Aboriginal deaths in custody investigated in The Bowraville Murders

Aboriginal deaths in custody investigated in The Bowraville Murders

When one of three Aboriginal children vanished in the small-populated town of Bowraville, NSW in 1990, the initial response the parents received when reported to the police was, “What do you want me to do about it? I’m about to knock off.”

Compelling viewing this documentary deals with the racism the Aboriginal community experienced from local law enforcement. The film also documents the community’s perseverance in seeking justice for these three children who were eventually declared murdered.

Only when Gary Jubelin, Australia’s most celebrated homicide detective, joined the investigation many years later was the community’s faith partially restored in the ‘white man’s’ law system.

Interviews with family members, crime reporters and detectives compound to the intrigue. Journalist Stan Grant justifyingly concludes by stating that “racism is not a big enough word to describe what’s happened here!”

Was this really racism at its finest? Would there have been more urgency in this investigation had the missing children been from the white community? Don’t black lives matter?

Audiences will agonise as this incredibly powerful and controversial documentary takes them on a journey which has an all too familiar conclusion. Ultimately the realisation is what we already knew. The law is an ass – especially so for the Aboriginal community. Mandatory viewing.

★★★★

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