Book Review: Victims of the Law: Black Queenslanders Today”
| Author | John McCorquodale |
| Published date | 01 June 1984 |
| Date | 01 June 1984 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000486588401700208 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS 119
which have always
been
administered by the Queensland
DAIA
4, sustained higher
morality rates from accidents and violence than did reserves which
are
or have
been,
administered by church groups."
It should also be
noted
that
Alwyn
Peter's
trial judge"
and
in a similar case on
appeal, particularly Murphy J in the High
Court
of Australia" found
the
sociological
data
on the accuseds' backgrounds factors which
the
court should properly
take
into
account both in mitigation of the offence
and
in
the
sentence itself.
The
account
given by Wilson is
both
holistic and sober. Despite the
poor
quality of
the
illustrative photographs,
the
book mounts aconvincing argument for an
end
to
government-inspired, sanctioned, or approved policies which create conditions
under
which crime is
not
only an unavoidable
but
an essential
part
of
the
community.
NOTES
1 16 April, 1983. The articles:
(a) Robyn A Lincoln, Jackob M Nahman, Paul R Wilson and Carol E Matis, "Mortality rates in
14 Queensland Aboriginal reserve communities," pp 357-60;and
(b) David S Trigger, Christopher Anderson, Robyn A Lincoln, and Carol E Matis, "Mortality
rates in 14 Queensland Aboriginal reserve communities: Association with 10
socioenvironmental variables," pp 361-65.
2Thursday 21 April 1983.
3 Ibid at p 364.
4Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement.
5
Dunn
J.
6 Neal v R (1982) 42
ALR
609 at 617-18.
Victims of the Law: Black Queenslanders
Today",
Garth
Nettheim,
George
Allen
&Unwin, Sydney (1981) vii 199 pp paperback $9.95, hardback $18.95.
Professor Nettheim's work essentially is an up-date of his
Out
Lawed:
Queensland's Aborigines and Islanders and the Rule
of
Law which was published in
19731•
Both
were written as reports for
the
Australian Section of
the
International
Commission of Jurists on
the
current legislation in Queensland to which Aborigines
and
Torres Strait Islanders are subjected.
The
operative word
here
is "subjected".
And
what asorry tale is told! Even
though the
author
disclaims matters of interests to criminologists
and
social
anthropologists such as health, employment, housing and education, his focus on
land
rights, self-management and discrimination powerfully demonstrates
the
continuing potency of institutionalized violence.
To
that
extent, his work is a more sedate, even "academic", companion to
Wilson's work reviewed above. Eschewing narration of one person's
tormented
life
for a detailed analysis of Queensland legislation, Nettheim cites instance after
instance of flagrant breaches of international conventions, all committed in the
name
of the law.
He
concludes that "issues of justice, of/equality of status
and
of
responsibility must be at
the
heart of all efforts towards Aboriginal
and
Islander
Advancement'".
He
infers that the elimination from State laws of
the
"old
protective and paternalistic philosophy" is a prerequisite to the regaining of pride
and
self-motivation",
No doubt that would be a start. Sed quis Custodiet custodes ipsos?
The
whole
history of
the
State's legislative sanctions does
not
exactly inspire
one
with
confidence in a large-scale Damascene conversion which would be necessary for
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