Honouring Leila Murray: Heart of Justice
Edited by Roderic Pitty and Ruth Braunstein
$7.95, available from
REVIEW BY CHRIS MARTIN
"Leila Murray was a great source of strength and wisdom to all her large family, to all her many friends who were privileged to spend time with her, and to all Aboriginal people fighting for justice."
These words, chosen for the cover of this tribute booklet, introduce a remarkable and courageous woman, a figure who will be remembered for her warmth and love as much as for her great contribution to the fight for Aboriginal rights.
Leila Murray, who died in 2003 at just 63 after a battle with diabetes, was the mother of Eddie Murray, killed in Wee Waa jail in 1982. In the 22 years between her son's death and her own, Leila became a national leader in a campaign for the full and honest investigation of Aboriginal deaths in police custody.
The Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, founded by Leila and her husband Arthur, played a pivotal role in forcing Bob Hawke's federal Labor government to establish a royal commission in 1987. Leila was also at the forefront of efforts to have the 339 recommendations of that commission fully implemented.
Leila was born on Namoi Reserve in Walgett, north-western NSW, in 1939. After her father's death in a flood in 1950, Leila worked carting wood to help support her large family. She met and married Arthur, a champion boxer, in 1957. They raised 12 children, living mainly in a river camp outside Wee Waa, where Arthur worked on cotton farms.
In these years, the Murrays campaigned with other Aboriginal families for housing in the town, but it was only after Arthur had become seriously ill in 1975 that they were able to secure a house for themselves. In Heart of Justice, Leila's children contribute many memories of this time, the sacrifices and the daily struggle for survival.
Leila's greatest fight began the day her son Eddie was murdered. While she and her family were being forcibly moved from Wee Waa to Dubbo, Leila was demanding answers. Why had Eddie's clothes, now vital evidence, been destroyed? Why had his body been removed before it could be photographed?
No answers came with the "open" finding of the coronial inquest. The coroner only recorded that Eddie's death had come "at the hand of person or persons unknown". Leila and Arthur began their long fight for justice, which brought them together with the many families around the country who had suffered similar tragedies. Among their many campaigns, the Murrays led a national speaking tour demanding a royal commission, before establishing the Watch Committee in 1987.
Former NSW attorney-general Terry Sheahan promised the Murray family that his government would fully investigate any new evidence in Eddie's case. In 1997, Eddie's body was exhumed and it was found that he had suffered a fractured breastbone, probably caused by one or more blows to his chest.
In August 2000, then-police minister Paul Whelan referred the case to the Police Integrity Commission, which conducted a "preliminary investigation" that took almost as long as the entire royal commission. In three years, the PIC examined only nine documents and spoke to just 11 people. In the end they used secrecy provisions to offer no more than a limited account of its activities to the Murray's legal advisers. It provided no report to the government.
Earlier this year, Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon told NSW parliament that the Murray family does not feel that justice has been done: "They want to know which police officer assisted the ambulance driver to remove Eddie's body before the police photographer arrived. They want to know why some police evidence contradicts the evidence of other police officers and civilian witnesses. They want to know why the PIC did not obtain evidence by covert means when it recognised that that was the most likely way of uncovering new evidence. They want to know why public hearings into the matter were not held so that evidence could be offered under oath and so that their own legal team could contribute its expertise to the inquiry."
Despite repeated promises for a thorough investigation, despite the great personal cost they have paid and despite their long fight and the trauma of exhuming Eddie's body, the Murrays have gained no measure of justice. The owner of the hand that took Eddie Murray's life remains unnamed and unpunished.
I had the privilege of meeting Leila during the Watch Committee's work organising the annual John Pat marches in Sydney in the 1980s and '90s, which did much to highlight the issue of deaths in custody. I remember Leila as a gentle, dignified woman, quietly spoken but passionate in her pursuit of justice for her son and for her people.
This tribute book is a work of love as well as respect. Author-compiler Rod Pitty, an academic now teaching in Perth, was a key member of the Watch Committee and a close friend and comrade of Leila's. He traces Leila's life and work in a faithful and inspiring way, providing photos, anecdotes, poems and thoughts from her many friends and her "great big family".
Among the contributors is journalist John Pilger, who writes: "Leila's warmth and patience and generosity and quiet wisdom shone through, and will live on in our memory and in the history of true human progress. She has died, but she is not defeated. Arthur, with the support of his family, will carry on the struggle — for her, for Eddie, for the Aboriginal people and for all of us."
Money from sales is going to a tribute fund to help support and educate six grandchildren that Leila and Arthur were caring for at the time of Leila's death.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, December 15, 2004.
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