Important: Lex Wotton's campaign - His trial was to have started on 7th April, 2008,  but has been adjourned till 6th October, 2008.

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Indigenous Social Justice Association — Melbourne invites you to a very special evening to hear Jeff Waters speak and mark the release of Gone for A Song.

Waters, a journalist who closely followed the story of the death in custody of Mulrunji on Palm Island in 2004, wrote this important new book. It is calling for the full release of compelling evidence that is still being kept secret.

Gone for a Song tells, for the first time, the full story about the first Indigenous death in custody to result in a police officer charged for manslaughter. Waters uncovers with breadth and depth, Mulrunji’s contentious arrest and the botched investigations and the legal and political scandals that followed. This death in custody sparked not just the riots on Palm Island but a wave of protest right across Australia.

Mulrunji may have died, and the policeman linked to the death may have been found not guilty of his manslaughter, but the full implications of the case remain unresolved. Jeff Waters asserts that there is secret evidence — the subject of an on-going court non-publication order  — which is so important it has the potential of re-shaping the way
Indigenous Australians are treated by governments, and, more directly, by police.

Gone for a Song is a scathing critique on Australia’s police and judicial system. Along the way Jeff Waters discovers not only a problematic investigation, but a community reeling from yet another blow in a long line of injustices which stem from the time that dislocated Aboriginal people were taken to Palm Island from their native lands. The
Palm Islanders have been left, neglected, for almost a century, with no industry, no jobs, and little hope.

Jeff Waters will speak at 6:45 pm and then respond to your questions.
Signed copies of Gone for Song, published by ABC Books, will be available for $24.95
The event will include a brief update on the campaign to drop the charges against Lex Wotton and, while there is no charge for the event, a collection will be taken to help fund an upcoming Melbourne speaking tour by Lex Wotton.

Tuesday 15 July, 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Solidarity Salon: 580 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Finger food nibbles served and drinks available

Organised by Indigenous Social Justice Association – Melbourne.
For more information call Cheryl 0401-806-331, Mary on 0419-538-425, Solidarity Salon on 9388-0062 or e-mail alison.thorne@ozemail.com.au

A PDF of the event invitation is here.