THIS WORLD The Boy from the Block Tx Date: 8th July 2004 This script was made from audio tape � any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 10.00.00 This World Theme Music 10.00.02 Title Page thisworld 10.00.07 Music 10.00.20 David Akinsanya It was the end of a long hot Australian summer. 10.00.23 Music 10.00.35 David Akinsanya But that lazy Sunday in the middle of February, the day after Valentines Day, something totally unexpected was about to happen in laid back, easy-going Sydney. 10.00.47 Music 10.00.54 David Akinsanya By the early evening, what had been a scorcher of a day was turning into a humid, sticky night. 10.00.59 Music 10.01.08 David Akinsanya It was about seven o�clock, the end of the weekend, when most people were heading home. In the city centre they wouldn�t have taken much notice of the sound in the streets below. 10.01.18 Music/Sirens 10.01.22 David Akinsanya But across town, in the place that is home to many of Sydney�s aboriginals, something extraordinary was going on. 10.01.28 Music/Sirens 10.01.32 David Akinsanya That evening Australians were in for a shock because just five miles from the Sydney Opera House, in the suburb of Redfern� 10.01.39 Sirens 10.01.41 David Akinsanya �a full scale riot was kicking off. 10.01.43 Sirens 10.01.47 David Akinsanya And because it was unfolding in front of the TV cameras, the rest of the country was forced to take notice. The spark which ignited Sydney was the controversial death of a local boy which many aboriginals blamed on the police. 10.02.01 Music 10.02.02 David Akinsanya TJ Hickey has become a symbol of the extraordinary divide between indigenous Australians and their white neighbours. 10.02.09 Music 10.02.12 David Akinsanya He was just another kid on The Block but his story is the story of many aboriginals in today�s Australia. 10.02.18 Music 10.02.21 Title Page The boy from The Block 10.02.35 David Akinsanya If you�re an aboriginal Australian and you also have the talent to be a gifted artist, life is sweet. You�ll be celebrated by the smartest galleries in town and everybody wants to be your friend. 10.02.45 Music 10.02.47 David Akinsanya Aboriginal art is in big demand; prices are high and new work brings out the collectors. 10.02.52 Music 10.02.53 Woman at gallery I love the paintings, they�re just fantastic. 10.02.56 David Akinsanya Do you buy aboriginal art? 10.02.57 Woman at gallery I do, I do. I think it�s a great investment and especially for people like, for me it�s almost like superannuation. Rather than giving it to a super fund I buy something that I love, that I know it�s going to appreciate. 10.03.09 David Akinsanya And you see it almost as an investment, as a good investment. 10.03.11 Woman at gallery Yes, it is. It�s a great investment. 10.03.15 David Akinsanya Art is the acceptable face of indigenous culture; it�s the bit that other Australians are comfortable with. 10.03.22 David Akinsanya But it�s hard to find other things about aboriginal people that Australians are proud of. 10.03.29 David Akinsanya I�ve come to New South Wales to find out why that is, from the family of the boy whose death led to the Sydney riot. 10.03.36 Music 10.03.46 David Akinsanya Five hundred miles inland from Sydney, on the edge of the outback, is the small town of Walgett. 10.03.51 Music 10.03.54 David Akinsanya It�s where TJ Hickey came from. 10.03.56 Music 10.04.05 David Akinsanya It�s a world away from the cosmopolitan coast and few tourists have reason to pass through here. 10.04.10 Music 10.04.14 David Akinsanya A third of the residents are aboriginals, but you won�t find any of them working in the general stores in the main street or anywhere else much come to that. 10.04.22 Music 10.04.27 David Akinsanya This is one of Walgett�s oldest clans. 10.04.29 Music 10.04.32 David Akinsanya The Hickeys 10.04.32 Music 10.04.35 David Akinsanya Gail knows her family came out of the bush and settled here at least five generations ago - maybe longer. Like many other aboriginal families, she shares a house with relatives; they all mix in together. 10.04.46 Music 10.04.53 David Akinsanya Gail is bringing up six daughters on her own, some of the time living in Sydney and some of the time here. 10.04.58 Children singing 10.04.59 Gail That�s Nakita. That�s Cathy. This is Marilyn. Rebecca. Cynthia. Bianca. 10.05.25 David Akinsanya April hangs out with the family too. She�s fifteen and was TJ�s girlfriend. 10.05.32 Music 10.05.34 David Akinsanya TJ was seventeen when his death made headlines across the country. He was Gail�s oldest. His real name was Thomas James, but everybody knew him as TJ; his family, his friends and now the whole of Australia. 10.05.48 David Akinsanya Gail, you�ve got loads of nice pictures of TJ here, haven�t you? What�s this one here? 10.05.50 Aston GAIL HICKEY Yeah. That�s TJ, Nakita, Rebecca and Marilyn; his three sisters. 10.05.58 David Akinsanya He�s got a nice smile on his face there, hasn�t he? He�s got a lot character 10.06.00 Gail Yeah. 10.06.06 David Akinsanya Ah, that�s a nice picture, isn�t it? 10.06.07 Gail Yeah. 10.06.08 David Akinsanya About five or six, do you reckon? 10.06.09 Gail Yeah, about six. 10.06.11 David Akinsanya He�s got a nice smile on his face. 10.06.13 Gail Yeah. 10.06.15 David Akinsanya And this one must be quite recent, mustn�t it? 10.06.17 Gail Yeah, it�s his grand-daughter. 10.06.19 David Akinsanya God daughter. 10.06.20 Gail His god daughter. 10.06.23 David Akinsanya Right. 10.06.24 Gail Yeah. 10.06.25 David Akinsanya He looks very grown up there doesn�t he? 10.06.26 Gail Yeah. 10.06.27 David Akinsanya He looks very proud 10.06.31 Music 10.06.37 David Akinsanya TJ�s father, Gail�s husband, is in jail. This time, he�s serving seven years for armed robbery and assault. He�s been in and out of prison most of his adult life. He�s not alone among TJ�s family in that. Two of TJ�s uncles are in the local jail too. 10.06.53 Music 10.06.58 Girls Is Locky there? Darrel Hickey! Darrel Hickey! 