SYDNEY - The death of an Aboriginal teenager in Western Australia ignited nationwide rallies and vigils on Wednesday, with activists saying the country continues to fail its Indigenous people and is seeping with racism.
Cassius Turvey, 15, was allegedly attacked with a metal pole by a white man in the western city of Perth on Oct 13, dying from his injuries 10 days later.
The attack, which was described as “racially motivated” by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has been met with widespread revulsion.
Thousands of people gathered in cities around Australia including Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
“I’m here because the targeted racist, fatal violence against First Nations people in their own country has been going on for 250 years. And that’s 250 years too long,” said Ms Ingrid Matthews, 53, at a rally in Sydney’s city centre. “We’re here to say, stop the violence.”
At the same rally, Ms Maria Giannacopoulous, 47, said she wanted to honour Turvey. “It’s one of the many Indigenous deaths in this country that often goes unnoticed by the general population,” she said.
In Perth, where hundreds of people gathered at a vigil, the boy’s mother Mechelle Turvey told national broadcaster ABC: “We all are sharing the grief, and we all are healing together.”
In a message ahead of the vigil urging peaceful action, she described her son as a “jovial, kind and his heart – larger than life”.
Prime Minister Albanese last week described Turvey’s death as a “terrible tragedy”. “This attack, that clearly is racially motivated, just breaks your heart,” he told reporters.
Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch sparked outrage when he said the alleged murder might have been a “case of mistaken identity”, with Turvey finding himself “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Mr Blanch’s theory was curtly dismissed in an open letter signed by six Noongar Indigenous leaders from Western Australia.
“Cassius was not in the wrong place at the wrong time,” they wrote. “He was in his school uniform with his friends in broad daylight.”
The inequalities facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia remain stark, with their life expectancies years shorter than other Australians and their rate of deaths in custody higher.
Recent Aboriginal deaths, including many in custody, have sparked large protests, echoing the “Black Lives Matter” movement in the United States and elsewhere.
A 21-year-old man has been charged with Turvey’s murder and will appear in court next month.
The man also faces charges of aggravated assault and stealing after he allegedly attacked Turvey’s 13-year-old friend with a pole and took his crutches. AFP
