Coronial narratives of Indigenous death: A case study of Queensland

• In Event: Cross-National Perceptions of Crime and Punishment

Abstract

The entrenched legacy of early Australia’s colonial Westminster legal system clashing with traditional customary ways of Indigenous culture is reflected in the current over-representation of Indigenous peoples within the criminal justice system. Less discussed are the rates of over representation also evident within the coronial system and which continue despite culturally sensitive changes to legislation being passed in all Australian jurisdictions in the latter part of the 20th century. These rates of over-representation occur in the violent and reportable deaths of suicide, accident and homicide, and in the non-violent and reportable deaths due to natural causes and which come into the system due to a lack of death certification. Drawing on qualitative data generated from an Australian Research Council Linkage (2010-2013) project, this paper will explore the perspectives of coronial decision makers (coroners, police officers, police liaison officers, forensic pathologists, coronial counsellors and coronial nurses)on the silences and invisibility of cultural difference in a death investigation. These narratives will be contextualized within i) a first nations lens examining the recognition and understandings of Indigenous culture and tradition within the coronial system and ii) existing stereotypes within the death investigation and governance strategies - the cultural tensions of making sense of ‘otherness’.

Authors

• Carol Ann Quadrelli, Queensland University of Technology

• Gordon Tait, Queensland University of Technology

• Belinda Carpenter, Queensland University of Technology

• Michael Barnes, State Coroner, New South Wales Coroners Court