10.07.03 David Akinsanya Less than three percent of the people living in Australia are aboriginal, but they make up more than forty percent of the prisoners. No wonder many Australians have a stereotype image of their indigenous neighbours as being �a problem�. 10.07.15 Music 10.07.17 David Akinsanya TJ grew up here. It wasn�t a secure upbringing. In Walgett many of the aboriginal men drink way more than is good for them, or for their families. Domestic violence is the most common crime amongst aboriginals. But because women and children are usually the victims, it doesn�t seem to be talked about very much. 10.07.36 Music 10.07.45 David Akinsanya By the age of twelve TJ was already known to the local police. 10.07.49 Music/playing football 10.08.01 David Akinsanya The only adult in town I could find who took an interest in TJ was Ducky Dennis. 10.08.08 Ducky I remember the first day I met TJ; it was up at the high school. 10.08.12 David Akinsanya Ducky was a teaching assistant and TJ was bunking off - again. 10.08.19 Aston DUCKY DENNIS I said you should be in class, learning stuff. He said, I said; you�d better get back in there hey? He said; I�m done with the class. I says; you have to get back in the class, you got to go there. He says you�ll have to catch me first. That�s the way TJ, you know, that�s me, I�m joking, joking, yeah I�m going back to class. 10.08.41 Music 10.08.44 David Akinsanya But more often than not, TJ skipped school or came home early. It�s the same with the girls now. They just don�t go to school much. 10.08.53 Music 10.08.56 David Akinsanya There doesn�t seem to be anybody in authority who can get them to go. 10.08.59 Music 10.09.03 David Akinsanya Although there are meant to be all sorts of schemes to encourage children to attend classes and social workers to try and enforce the law if they don�t, families like Gail�s just slip through and no one seems to do much about it. 10.09.15 Music 10.09.21 David Akinsanya But today Gail has other things on her mind. 10.09.23 Music 10.09.29 David Akinsanya She�s got an appointment to take the kids to the doctor. Gail has bought Cathy, Marilyn and Rebecca to check out skin infections; it�s a recurring problem for the girls. 10.09.40 Music 10.09.45 David Akinsanya Gail herself suffers from heart palpitations. Life expectancy for aboriginals is twenty years less than for white Australians. 10.09.53 Music 10.09.59 Television show host Thirty thousand, five hundred dollars and thirty thousand six hundred dollars. And it�s your bid. 10.10.07 Woman on show Thirty thousand five hundred and sixty-three. 10.10.11 Television show host Yes. 10.10.17 David Akinsanya Australia may have the highest living standard in the southern hemisphere but on every health indicator, aboriginals come out worst when you compare them to other indigenous populations in Canada, America and New Zealand. 10.10.31 Gail It�s this skin on her head, that�s all. I�ve been using that shampoo you told me. Little red bumps. 10.10.36 Doctor Oh yeah. 10.10.39 Gail It�s been clearing up; it�s been doing well and that. 10.10.41 Doctor Yes I think we can get you some ointment 10.10.43 Aston KELLY ROWE Health Assistant Half of the kids forget and they are drinking the town water and sometimes it�s contaminated and they�re drinking the tap water outside and that�s our river water. So they can be picking up a lot of germs in the tummy, a lot of diarrhoea also in town, it�s going around at the moment. Boils and diarrhoea and conjunctivitis. 10.11.10 Nurse How long have you had your boil for? 10.11.13 Girl I dunno. 10.11.16 Nurse It�s in a bad spot. 10.11.18 David Akinsanya Put starkly, Gail�s daughters have the same life expectancy as white Australian children did in nineteen hundred. 10.11.36 David Akinsanya Aboriginal babies are nearly five times more likely to die in their first year than other infants. 10.11.48 David Akinsanya Gail lives one day at a time; there�s no planning ahead. 10.11.54 David Akinsanya Her income is made up entirely of state benefits; it�s enough to get by on. 10.12.01 David Akinsanya None of the Hickey family are in regular work. It�s the same with most aboriginal families in Walgett. It seems round here even the bin men are white. 10.12.16 David Akinsanya TJ grew up in a town where aboriginals and white Australians live largely separate lives. 10.12.26 David Akinsanya But Leon Winters, a community nurse, says the biggest divide is between those who work and those who don�t. 10.12.33 Aston LEON WINTERS Community Health Worker If you walk down the street today while we were here David and most of the people on the street this morning were from the aboriginal community and it�s a pay day when the government pays its money out, and, but they�re the ones going around spending all the money. But you walk into every shop that�s around here, behind each counter it�s a white face and although all the money that they�re making is coming from the aboriginal community, none of them are getting employed here or very few, the chosen few. 10.13.02 David Akinsanya So why is it that so many aboriginal Australians in Walgett are living on handouts rather than earning a wage? 10.13.12 David Akinsanya You�d expect Charlie Mitchell to be employing local people. He came to Walgett fifty years ago and built up a successful haulage business. He�s also a local councillor. He says he�d love to give a chance to more aboriginals but on the local employment register it�s almost impossible to find people who are suitable. 