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Murris, friends and supporters of the first Australians were joined by people from all over the country, including a big contingent from the Sydney Koori community and Lex Wotton, the man charged with inciting the 2004 riot on Palm Island.

The crowd shouted a whoop of joy when the Doomagee’s lawyer, Andrew Boe, announced that the Queensland Attorney Generals department had announced that morning to charge Senior Sargent Chris Hurley with manslaughter over the 2004 death of Mulrinji Doomagee, who was found dead in the Palm Island watch house, his liver split in two. Doomagee’s death sparked a riot that culminated in the burning down of the Palm Island police station.

Boe warned that it was important now for commentators on the case not to prejudice the outcome by making strong statements of conjecture about the guilt or otherwise of Hurley.

The Attorney General’s department has come to this decision after calls for justice from the Palm Island community and nationally. It comes in the wake of the Department’s previous decision not to charge Hurley, Director of Public Prosecution Leanne Clare saying his death was “a terrible accident”.

The local indigenous community had rejected a second inquiry which they felt would not result in widespread justice for indigenous people as a whole. However, Sir Laurence Street found there was enough evidence to charge Sen-Sgt Chris Hurley over the death. At an earlier inquest, deputy state coroner Christine Clements had found Hurley responsible for Doomagee’s death.

One speaker said that the mark of justice in Queensland would be determined if there was even one indigenous person on the jury that decides Hurley’s fate.

The Invasion Day rally marched to police headquarters and then to Musgrave Park where a commemorative festival was held. Some attendees were treated for heat exhaustion.

Police did not attend the Invasion Day rally, but were two rows deep outside police headquarters.

On January 27th the police union announced it would consider mass strikes over the decision to charge Hurley. The strike threat has been called “utterly childish” by Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O’Gorman who says it is further evidence of the crisis in Aboriginal-police relations.

I don’t know what the police are thinking, as long as any suspicion of Hurley exists, isn’t it better to thrash it out in court than allow his existence to forment further anger in the indigenous community?

Lex Wooton is running for mayor on Palm Island. Good luck to him I say. It was right to be angry about what happened and he should be admired for standing up for what is right and just.

There’s some pictures I posted on Melbourne Indymedia
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2007/01/137879.php