Stan Grant Has Delivered A Powerful Speech About Indigenous Youths In Detention

Journalist Stan Grant has condemned the mistreatment of indigenous teenagers in detention, in an emotional speech at the University of New South Wales on Friday night.

Speaking in the wake of the now infamous Four Corners report that sparked public outrage about the shocking abuse of prisoners at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, Grant invoked the images of 17-year-old Dylan Voller shackled to a chair, stating that “this week my people know what Australia looks like. This week Australia is a boy in a hood in a cell.”

Grant, who was at UNSW to accept an honorary degree of letters, said that he had originally intended to give a speech that “appealed to the best of Australia,” but that in light of the revelations made on Monday night that speech was “best saved for another day.”

Instead, the visibly emotional journalist spoke about watching the harrowing footage with his teenage son. “I saw him lose his place in the world,” said Grant. “With each scene of horror he became less sure of his country.”

Grant went on to say that the footage reminded him of seeing his own father imprisoned, and of stories of his grandfather being “dragged from his bed by police” and “tied to a tree like a dog.”

“The scars of my father and the memory of my grandfather – these stories and images – the graveyard crosses of people gone too young are seared into my minds eyes as surely as the charred flesh and the stench of blood from a lifetime of reporting haunts my night’s sleep,” said Grant. “The memory of a hooded, bound boy in a cell is now similarly burned in my consciousness.”

Grant also responded to Malcolm Turnbull’s newly announced royal commission into juvenile detention, which has already been criticised by indigenous groups who questioned its independence and say that the government failed to adequately consult with the Northern Territory’s indigenous community.

“It may meet a minimum requirement for action but forgive us if we lack faith,” said Grant of the commission. “Two decades ago we held a royal commission into black deaths in custody – it was supposed to end the culture of incarceration. Today almost every face – man, woman and child – behind bars in the Northern Territory is black.”

Instead, Grant called for a truth and reconciliation commission, asking “how can we continue to look at endemic child suicide, intractable disadvantage and our choking jail cells as mere pieces of a policy puzzle scattered on a board devoid of the outline of our troubled past?”

Six of the boys featured in the Four Corners report are currently suing the NT government over their mistreatment. The government was counter-suing two of the boys, seeking compensation for damage caused during an escape attempt, but dropped the suit after the report went to air.

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h/t SMH