Western Australia will become the first state in Australia to permanently fly the Aboriginal flag outside every police station as part of an attempt to address long-standing divisions between police and Indigenous communities.
The proposal forms part of WA police’s first ever reconciliation action plan, released on Tuesday, which also includes a promise to increase Indigenous staffing levels in the organisation, develop protocols for delivering a Welcome to Country at police events, and “look into the feasibility of offering Aboriginal language lessons to staff”.
It also includes a plan to “research best practice in areas of race relations and anti-discrimination” and review current police policies on discrimination.
It comes 10 months after the police commissioner, Chris Dawson, offered a formal apology to Aboriginal people in WA “for our participation in past wrongful actions that have caused immeasurable pain and suffering.”
Dawson said the plan “demonstrates it is a priority for us to build relationships and mutual respect with Aboriginal people and embed these intentions into our agency’s culture and service”.
An artwork commissioned from the Balladong Nyungar artist Barry McGuire to illustrate the relationship between police and Aboriginal people is called Woorn Da Ba Doorkoorninyarra, or “creating protection for communities”.
The Aboriginal Legal Service of WA has welcomed the plan, with its director of legal services, Peter Collins, saying the Aboriginal flag was “a powerful symbol” and a reminder to all Australians to acknowledge the true history of the country.
“Any initiative to acknowledge and address the wrongs and injustices of the past has to be encouraged, but must also be a catalyst for a police service committed to mutual respect, improved cultural awareness and genuine engagement with the Aboriginal community,” Collins said.
But the plan has also drawn criticism for prioritising symbolism, like flying the flag and displaying Aboriginal art in the foyers of prominent police buildings, over substantive action to reduce the over-policing and over-incarceration of Aboriginal people.
The Noongar human rights lawyer Hannah McGlade said there was “an urgent situation of police violence to Aboriginal people” in WA and attempts to reconcile with Aboriginal people should be focused on reducing that violence.
McGlade said that framing the trauma inflicted upon Aboriginal people by police as a historical issue was misleading.
“That kind of lens of looking to the past, though worthy, is not going to address the violence that we are seeing today, that Aboriginal people are experiencing and on some occasions dying from,” she said.
The Noongar woman Cherdeena Wynne died in hospital last month, five days after she lost consciousness while being handcuffed by police. Teenagers Trisjack Simpson and Christopher Drage drowned in the Swan River in September while on the run from police. The latter is being investigated as a death in police presence, but Wynne’s death is not.
The family of Chad Riley, a Noongar man who died after being tasered by police outside Officeworks in Perth in 2017, are still awaiting an inquest.
McGlade said that without addressing the ways in which police may have contributed to those deaths, gestures like flying the Aboriginal flag at all 150 metropolitan, suburban and regional police stations was “tokenistic.”
“It’s important symbolism but in no way is it going to address deeply entrenched racism within the force,” she said.
In other Australian states and territories, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags are either only flown at some stations, or only on Sorry Day or during Naidoc Week.
In New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, police are allowed to fly the Aboriginal flag on a permanent basis outside any station if they have a second flagpole, but most stations only have one and protocol states that the Australian flag takes precedence. All new Victorian stations have two additional flagpoles for flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
The flags are expected to be in place in WA by the end of next year.