10.13.31 Aston: CHARLIE MITCHELL Next door there�s a programme which is Work For The Dole and they do the equivalent hours for what the dole is worth. There�s basically a hundred and thirty in there, both men and women. There�s probably ten or twelve that are employable; the rest are basically unemployable in the private industry because when they have to go to work in the private industry, people want to know that they can do the job. Because they�re not going to school they�re not getting the grounding at the school to get them ready for when they leave school so that then they can get a job and then be, get settled into a different lifestyle to what they�re doing now, because all that leads to is your domestic violence, your unemployment, your juvenile crime and it just becomes the same circle all over again, generation after generation. 10.14.22 Music 10.14.26 David Akinsanya Up until the nineteen sixties when Gail was born, there used to be a curfew and aboriginals weren�t allowed into town after six o�clock. Privately, some of the people here wish that was still the case. It�s because Walgett, like many other small towns with large indigenous populations, has a crime rate way out of proportion to its size. 10.14.48 Music 10.15.08 David Akinsanya The main bar in town is mixed all right, but there are tensions here. 10.15.12 Music 10.15.14 David Akinsanya Few drinkers are willing to be upfront on camera, but many say they�re virtually living under siege. Who from? 10.15.20 Music 10.15.23 David Akinsanya Gangs of aboriginal kids roaming the streets at night, up to no good in the eyes of many of their white neighbours. 10.15.29 Music 10.15.42 Local Man They�re just out of control, yeah. If you walk around at night time you can see large amounts of children walking the streets. So unfortunately that�s one of the main reasons for our community deteriorating, yeah. 10.15.59 Local Man Apart from breaking and entering and breaking into shops robbing, shoplifting, breaking into cars on a constant basis. They�re the main things but that�s enough. 10.16.11 Local Man A lot of people won�t speak their minds, that�s a better way at putting it; they can�t speak their minds because they�re frightened what will happen to them. They�re frightened, they�re intimidated. These children have them frightened; they�re intimidated by what goes on by a minority of the town. 10.16.29 David Akinsanya The anxiety about crime and lawlessness amongst Walgett�s white residents is real. So who are these tearaways that apparently keep their neighbours living in fear? 10.16.42 Music 10.16.46 David Akinsanya Mervin Hickey is fourteen. He�s notorious; one of the �bad boys� that white Walgett would rather see the back of. 10.16.53 Music 10.16.58 David Akinsanya He was TJ�s cousin and best friend; they used to hang out together all the time. 10.17.03 Music 10.17.08 David Akinsanya Like TJ, Mervin doesn�t go to school and like TJ he drifts back and forth between Sydney and Walgett. Many other aboriginal teenagers in the town are the same. It�s a rootless, aimless life that inevitably leads to drugs and crime. 10.17.24 Music 10.17.35 Mervin I brought yous here to show yous where me and my cousin TJ used to fish around this area. Catch some good fish, big size. 10.17.47 Music 10.17.52 Mervin There�s nothing in Walgett. The only thing young people do around here is up the crime that�s all. 10.17.58 David Akinsanya What sort of things, what sort of crimes do you do? 10.18.00 Mervin Shake cars, do houses over. 10.18.04 David Akinsanya You�ve done that? 10.18.05 Mervin Yeah, I�ve been through that. 10.18.06 David Akinsanya Have you? Do a lot of kids around here go through that? 10.18.09 Mervin Yeah. 10.18.11 David Akinsanya When you say you shake cars; what does that mean? 10.18.14 Mervin Like break into them and take them and go spinning around in them. Yeah. 10.18.20 David Akinsanya And was that the same sort of thing as what TJ would be doing? 10.18.22 Mervin Yeah. Yeah. 10.18.31 Police chief This is our reception area. You come through here you�ll see it�s a fairly small complex, not a lot of room, it�s actually been built up over the years� 10.18.43 David Akinsanya Walgett�s police chief has kids like Mervin and TJ in his sights. Stan Single says on average seven to ten offences are reported every day on his beat. Vandalism, theft, domestic violence and nearly all the crimes are committed by young aboriginals. 10.19.03 Aston Supt STAN SINGLE The main role of policing is focused on these types of crimes which are committed by one particular group, which is committed by the aboriginal community, or members of the aboriginal community. A few but the aboriginal community. Umm that�s the main reason we�re here. 10.19.20 David Akinsanya But talk to aboriginals in Walgett and they say the police overreact. They feel harassed. Pulled over, pulled up, pulled in; it was something we saw ourselves. 10.19.33 David Akinsanya Can I ask why they stopped you? 10.19.35 Man I don�t know. I don�t know, some of them just, a lot of, a lot of, a lot of people telling me they dislike blokes, they just come and bung them in. 10.19.45 Music 10.19.46 Mervin fishing Mervin is already very familiar with the inside of Walgett police station. But like TJ before him, he has no role models, no one telling him where to draw the line. He�s a free agent at fourteen. 10.19.59 Mervin The only men in my family is in prison now. 10.20.03 David Akinsanya All of them? 10.20.04 Mervin Yeah. Three uncles. No four uncles, five uncles in jail. I got two on life, I got one getting out, I got two getting out next year and one getting out in three months. 10.20.18 David Akinsanya So really all you look up to, the men in your family, are all in jail. 10.20.22 Mervin Yeah. 10.20.24 David Akinsanya How does that make you feel? 10.20.27 Mervin Bad 10.20.33 David Akinsanya Stan, you talk about this cycle, do you think that we are going to break this cycle with this next generation? 10.20.39 Stan Single Well, I can only hope from a policeman�s point of view umm, I personally put a fair few, a lot of resources into working with these kids and trying to get them to see a better life, a life away from Walgett. I think a lot of that is the answer. I�m not condemning Walgett, but I really believe there�s no life for these kids in Walgett. 