No Pride in an Ongoing Genocide

Written by: Dawn on 22 January 2026

(Source: www.inkl.com)

This January 26th, the WA branch of the CPA(M-L) would like to turn to the ongoing and pervasive suffering of koolinga (children) on Noongar Boodja (Country). The ongoing incarceration and death in custody rates of Aboriginal people remains a national shame, 25 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. 

In Western Australia, Aboriginal children are subjected to inhumane, developmentally inappropriate and traumatic punishment at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, and the notorious Unit 18. Banksia Hill Detention holds young ‘offenders’ between the ages of 10-17. Unit 18 is a separate facility within the adult Casuarina Prison where children are moved if their needs or behaviour does not suit BHDC.  

The “Hear Me Out” report released by the Department of Justice in 2024 details the experiences of inmates and staff at BHDC and Unit 18. It describes how many young children at Banksia Hill do not have access to cold water in summer, and that their cells are devoid of air conditioning or even fans. In November last year, 6 young inmates between the ages of 12 and 17 staged a protest atop the roof of Banskia Hill Detention. They were promptly removed, scolded by Corrective Minister Paul Papalia and sent to Unit 18.  

Commenting on the incident, suicide prevention researcher Gerry Georgatos said that the protest was a response to conditions in detention. “Each one carries complex trauma histories, neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and unmet clinical and psychosocial needs. They are children reacting to environments that erode hope, escalate despair, and entrench impulsivity. Not environments that stabilise, nurture or rehabilitate.”  

Conditions and punishments in Unit 18 are more dire. Cleveland Dodd was a 16 year old inmate who died in Unit 18. Evidence presented to the inquest into his death revealed that he had been kept in solitary confinement for more than 22 hours a day, for more than 80% of the 93 days before his death. This was a clear breach of the UN Convention against Torture and the Convention of Rights of the Child. Amnesty International Australia has been calling for BHDC and Unit 18 to be closed entirely, since 2024.  

In The Force of Nonviolence Judith Butler discusses how deaths in custody and inhumane conditions of imprisonment are acts of great violence, how they may be viewed as an unchecked mode of the death penalty, issued silently by the state and its institutions. “…if prison deals death not only through the death penalty, but also through more or less systematic forms of neglecting some lives rather than others, it seems clear that a few obligatory legal protections have not been honored…. prison deals death (slowly and quickly), but also manages life…” 

The government of Western Australia continues to neglect its duty to its Aboriginal youth through the systemic horrors enacted at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, and the ways that the WA Police Force disproportionately and aggressively target Aboriginal people. Sovereignty was never ceded. These violent institutions must be undone. It is the duty of all those living on stolen land to center and amplify Aboriginal voices in their fight.

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.  

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