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 Aborigines in Brisbane are calling for Samoans there to be deported back to Samoa as an uneasy truce hangs over the suburbs community following the brutal murder of an Australian man.
The raw hatred and rage that has erupted over the death of Richard Saunders, 38, is threatening to spark a racial battle in that part of Australia.
The death of the father-of-nine in a dark Woodridge park has pitted Australia’s traditional owners against one of its newest communities.
As nine Samoans, aged 15 to 24, faced a closed Beenleigh Magistrate’s Court this week charged with murder, about 150 Aborigines waited outside.
The national media had converged on the courthouse after the dead man’s nephew, star footballer Johnathan Thurston, considered pulling out of the rugby league World Cup opener last Saturday.
And racial tensions were high.
From the canopy of trees shading the court’s front lawn, a man who said his name was irrelevant stepped into the spring sun.
An Aboriginal flag was slung across his wide shoulders.
His friend was dead, allegedly bashed to death as he and two friends drank their way into the morning of Saturday, October 25. Within a day the police had rounded up the accused.
But the man wanted more. He had a challenge for the police, the Police Minister and the Premier: “We want to know who these violent criminals are”.
He knew what answer he wanted. He called for the Samoans to be deported.
When he stopped for breath, voices rose up from the crowd. “Yep, send them back.” Applause.
“Send them home in their boats.”
More applause. “With a hole in them.” Wild applause, “yeahs”.
As the nine remain in custody the Polynesian community of Logan has rallied to apologise for the tragedy amid accusations its migrants have brought fear and violence to the streets of Logan.
But according to Aboriginal custom there will be no reconciliation until Mr Saunders is buried on Monday.
Max Quanchi, senior lecturer in humanities at the Queensland University of Technology, said Pacific Island communities in Australia were the latest group to face the time-worn growing pains of assimilation.
“English is their second language, they’ve come from overseas and this is the same for all migrant people in a diaspora all throughout the world,” he said.
“They get the worst jobs at first, they’re often discriminated against and they do cling, in the first instance, to people of their own language and culture group.
“In the old days, we tended to call it a little Italy or a Chinatown and Australia’s always had them.
“Once they got that English and got better jobs they quickly moved out of little Italy and just disappeared into the wider community. That’s going to happen to Pacific Islanders as well.”
Looking into statistics to corroborate claims the Aboriginal community has been outflanked and outnumbered in their own backyard can be murky.
According to 2006 Census data, the most recent available, 5290 Aborigines lived in Logan, more than triple the number of people born in Samoa. New Zealand topped the list of birthplaces for people born outside Australia but it is impossible to determine how many come from a Polynesian background.
No other country from the Polynesian triangle ranked in the top 10.
But the man draped in the flag wasn’t looking for r
aw statistics to justify his claims.
Samoans ignored the “colonial law” Aborigines had been forced to live by, the man said.
“We have Aboriginal law and that was here before colonisation,” he said.
“Thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal.
“That may be God’s laws, but we had that first.
“You can’t take your neighbour’s woman, we know that law as well.”
Mr Saunders’ death was an offence to black and white Australians, he said.
“All Australians should be offended by this and that’s all the brother is saying,” he said.
“He’s not saying take the law into his hands.
“We’re saying there has to be a justice system that works equally across the board.”
He made his challenge in the face of police Superintendent Alistair Dawson, who wears a colonial crown and a silver pip on his eppaulets.
Supt Dawson denied racial tensions had been growing in Logan and said police were taking a “low key approach” to controlling the situation.
“It’s always a concern and we’ve been talking to the elders and putting in place some places to bring together the elders,” he said.
“It’ll be a slow and gentle process ... it’s very early days but like all relationships it will take time to build.”
The mood of the Samoan nine, facing one of Australia’s most serious crimes, was impossible to judge because their court hearings were closed.
Their friends, who also attended the court in large numbers, were mostly in their late teens and early 20 and seemed to wish they were invisible as they walked past the Aborigines.
A member of the Samoan community, who asked only to be known as Anne, denied their youth was out of control.
“I can tell you that because I know these boys, they’re like my kids as well and I know them,” she said.
“They are not the ones who think they can do whatever they want, trust me.”
“You know, it is so wrong to say that there’s no leadership, of course there is.
“We don’t teach these boys to go out and do something like this.”
Communities Minister Lindy Nelson-Carr said she understood why there was tension in the community.
After the murders, the State Government set up a multi-department taskforce to work with the community, police and Logan Council to quell the tensions, she said.
“This area is home to many people from many different communities and we want to work with people to live together in harmony,” she said.
The dead man’s uncle, Aboriginal elder Wayne Saunders, said his people just wanted “justice”.
His comments came a day after police announced that 22 officers who restored law and order to Palm Island after the 2004 riots would receive bravery awards.
The riots were sparked by the death in custody of Aboriginal man Mulrunji Doomadgee.
“When you do your reporting, don’t just put in what I say, quote what I say,” the elder said.
“The Government are sending mixed messages out saying it’s OK to kill Aboriginal people and we don’t want to see that happening, mate, we want to see proper justice in this country.
“It’s too long, too much black deaths in custody, too much bashings.”
“I’m 58 and I didn’t expect to get this far but I’m still trying to keep my people from humiliation.”
Mother of two Clarrina McDonald, 38, said she still treated her 19-year-old son like a “baby” because she felt he was a target.
“We have embraced other cultures ever since colonisation but the thing is now we have more Pacific Islanders in our community than white people,” she said.
“I call them cockroaches because they’re everywhere.
“Unfortunately, from this it’s just triggered off more anger and violence and the scary thing is there’s going to be more bloodshed.
“Whether that’s in this community or the north it will happen.”Back
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