10.21.08 Music 10.21.09 Stan Single I�d just like to see these kids look further then Walgett and get out and succeed; that�s the only way you�re going to break the cycle. 10.21.18 Music 10.21.23 David Akinsanya But what hope is there of breaking the cycle when the kids don�t even stick to going to one school. Gail lives a restless life, travelling up and down between Walgett and Sydney, a ten hour bus ride away. 10.21.35 Music 10.21.37 David Akinsanya She doesn�t have her own home, so she�s never really settled here or there. So her children never settle down either. Never get used to one place. One school. One routine. 10.21.48 Music 10.21.52 David Akinsanya Within a month or so, Gail, April and the girls will be back here and it seems at every turn of their journey there�s a collision of cultures rather than integration. 10.22.00 Music 10.22.07 David Akinsanya For at least fifty thousand years, maybe longer, aboriginals have been travelling back and forth across Australia. They�re one of the oldest societies on earth. 10.22.16 Music 10.22.21 David Akinsanya But it was only in nineteen sixty-seven, when Gail was a year old, that they were recognised as full citizens in their own country. Since then, there�s been talk of integration. But where has it led? 10.22.33 Music 10.22.36 David Akinsanya Go to Redfern in Sydney and you�ll find out. These semi-derelict streets near the city centre are always the first stop for aboriginals when they arrive in town and it�s the place where Gail brings her family. 10.22.48 Music 10.22.50 Aston ALLEN MADDEN Aboriginal Elder Redfern�s always gonna be a strong place where aboriginal people are and where aboriginal people congregate. Wherever they come from, first point of call is Redfern because if you can�t find a black fellow down here that�s related to you he�s either dead or he�s in jail. That�s how Redfern is. 10.23.08 Music 10.23.10 David Akinsanya They call these streets �The Block�; it�s where many of Sydney�s aboriginals live and it�s where the riot in February took place. 10.23.18 Music 10.23.23 David Akinsanya The oldest resident on The Block is the formidable Joyce Ingram. 10.23.26 Music 10.23.27 David Akinsanya Show us a bit of your house, Joyce. 10.23.29 David Akinsanya Known to everybody as Aunty Joyce. 10.23.32 Joyce �my bedroom now because I fell down the stairs a few years ago� 10.23.37 David Akinsanya Joyce is almost an institution. She�s lived in Redfern since she was six months old. She has four children, twenty-three grandchildren and stopped counting at seventy great-grandchildren. 10.23.52 David Akinsanya When Gail arrives, she comes round to catch up on news; to find out what�s going on. Everybody drops in on Joyce; her home is the centre of the community. And her phone is one of the few on The Block. Joyce jokes that it�s a hotline to the local prison. 10.24.16 David Akinsanya The houses on The Block are owned and managed by a community trust of indigenous Australians. But this trust has not served Joyce or many other tenants well. 10.24.26 David Akinsanya In the eyes of many residents the community trust is �corrupt and incompetent�, held responsible for the appalling state of their homes. 10.24.35 Joyce �water was laying heavy there but my son put a hole there to drain the water out and they never attempted to fix the ceiling. 10.24.43 David Akinsanya Yet once, not so long ago, there were such hopes and dreams on The Block. It was meant to be a new beginning, a chance for indigenous Australians to take charge of their own affairs. 10.24.55 Music 10.25.01 David Akinsanya Back in nineteen seventy-three, when Gail was a child, these streets in Redfern were bought by the progressive Labour government from slum landlords and handed over to the aboriginals to run their own way. It was a radical idea. 10.25.14 Music 10.25.21 Voice over If this plan is not still born, city blacks may have a chance. The fences in the block will come down and the whole area opened up for a true community. The project will incorporate a clinic, a hospital, kindergarten and perhaps a liquor store as well. Blacks will control it. 10.25.40 Music 10.25.44 David Akinsanya But the dream didn�t last. The ambitious redevelopment never materialised and the housing just got more rundown. 10.25.51 Music 10.25.52 David Akinsanya By nineteen ninety-seven The Block had become infested with drugs and the Aboriginal Housing Trust came up with a new plan to redevelop the run down streets, giving the tenants a chance to move out to a new life in the suburbs. 10.26.10 David Akinsanya Diane Whittaker was one of the lucky ones. 10.26.13 Diane Whittaker �and the tile fittings and the colour of the bath. So with this house it�s got three toilets, walk in wardrobes and ensuites and bathroom downstairs, bathroom upstairs. I mean it�s just a dream house to me; it�s what everyone works for today. I won�t know myself, I�ll get lost in it. 10.26.35 David Akinsanya Diane, when I last saw you, you were in a documentary looking at some plans of a lovely house that you were gonna move into from The Block. Did you ever move into that house? 10.26.43 Diane Whittaker No, I didn�t, umm I took everything to Micky and thinking that I�d end up having that dream home but it was too much of a dream. It took a while, I approached Mickey about a month later and I asked him what was happening. He told me basically no, that wasn�t the case, I couldn�t have it. 10.27.09 David Akinsanya This is the man who presides over the trust, responsible for the state of housing on The Block. He started working for them as a painter thirty years ago. Even though he was illiterate, he worked his way up to becoming the Chief Executive, running the trust with members of his family on the board. 