PerthNorg

John Pat Memorial Day

John Pat Memorial Day was marked on Friday by a small ceremony in the grounds of Fremantle’s historic decommissioned ‘punishment’ prison, and 25 years after his death the cries of injustice are still heard.

 

Now a centre for history arts and culture, Fremantle Prison over its existence, saw numerous riots, hunger strikes, and was the subject of multiple royal commissions, having housed both political prisoners, convicted felons and migrants never without tensions over living conditions and the human rights of those contained within its walls.

 

Noongar elder, Uncle Ben Taylor, said it was time for all Noongar people to come together, or face losing an entire generation of young people through drugs and alcohol, and sniffing.

 

‘We have a voice and we’ve got to use it.’

 

Ben Taylor said that the same place where the Noongar dreaming track started, the area where the prison is, was the location for location of many historic injustices for Aboriginal people.

 

‘I think about Mavis Pat the mother of this dear boy and the words of Jack Davis(on John Pat’s memorial), and today, as I look around, as I see these places like Narrogin and what’s been happening down there, it’s very sad that our people are still dying off.  Young. Never ending funerals.’

 

Mr Taylor said that he had been locked up for one month of hard labour in Fremantle Prison for receiving a bottle of wine and had suffered 60 years of racism.

 

‘So white

Australia has a black history and it’s elders like me who know, some of you remember the days of the reserves we can always forgive but we can never forget my past. 

 

I always mention this even when I go to schools, university and colleges. These things must be told – what really took place because it wasn’t like it is now, Noongars had a hard life. 

 

Our mothers and our grandmothers who went before us - my old grandmother used to say on the old …reserve, make a big fire – we’ll call in the spirits, and I still think about that. 

 

I still light a candle or something to bring in the spirits and today the spirits are here with us and as we mourn this boy’s anniversary. I think about those Yindjibarndi people up in Roebourne and all the families who’ve lost loved ones throughout Australia, the Kooris and Murris, all the deaths throughout – the time is now for us to stand up and do something about it.’