Podcasts
This week’s episode of Let’s Talk – Black Knowing is a special one, and a heavy one. Some of you might remember that in September last year, we were honoured to speak with Gunggari woman, academic, and mother Dr. Raylene Nixon as she and her family prepared to attend the coronial inquest into the death of her son, Stevie Nixon McKellar, at the hands of queensland police in Toowoomba in 2021. You can listen back to that interview on the Triple A Murri Country website.
This week, we’ll hear from Dr. Nixon again, this time reflecting on her experience of the coronial inquest process, and the violence of an inquest process that completely failed to provide accountability for the death of her son. We’ll be sharing a recording of Dr. Nixon speaking alongside Helena Kajlich as part of the first Black Knowing Seminar hosted by the Carumba Institute at QUT on Tuesday 12th March.
The seminar – titled Reimagining Justice: Critical conversations into racism and coronial responses to preventable Indigenous deaths in care and custody – saw Raylene and Helena each interrogate the function of coronial inquests for Indigenous peoples’ who’ve died in the health system and in police custody.
As you can imagine, these are very heavy, important, challenging conversations. Raylene speaks directly to her own experiences of navigating the coronial inquest into Stevie-Lee’s death, and this includes direct references to Stevie’s death, graphic descriptions of racial violence, and a harrowing account of his final moments. Helena also describes coronial inquests, and the violence of these processes.
We strongly recommend that listeners use discretion in deciding whether this is the right time to listen to descriptions of racial violence, premature death, and grief. If anything you hear on today’s show triggers difficult emotions for you, please seek help and support – whether it’s a friend, a family member, or a formal support line. If you’re not sure who to call, we encourage listeners to contact 13 YARN or 13 11 14 for free, 24/7 counselling support.