10.27.27 Mickey Mundine �and this really builder�s complex because we don�t, you can see for yourself the houses are deteriorating so badly� 10.27.32 David Akinsanya Do you accept that the housing company have got any responsibility for the way that it�s been run down? 10.27.26 Aston MICKY MUNDINE Chief Executive Aboriginal Housing Company For sure. For sure. But we take a lot of blame for what happened in the past. Because as I�m saying we were the only, a, a, a new organisation set up and we take a lot of blame for what�s happening now because, you know, as we we�re saying we�re going through the learning period, viscous cycle of learning period. And let�s face reality; we all make mistakes in life. The company made mistake and we don�t, we don�t doubt that. I�m not saying never, but on the other hand, you know, it had to happen that way. 10.28.04 David Akinsanya White Australia look at aboriginal organisations and aborigines and say, you know, these people get loads of money�. 10.28.10 Micky Mundine Yeah, but they�ve got to realise too that the money don�t go through the organisation itself and, you know, as I said before you can pour money into an organisation but it does not solve the problem. 10.28.20 Music 10.28.22 David Akinsanya If Redfern is an example of what happens when aboriginals take charge of their own affairs, it doesn�t look impressive. Not only is the housing rundown and squalid, now there�s a new culture on The Block. 10.28.33 Music 10.28.36 David Akinsanya They call this alley Millionaires Row because so much money flows through it. Heroin and other drugs are sold openly. 10.28.44 Music 10.28.50 David Akinsanya It�s impossible for Gail to shield her daughters from this drug culture; it goes on right in front of them. 10.28.56 Music 10.29.03 David Akinsanya The police say they take a hard line, but to many residents it doesn�t look that way. They patrol The Block almost constantly in marked and unmarked cars but appear to turn a blind eye to what is going on right in front of them. 10.29.16 Music 10.29.18 David Akinsanya There are very few arrests for hard drugs in Redfern; less than one a week last year. 10.29.23 Music 10.29.27 David Akinsanya Many local people suspect that the police would rather allow Sydney�s most notorious drugs market to be contained in a block where aboriginals live, rather than let it spread into other areas of the city. 10.29.38 Music 10.29.39 David Akinsanya I wanted to put that charge to the New South Wales police, but they didn�t want to be interviewed for this programme. 10.29.45 Music 10.29.49 David Akinsanya Some aboriginals from Redfern believe the root of the problems there, drugs and delinquency, can be traced back to the years of �The Stolen Generation� when indigenous Australians were taken away from their tribes and put into children�s homes to try and assimilate them into white society. 10.30.06 David Akinsanya Ray Vincent was one of those children. Now he�s trying to help other kids from The Block to find their own way back to their roots. 10.30.16 Ray Vincent This is my aboriginal name here, Kuwyie. All the old people gave me that name when I was very little and it�s an interpretation of warrior because I used, I was always fighting all the white kids around Redfern when I was little and so the old people decided that I was a bit of fighter and that and they, they decided to christen me Kuwyie. 10.30.43 David Akinsanya But it�s not easy. These kids are more interested in The Simpsons and MTV than their culture. TJ Hickey was the same. 10.30.51 Aston RAY VINCENT Redfern Elder A lot of the kids that you would have saw on The Block come from broken homes and the parents, they were stolen generation people. So it�s an endless cycle that goes on with the stolen generation people they, they don�t gain skills in parenting and that while they�re, they�re in institutions. And they, they have children of their own and they don�t have parenting skills and so the kids, the kids suffer from that as well. 10.31.21 David Akinsanya And when aboriginals try to move forward and integrate they have to overcome white stereotypes. 10.31.27 Radio jingle 10.31.34 David Akinsanya Steve Price speaks for many when he says indigenous and white Australians are simply totally disconnected; always have been, always will be. 10.31.43 Weather Report 10.31.47 Steve Price Aboriginals are more than happy to take taxpayer dollars to not work. We, as sort of white Anglo Saxons, don�t understand that you can have your twenty-five cousins come and sleep on your lounge room floor and you all pool your dole money and you�ve probably got enough to eat and drink for a week. 10.32.02 Aston STEVE PRICE Radio presenter We don�t understand that and that�s where we say, well why can�t aboriginal people be more like us? Why can�t they take pride in having a house and a front lawn and, and glass in the windows of their house? We simply don�t understand it, we�ve never understood it and I�m not sure that we�re ever going to fix the problem. I know that sounds completely defeatist but here, we�ve been here two hundred years and we�ve got nowhere near it. 10.32.25 Music 10.32.50 David Akinsanya So this is the divided society in which Gail Hickey lives with her daughters and it was where her son TJ lived and died. 10.32.58 Music 10.33.14 David Akinsanya So, of an evening, you spend a lot of time down here, don�t you? 10.33.16 Gail Hickey Yeah. 10.33.17 David Akinsanya Yeah. Do you like being outside? 10.33.20 Gail Hickey Yeah. 10.33.21 Music 10.33.44 David Akinsanya It�s a life where the police are never far away. Everybody on The Block seems to hate them. 10.33.49 Music 10.34.01 David Akinsanya Take Joyce for example. She lives right next door to where the drug dealers trade but she feels under siege from the police! This is what happened one day when we were filming. 