In the middle of Reconciliation Week a young, disabled Warlpiri man died following a scuffle in a Coles supermarket in Alice Springs after he was “placed” on the floor by two plain-clothed policemen.

People are not “placed” on the floor – that is what you do with bags, boxes and rubbish. But that was the word used by the Northern Territory police to describe the sequence of events to the media. Tragically, painfully, I think it says a lot.

I try to imagine a similar scene at my local Coles, where many people who have not been winners in life’s lottery also shop for little items to keep hunger at bay, but no image comes to mind. I think the situation would most likely have been quietly defused, no one would have been “placed” on the floor and died, the shop would not have become a crime scene.

On the same day in Western Australia, the state government decided to provide $85,000 to those remaining stolen people who had spent their lives wondering and suffering because of cruel policies that removed children from their families. A measly lump sum from a state treasury grown fat from mineral resources, many from native title lands.

First Nations people have a life expectancy decades lower than others, so the numbers are much smaller than they were. Delay is the most effective way of maintaining the status quo – people die, responsibility is diminished, the mistake no longer has a human face.

The WA announcement came, inexcusably, nearly three decades after the profoundly revealing and moving Bringing Them Home........

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