Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Prayer Vigil Resources

We invite you to begin your online prayer vigil with an Acknowledgement of Country. An Acknowledgement of Country can be done by any person, and in this context serves as a prayer of thanksgiving. Below is standard wording, but as you are moved by heart and mind let your words be led by the Spirit.

"We would like to acknowledge, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I gather today. We would also like to pay our respects to the Elders past, present and future."

Australia has been aware of Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1980. In 1991 the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down a report that produced. The Reconciliation movement was birthed out of recommendation 339 which said:

Recommendation 339. Initiate a formal process of reconciliation between Aboriginal people and the wider community.

However, of the 339 recommendations only a handful have ever been implemented. Others that have not been implemented in every State and Territory include:

Recommendation 87. Arrest people only when no other way exists for dealing with a problem.

Recommendation 92. Imprisonment should be utilised only as a sanction of last resort.

Recommendation 161. Police and prison officers should seek medical attention immediately if any doubt arises as to a detainee’s condition.

The 1991 Royal Commission reviewed 99 Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Since then there have been over 400 more Aboriginal lives lost, including just last week – 2 in Perth and 1 in Brisbane.

Today we recognise the lives lost, the grief of families, the inactions of systems that have recommendations that have not been implemented, racism, the impacts of a colonial system that still has ramifications for Australia in 2018.

Today we end the silence and inaction.

Today we pray.  

Today we sit together in pain.

Today we stand together for justice.

Today we walk together for friendship.

Today we pray together for change.

May that prayer drive us to further action.

At prayer services across the country, we are asking pastors to open the night with a prayer. In your home, take a moment now to pause and acknowledge the moment we are sharing together with a private prayer, praying that we will be moved as a church through this vigil.

²⁰ They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar ²¹ by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

²² The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. ²³ After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. ²⁴ When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. ²⁷ The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹ The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹ They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” ³² Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. ³³ At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptised. ³⁴ The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

³⁵ When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” ³⁶ The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

³⁷ But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

Latoya Aroha Hohepa is Wayne Fella Morrison's brother, an Aboriginal man who died in custody two years ago today, and who's coronial inquest is currently underway in Adelaide.

Latoya has has written this prayer for us to pray across the country:

We pray for my family, the family of Wayne Fella Morrison.

We pray for the Coroner, and for our lawyers.  

We pray even for those who were involved in the incident and who are responsible for Wayne Fella Morrison’s death.

We pray for peace to abide in the space of the Coroner’s Court – that God’s love will flow and cause those who are burdened to come to confession.  

We pray that through Wayne Fella Morrison’s Coronial Inquest, that justice will be had in some way that causes change to the correctional system throughout Australia.

We pray that the inhumane treatment of Aboriginal peoples in custody will cease, that spithoods and other death-causing restraints will be abolished.

We pray that the Coroner is moved by the grace of God to make Godly decisions in this case and recommend crucial changes to this system.

We pray that those who are responsible for implementing these changes will do so with respect for the lives of peoples in custody.

While I know that ultimate justice and salvation rests in God and in Jesus’ return, I want to call down the powers of heaven into the space we will sit for the remainder of the Coroner’s Court and cause something completely supernatural to occur that has never occurred before.  

We pray for a miracle and we pray for healing for all involved in this issue and for the lives and hearts of all families of death in custody victims.   

Amen.

³¹ For no one is cast off
    by the Lord forever.
³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.
³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone.

³⁴ To crush underfoot
    all prisoners in the land,
³⁵ to deny people their rights
    before the Most High,
³⁶ to deprive them of justice—
    would not the Lord see such things?

This prayer, Black Lives Matter: A Prayer, was originally written by Menachem Creditor, 2014. It has been adapted for tonight's vigils by Brooke Prentis.

Great Creator Spirit, Lord God, Papa Jesus

We stand before you because we must.

We stand before You because

truths that should be self-evident

are not so evident in this land now called Australia.

And so we turn to you to breathe

ever more of Your Spirit into us

because we find we cannot breathe,

the arms of armed forces wrapped around our throats

when we call out for justice.

We call to you in defiance of

State and Territory systems that deny our human rights and human dignity,

where Aboriginal people in custody are sick and dying and are denied medical attention,

where Aboriginal men are twice as likely to be in prison than in University,

where 10 year old children are sent to prisons and Aboriginal children and young people are 24 times more likely to be in prison.

We shout to the Heavens with one, unified voice:

Aboriginal. Lives. Matter.

We are called by scripture to pray for the day when we will

beat swords into plowshares and study war no more,

when the surplus of war led by greed and deception

will not spill into our streets,

where swords and rifles and chains and iron bars

will be beaten thinner and thinner,
the iron of hatred vanishing forever. (Amichai)

We pray to you because,

as our prophets have taught us:

human suffering anywhere

concerns men and women everywhere.

We call to you, O God,

because Your Image

had broken ribs

and was dragged across a concrete floor.

We call to you, O God,

because Your Spirit

was choked out of a young man who

called out 12 times’ “I can’t breathe.”

We call to you, O God,

because Your child

was placed in a spithood with hands and feet restrained

We raise our hands to you,

knowing that the work is ours to do,

black, white, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal,

Multicultural Australia, young and old –

These are your images, battered

Bruised

Stripped of their human dignity.

Dead.

We are all responsible for what happens next.

And so we pray to You,

Source of Life,

raise up our eyes

to see You in each other’s eyes,

to take risks for justice,

to bring through our unified prayer today

more Love and Compassion into Australia and into the world.

Ignite us to combat the hidden prejudice

which causes memory loss and coverup,

Let truth and transparency reign from the tongue of every witness.

We pray today not for calm but for righteousness

to flow like a mighty river, until

peace fills the earth as the waters fill the sea.

Comfort the families of all who grieve.

Strengthen us to work for a world redeemed.

And we say together:

Amen.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Last month, The Guardian produced a database of every Aboriginal death in custody over the last decade. At each prayer vigil tonight, we have asked to read out the lives lost in their state and territory. For those of us praying online, we invite you to select some of the stories from the Guardian's Deaths Inside and read them through yourself, pausing to pray for the families of each story you read.

View the stories

We invite you to take 500 seconds of silent reflection for the 500 lives lost in custody since 1980, as you watch a reflective video artwork by Aboriginal Christian Artist Safina Stewart:

Watch Safina's video

Take some time now to pray into this issues around Aboriginal Deaths in custody. If you would like direction on what to play, here are some suggestions:

• Suggestions for prayer
• Prayer for families affected by Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
• Prayer for court and prison chaplains
• 22 Aboriginal deaths in custody where there is no date set, pending or ongoing dating back to 2014.
• 56 cases of recorded mental health of Aboriginal people who have died in custody
• Prayer for correct training of Corrections Officers and Police
• Prayer for love and compassion in the police, prison and corrections systems.

We close this vigil with Prayer for the Morning by Audette Fulbright Fulson.

Did you rise this morning,
broken and hung over
with weariness and pain
and rage tattered from waving too long in a brutal wind?
Get up, child.
Pull your bones upright
gather your skin and muscle into a patch of sun.
Draw breath deep into your lungs;
you will need it
for another day calls to you.
I know you ache.
I know you wish the work were done
and you
with everyone you have ever loved
were on a distant shore
safe, and unafraid.
But remember this,
tired as you are:
you are not alone.
Here
and here
and here also
there are others weeping
and rising
and gathering their courage.
You belong to them
and they to you
and together,
we will break through
and bend the arc of justice
all the way down
into our lives.
Amen.