10.34.13 Police Thanks, boys. 10.34.17 Joyce shouting 10.34.20 David Akinsanya The police had barged through the house searching for a suspect. He wasn�t there. 10.34.31 Woman You alright? Fucking dogs they are. 10.34.38 Joyce It�s exactly what the police do to us aborigines. We�re not full blooded aborige, we�re indigenous aborigines and they�re chasing this young chap. 10.34.45 Man You all right sweetheart? 10.34.46 Joyce Yeah I�m alright. They�ve gone, run up the stairs. I�m surprised they didn�t break the stairs down, the way they trotted up them stairs so fast again. 10.34.55 Man No warrant, no nothing. 10.34.57 Joyce No they don�t need a warrant, they�re police. 10.35.00 Man Are you okay? 10.35.01 Joyce Yeah, I�m alright, I�m shaken up a bit. 10.35.06 Man You want some water? You want a glass of water? 10.35.07 Joyce No, no, no, I�ll just settle down. 10.35.10 Man All right. That�s just the way it happens here, you know, that�s just the way it happens here. 10.35.15 Music 10.35.21 David Akinsanya The police are the hate figures on The Block; they�re blamed for everything and that�s what happened with TJ Hickey. 10.35.27 Music 10.35.30 David Akinsanya The morning of Valentine�s Day was bright and sunny In Sydney. At about eleven o�clock, TJ set off on his bicycle to his girlfriend�s, April. 10.35.38 Music 10.35.42 David Akinsanya Just like in Walgett, he had had many run-ins with the local police. 10.35.46 Music 10.35.48 David Akinsanya I heard that he�d had other problems with the police where they�d been stopping him. Was he scared of the police? 10.35.52 April Yeah. 10.35.53 David Akinsanya Why was he scared of the police? 10.35.55 Aston: APRIL CEISSMAN TJ�s Girlfriend They were just always chasing him, I don�t know why. 10.36.00 David Akinsanya And that, I mean, was that the same in Walgett as it was here in Redfern? 10.36.03 April No, not as much in Walgett, just down here. 10.36.07 David Akinsanya Do you think they didn�t want him around, the police? 10.36.10 April Probably, I think they didn�t. 10.36.13 Music 10.36.14 David Akinsanya Earlier that morning a woman had been mugged outside Redfern train station. The bag snatcher wasn�t TJ; he was tall, stocky and several years older. 10.36.24 Music 10.36.29 David Akinsanya The police sent out extra patrols, scouring the neighbourhood for the viscous mugger. One of those patrols came up behind TJ on his bike. 10.36.37 Music 10.36.42 David Akinsanya By coincidence his uncle and a workmate just happened to be driving down here when TJ sped across the road in front of them, peddling furiously. 10.36.51 Aston STEWART CLANACHAN He was going pretty fast and he cut across in front of us and he went down the side of the commission houses. I kept my eye on him and I saw him turn the corner. 10.37.00 Music 10.37.02 David Akinsanya The police categorically insist they were not chasing TJ; they were looking for the mugger. But it�s more than likely that TJ thought they were after him. There was an outstanding warrant against him. He had a small packet of cannabis in his pocket and that must have made him even more nervous. 10.37.17 Music 10.37.19 David Akinsanya For whatever reason, TJ took off as fast as he could. As he tried to steer round this sharp corner he flew off his bike and landed on the iron railings. 10.37.28 Music 10.37.30 Stewart Clanachan I can remember he was lying on his back. I couldn�t see too much blood but I knew it was pretty serious. Now the fence, over there, I could see the fence and it�s actually white palings, ok, and there was blood all down the palings. 10.37.47 Music 10.37.49 Paramedic He was severely ill, he was unconscious, he had no pulses and he had quite a severe open traumatic chest injury. And once we got Thomas in the back of the ambulance we began CPR and began to resuscitate Thomas with the aids of canulation and intubation and giving him advanced drugs to try and restart his heart. 10.38.15 April Gail rung me up and said that TJ was in an accident but we were just down, he was, where it had happened was just down a block from us. And me and his auntie ran down there and they were just putting him into the ambulance. 10.38.29 Gail He was still unconscious and all that and that it was a very serious accident; he might survive and he might not. And if he did he�d have brain damage; he�d be a vegetable and all that. Yeah. 10.38.46 David Akinsanya And what, I mean how did you, how did you feel when you heard that? 10.38.49 Gail I just got upset and cried and that. And when I see him after the operation and all that I just couldn�t look at him. I was just holding his hand and that and crying and said; �Look what they done to him, look what they done to him�. 10.39.04 David Akinsanya Were you scared? Did you think it was serious? 10.39.07 April No, they were saying that he was, he was gonna pull through there, but� 10.39.18 David Akinsanya When did he die? 10.39.19 April In the morning. About one, two. 10.39.23 David Akinsanya Were you there? 10.39.24 April Yeah. 10.39.25 David Akinsanya What do you remember about that when you heard? What did you do? 10.39.29 April We were in the room when they turned off the machine. There was all family there and all that. 10.39.47 David Akinsanya Gail doesn�t accept that it was a freak accident; she never will. She believes that TJ was chased to his death by the police. 10.40.01 Music 10.40.03 David Akinsanya The next morning, Sunday the fifteenth of February, rumours quickly spread around The Block accusing the police of being responsible for TJ�s death. As the hours went by, the story became more and more embellished. 10.40.15 Music 10.40.16 David Akinsanya That night Redfern erupted. 10.40.18 Rioting 10.40.32 David Akinsanya For some of the hard-line activists on The Block, the riot didn�t come soon enough. 