Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man (2)

I have finished reading Chloe Hooper's latest book, The Tall Man.

I had posted my reactions to a radio interview with Chloe Hooper: The Tall Man

Hooper leaves out one word from her story: occupation. The State of Queensland is engaged in an occupation of Aboriginal lands in North Queensland for the benefit of white settlers.

The Wild Time was the invasion of whites into this area, and the Stolen Generations was the ethnic cleansing undertaken to consolidate white control of the area's resources. Palm Island is part of the gulag of the occupation.

And in enforcing this occupation, Senior Sgt Chris Hurley became brutalised by the frontier justice. Even though he acknowledged his own racism and worked hard for Aboriginal betterment, he could not escape the racism of the State of Queensland. In putting on his uniform, he was putting on a history of genocide, racism, and brutality.

Hurley's struggle against institutional racism showed the limits of individual change. He had to choose between his soul and his uniform. Palm Island made that choice very stark.

Cameron Doomadgee's taunt of "Fucking cunts" and his punch to Hurley's face caused Hurley to explode into a rage that killed Doomadgee. Doomadgee saw a blue uniform. Hurley saw an insolent, ungrateful blackfellow. They could not see each other as human beings.

Hurley may have been coerced into pleading not guilty to the charge of manslaughter in order to protect the honour of the Queensland Police. Hooper seems to imply that Catholicism guides Hurley's career in the Police Service as a mixture of duty and using power for social justice. He could have been persauded to cover up to protect the progress being made by the reforms in the Police.

My reading of Hooper's story is that the cases when Hurley was brutal towards Aboriginals, he was either enforcing frontier justice or he was under stress in a dangerous situation. One case could even have been an accident when he backed over a woman's foot. The failure to acknowledge the incident or to apologise made the situation worse. These cases became easy to cover up and Hurley was drawn into this world of half-truths and denials.

The problem is not with the Police nor with the Government, it is with the white people of North Queensland. This was shown by the quick verdict of not guilty returned by the jury.

The wealth of North Queensland depends on the secure title of land there: mining, agriculture, tourism. Racism justifies the theft of land from the Aboriginals and the exploitation of those stolen resources. If the Police and Government did not support this racism, they would be replaced by those who would.

Hurley was wrong to attempt to change the racism of the Police from the inside. The economic forces that depend on racism are just too strong for individuals to overcome. And now he has to live with the blood of an innocent man on his hands. Hurley would have done better to plead guilty and accepted his punishment. Even better would have been to control his temper and not killed Doomadgee.