Just as the Black Lives Matters movement is demanding an end to police brutality and killings of African American people in the USA, ActionAid joins the call for us as Australians to confront our own horrific record of Black deaths in custody and unacceptably high levels of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
ActionAid stands with communities on the frontlines of injustice around the world everywhere. Just as we support women from the Global South working to redress the colonial legacies of poverty and injustice, we stand in solidarity with African American communities in the US and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia in the calls to end racial injustice.
ActionAid endorses the aspirations expressed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart as the demands by Australia’s Indigenous communities for the pathway to justice and healing. We commit to being allies in demanding justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and continuing to learn from the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.
Today, and every day, we stand in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
To support an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody, visit Change the Record: changetherecord.org.au.
To support the Black Lives Matter movement, ActionAid USA has put together a list of bail funds to donate to and petitions you can sign at: bit.ly/defundP