10.40.37 Aston LYALL MONROE Aboriginal Activist They forced the young people back down here, all the young people were concerned about was don�t let them onto The Block, this is our land. No more, we�re not gonna take any more intimidation and harassment by police and this is what we�re prepared to do about it. 10.40.51 Rioting 10.40.56 David Akinsanya The New South Wales police were caught completely off guard. 10.40.59 Rioting 10.41.07 David Akinsanya More than forty officers were injured. 10.41.24 Aston RIOT LEADER We had to send out a powerful message to the rest of the world that black Australia is not going to let these, you know, racist white cops kill one of our own kids. So the young boys said, look uncles, what have we got to do? I said you�ve got to fight. It�s going to be a bad fight. You have to make it last as long as possible until the television cameras get here. 10.41.41 Rioting 10.41.45 Riot Leader The only way we�re going to expose the brutal murder of young TJ is by rioting. 10.41.54 David Akinsanya On The Block, no-one believed the police and this was an excuse to vent years of pent up anger on white authority. 10.42.02 David Akinsanya But they were right about one thing; if the riot had not been caught on camera, TJ�s death would have gone unnoticed outside Redfern. 10.42.09 Rioting 10.42.21 Lyall Monroe As far we were concerned, we won the battle that night. That battle was won by the aboriginal community, particularly the young kids. 10.42.32 Riot Leader When they started walking up The Block, right, we had observers out, we knew that that was the best cops they had and our boys kicked their ass. They got their arses really kicked. 10.42.44 Lyall Monroe It�s something that I�ve never seen in this country before. And from that time on I think the line will always be drawn because I don�t think any other young aboriginal people in this country are going to cop the same shit that our young people here have been copping most of their lives. 10.43.08 Rioting 10.43.21 David Akinsanya The reaction to the riot among white Australians was overwhelmingly hostile; it put back integration by years. 10.43.27 Music 10.43.32 Steve Price Good afternoon, welcome to Tuesday drive, feels like we�re back in summer really, absolutely stunning afternoon. Look forward to taking your calls between now and six o�clock on� 10.43.40 David Akinsanya Suddenly the Hickey family was headline news across Australia. 10.43.43 Steve Price TJ Hickey, a young kid who never had any hope, turning into a little thug. A kid who had an arrest warrant out for him over assault and robbery. A kid whose fourteen year old girlfriend sits around smoking dope and blaming the coppers for his death. A mother who didn�t or couldn�t cope with him so abandoned the boy to his grandmother. 10.44.01 Steve Price And then we had the riot itself. Confessions that the locals had made petrol bombs to throw at the police and stacked up bricks to use as missiles, but this was all forgiven because those bastard police had chased a kid who died impaling himself on a fence. 10.44.15 David Akinsanya TJ�s controversial death may have been the spark that ignited Redfern, but the underlying reason why the aboriginals rioted was because they felt that white society treated them so badly. 10.44.30 Steve Price Uninformed Australians would probably say �bulldoze the joint, send everyone there back out into the bush and everyone will be happy�. Problem with that is that many of these urbanised aboriginals have never been to the bush so that�s not an answer. So what you do with Redfern? No one knows. 10.44.45 Music 10.44.55 David Akinsanya As the radio talk show debate about �the problem with aboriginals� rippled out across Australia, Gail took her only son back to Walgett to be buried. 10.45.04 Music 10.45.24 David Akinsanya The death of TJ Hickey was a big news story, but the underlying issues, of aboriginals� place in society, were largely ignored. 10.45.32 Music 10.45.41 Steve Price The mainstream media just find that whole issue too hard to get into. It�s not popular, it doesn�t rate, people don�t wanna hear about on a daily basis aboriginal Australians. I mean the population is small, your average Australian, your average city-living Australian rarely sees an aboriginal. Most people living in Sydney would only see Ernie Dingo on TV maybe. That�d be their only connection with Australians who are of aboriginal race, so they have a very clich�d view of it but the one thing that they are all very sick and tired of is they see a lot of tax dollars being flushed down the toilet. 10.46.17 David Akinsanya And in the days after the riot, many Australians were angry to see yet more money pouring into Redfern to repair the damage and cover up the scars. 10.46.30 David Akinsanya It was as if Sydney wanted to quickly move on from the ugly events of mid- February. 10.46.42 Mardi Gras 10.46.48 David Akinsanya Two weeks after the riot, Sydney was letting its hair down at Mardi Gras. 10.46.52 Mardi Gras 10.47.23 Music 10.47.37 David Akinsanya After the funeral, Gail returned to stay at a friend�s house in Sydney and was determined to hold her family together. 10.47.43 Music 10.48.02 David Akinsanya She knows that what the girls need more than almost anything is stability and she tries to build a daily routine of getting them into school. 10.48.09 Music 10.48.27 David Akinsanya TJ all but gave up going by the time he was a teenager and Gail doesn�t want the same thing to happen to the girls. But it�s a daily struggle. 10.48.35 Music 10.49.02 David Akinsanya The future of the reconciliation process looks equally uncertain. When hundreds of thousands marched through Sydney four years ago to acknowledge the wrongs done to Australia�s first inhabitants, there was a real hope that integration was achievable. Now, the momentum has gone; it�s as if both sides have become entrenched. 10.49.20 Music 10.49.35 David Akinsanya And then in March, a few weeks after TJ�s death, for once some good news out of Redfern. 