to use an American expression, "smart niggers". The Royal Commission is a lawful exercise, and we believe we are doing things through the right channels, the legal channels, and we're still resented for this. In other words, they don't believe we have the right to challenge them through the Royal Commission. The WA government is a classic example. Sadly, our Police Department has backed the WA Police Union.

Have you found the communication channels with the Royal Commission open? Have you had access to the information you require?

No I haven't found that at all to be so. The SA Royal Commission office have to find out what they can from Canberra and they seem to know about as much as what our lawyer knows.

Prior to the Royal Commission being established, there were calls for at least three Royal Commissioners, with the majority being Aboriginal. In retrospect, are you satisfied with the Royal Commissioners?

I'm certainly satisfied with Mr Muirhead, who we know very well, though not on a personal level. And Elliott Johnston we know very well. I don't know the other two, although we do hear favourable comments about them from the Aboriginal communities.

How do you feel Mr Muirhead's resignation will affect the Royal Commission for yourselves and the other families?

A lot of us fell that he should not have left in mid-stream. We feel that he should have completed the job because he spearheaded the way in which the Royal Commission is headed. But he has the complete confidence of the other Commissioners, and whoever replaces him as Chief Commissioner will continue to conduct the Royal Commission in the same directions.

It has been commented that once the final reports come out it is the responsibility of communities, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to see that they are implemented. What is your program for keeping up public pressure?

We will not stop. It'll be our responsibility, our duty and our ongoing commitment to see that the important recommendations are implemented. We will work relentlessly to see they are implemented and we won't stop until they are.

Is there anything further you'd like to say about Kingsley's death or the Royal Commission more generally?

Just that I hope that the white Australian community gives this Royal Commission all the support it can. I'm very much aware that they have not just done Aboriginal research. There's research into white deaths as well and these recommendations won't be just for Aboriginal people. The white victims of police and prison custody abuse and death will also benefit from this report once it is released and its recommendations implemented. I think that the wider Australian community should get behind and support this Royal Commission as well. If everybody appreciates the massive task it’s been and the benefits that it can bring to the whole of Australia, it can turn the tide for the whole legal and penal system to be looked at and we can all work together to better it and to make it beneficial to everyone concerned.

After the release of the Case Report on Kingsley Dixon's death, the AboriginalLB asked Alice Dixon if she would like to add any comments to her earlier interview:

The final reports have been an exercise in buck-passing. Muirhead left the door open to individual States to look at prosecutions. The Crown law office has not recommended any criminal charges. However, they have passed it on to the Attorney-General. He will probably pass it on to the Correctional Department. It makes us wonder whether this has been futile exercise. If nothing else happens they should at least lose their jobs. They were found by Mr Muirhead to be negligent - he said that Kingsley wouldn't have died if prison regulations had been followed. I'm trying to appeal to the whole Australian community because if murders go on, and justice is not sought, but only a compromise, then how can we call ourselves a civilised society? Strong recommendations have not come. All four families were very bitterly disappointed with the Case Reports.