White Australia Has a Blak History. Justice for Turvey.
Words by Habibah Jaghoori
I write this article on stolen land seized through extraordinarily violent, racist, and legal means. Australia is built on stolen land. The Indigenous people of this country have never ceded their sovereignty over any inch of Australia.
I write this article on stolen land where the remanent of colonisation is practiced and upheld on every systemic and institutional level.
I write this article on a land where the Indigenous people face genocidal policies, rampant inequality, institutional slavery, and bloodthirsty racism every day.
15-year-old Noongar boy Cassius Turvey met his end because a white supremacist, domestic terrorist, settler, feeling empowered by a racist state, pursued him. He was armed with an alleged machete and a metal pole as he hunted down Cassius after school using vile racial slurs. Cassius was hospitalised and died from his injuries on Sunday the 23rd of October.
Colonisation happens in more than one way. Racial slurs are a colonial tool to bring upon shame and shame is an essential prerequisite for the iron fist of capitalism to beat to death the spirit of hope and resilience that existed in Cassius Turvey.
Cassius Turvey is a blak boy who faced the consequences of a state that incarcerates Indigenous children and of a system that praises the history of colonisation.
On Dit sends its unconditional solidarity to the Indigenous people of the world fighting for their freedom, human rights and land.