10.49.42 Music 10.50.03 David Akinsanya After ten years of planning and building, a new community centre was finally opened. 10.50.12 David Akinsanya A chance to move forward. 10.20.17 Woman on platform I am so happy to join you all this afternoon in Redfern for this historic opening. 10.50.22 Music 10.50.24 David Akinsanya Joyce Ingram was the guest of honour. 10.50.26 Music/applause 10.50.43 David Akinsanya But on this red-letter day nobody wanted to notice the unfortunate sideshow; another drug addict overdosing within sight of the main event. 10.50.55 David Akinsanya It was hardly an auspicious omen. 10.51.03 David Akinsanya Gail brought the girls to the opening of the new community centre. But they haven�t been back since. 10.51.11 Speaker 10.51.24 David Akinsanya Within sight of the new community centre, across the wasteland, lies the old one it replaces, opened on another �Historic Day for Redfern�. Many of the people here were at that opening too. 10.51.41 David Akinsanya For the federal minister responsible for aboriginal affairs, it�s a reminder that money has failed to heal the rifts in what is still for many a divided society. 10.51.51 Aston SENATOR AMANDA Vanstone Minister for Indigenous Affairs I wouldn�t go so far as to say divided, I think that�s quite emotive and frankly overstating the case but it is true that for decades and decades governments of all political persuasions, at all levels have been trying to reduce the disadvantage that indigenous Australians suffer. They�ve yet to get the recipe right and we have to understand that, that it�s nothing to do with which politics you are, nothing to do with which level of government you are; collectively we haven�t got it right. Now my deep suspicion is that it�s, that politicians like to think there�s a magic wand, like to think they can fix every problem in the world. And frankly our electorates want us to be able to fix every problem. I think we need to understand that the change we make is incremental and not everything can be turned around overnight, with legislation or with a bucket of money. And so it is when you have such an ancient culture as the indigenous cultures in Australia. It�s going to take a long time for those things to change and legislation is not the way to do it and money won�t necessarily do it either. 10.52.57 Music 10.53.03 David Akinsanya It�s now a month after TJ�s death and Gail is back staying with her sister in Walgett. 10.53.07 Music 10.53.10 David Akinsanya Today would have been her son�s eighteenth birthday. She�s decided to go ahead with the coming-of-age party she�d promised him, complete a birthday cake, no icing, just how he liked it. 10.53.21 Music 10.53.24 Gail He always used to say to me; mum don�t put no icing sugar on the cakes. Remembering about the parties and he always said don�t put no icing sugar on the cakes. So I�m making sure the cakes have no icing sugar for him. 10.53.48 David Akinsanya What about his spirit, do you feel his spirit? 10.53.51 Gail Yeah. 10.53.56 David Akinsanya So tonight, you�ll do it just how he wanted it? 10.53.58 Gail Yeah, like I was going to celebrate in Sydney for him. 10.54.10 Music 10.54.19 David Akinsanya The drinking binge went on late into the night. 10.54.21 Music 10.54.40 David Akinsanya Gail is still trying to keep TJ�s case, and the issues it raises, in the news. 10.54.45 Music 10.54.49 David Akinsanya On The Block, the latest redevelopment plan moves a stage nearer reality. This time, The Aboriginal Housing Trust insists it definitely will happen. Joyce�s house is demolished. 10.55.01 Music 10.55.06 David Akinsanya And after years of waiting she�s finally given the keys to a new home for her ever-growing family. The house is provided by the city council. 10.55.15 Music 10.55.32 David Akinsanya As for Mervin, TJ�s best friend, he was bound over on good behaviour, but has since been involved in a fight. He didn�t show up for his last juvenile court appearance and is crashing with mates in Sydney, smoking loads of cannabis. 10.55.45 Music 10.56.03 David Akinsanya Mervin has three more court hearings due this month and may well be sent to a juvenile detention centre. 10.56.09 Music 10.56.14 April at grave April, TJ�s fifteen year old girlfriend, is rarely seen by Gail and her old friends now. She�s fallen in with a group of hard drug users. 10.56.22 Music 10.56.31 David Akinsanya Ray Vincent, one of the elders on The Block, can see the cycle going on. And on. 10.56.37 Music 10.56.40 Ray Vincent I�m angry. I�m angry but I�m able to suppress the anger. But I can understand why the kids down The Block exploded because they, they�re not mature enough to be able to handle that anger. And they only need one person to say, you know, let�s kill the white bastards or something, yeah or the coppers or whatever, yeah, and the whole lot will explode. So as, as an aboriginal elder I understand that, I�m not saying I condone it but I understand it and it�s all part of the anger that�s been within me all my life. 10.57.29 Music 10.57.38 David Akinsanya This week the inquest into TJ�s death is taking place in Sydney. But whatever the official verdict Gail will always believe that her son was killed by the police. 10.57.49 End music 10.58.30 Voice over Have your say on tonight�s show and explore a world of extra information, news stories and features by visiting our web site at: bbc.co.uk/thisworld Credits 10.58.28 Reporter DAVID AKINSANYA Camera PAUL COSTELLO Sound LIZ WARNING Original Music NEIL ARTHUR Dubbing Mixer CLIFF JONES Online Editor RYSHARD OPYRCHAL Production Team JULIA DANNENBERG SARAH HANKS MARTHA O�SULLIVAN AGNES TEEK Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Film Research NICK DODD Assistant Producer ESTHER McWATTERS Picture Editor ANDY KEMP Produced and Directed by GUY SMITH 10.58.46 this world Editor KAREN O�CONNOR BBC � BBC MMIV 10.58.54 End BBC This World: The Boy From The Block 1