The call was made as an international response after the fatal shootings of members from the African American community from Police in the United States of America. The response escalated after the shooting of three Police officers in Lousianna during a Black Lives Matter protest in response to the deaths in custody and shootings.
Demands were made in support at the rally in Melbourne last week and questions were raised. *Why are so many Police shooting First Nations and African American people in the United States in 2016 and why are Police officers being supported with paid leave and compensation without charges being laid when there is a death in custody? And the final cry of frustration, 'that all lives will matter when black lives do.'
As people from many nations gathered on the Kulin Nations at the State Library in Melbourne, support and solidarity was shown from and for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
The rally brought community attention of the crisis in Australia of the increase in black and Indigenous incarceration.
In the twenty five years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, there has been as many deaths in custody as the three hundred and thirty six recommendations handed down in the final report.
The speakers we hear in this podcast are Shareena Clanton who is a first nations Yamadtji Blackfoot and African American woman & Noani, who is a Australian woman from Melbourne who is of African American heritage.
Sadly today more news from the United States shows that there is an investigation into the shooting of an unarmed carer of an autistic boy. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is looking into the incident.
