This Wednesday, Brooke Prentis is calling us to gather and pray in our capital cities for Aboriginal deaths in custody.
The 26th of September will be the anniversary of Wayne Fella Morrison’s death in custody. Wayne Fella is the brother of a dear friend of Brooke, and his story is one of the unfathomable 147 Aboriginal deaths in custody from just the last 10 years.
Can you attend the Prayer Vigil nearest to you this Wednesday evening?
Aboriginal deaths in custody have been researched, and reported, since 1980. In 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its report. This Royal Commission investigated 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody from 1980 to 1991. Since 1991 there had been an additional 407 Aboriginal deaths in custody. In the last week we added another three to this total, taking it to now 510 Aboriginal lives lost in custody.
The devastation is that the 1991 Royal Commission produced 339 recommendations – only a handful have ever been implemented. How many deaths could have been prevented, how many lives protected, if all the recommendations had been implemented?
There is much more to be said on this issue, and in the coming weeks and months we will calling the church to action. But right now, we need to gather together in our cities, and pray breakthrough and justice for Aboriginal deaths in custody.
As Common Grace we are a movement of over 40,000 Australian Christians passionate about Jesus and Justice. We are prayers. It is time to pray.
If you are unable to attend one of the prayer vigils being held across Australia, next week we will email ways to electronically pray in your own home. But if you are able, please, let’s gather in person and pray.