In 1991, as a callow youth, I sat in the Alice Springs police station giving a statement after a man had detained me in my own home, punched me repeatedly and held a knife to me threatening to kill me unless I drove him home.I escaped.Later, the police officer to whom I gave my statement casually looked at me and said: "You know they should all be hit over the head at birth." He thought for a moment. "  Maybe not the women."I later complained to the NT Police. The only thing that happened was that police officer harassed me for the remainder of my short time in the Alice.He told me I was causing trouble and giving "the blacks" uppity ideas and that I should piss off back south.Last night's Four Corners made me think that probably not a lot has changed in 25 years.Soon after I left Alice Springs I briefly returned to write a report for the Central Land Council where I had worked.  
It was the CLC's response to how government had received the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.It was called, A return to the land of promises.In part, it said: "If the Royal Commission becomes just another report that gathers dust, how can Aboriginal people expect anything from the reconciliation process? When will justice be done? When will Aboriginal people have their sovereignty recognised? When will Aborigines receive the level of services that the non-Aboriginal population takes for granted? And when will our children, our parents and out families stop dying in gaol?"If government does not fully implement these recommendations to the full extent of their intent instead of using it in a hollow attempt to support bankrupt policies, they can expect little support for their reconciliation process. After 204 years of occupation and false promises, how can Aboriginal people be anything but cynical?"That was in 1992. Many of the 339 recommendations went without being implemented. Others gained lip service.Government claimed it was acting on the royal commission's findings. In that report, the CLC responded: "If this is so, why have the number of Aborigines in custody increased since the end of the Royal Commission? Why is poverty, the constant intrusion by bureaucracy, the racism, paternalism and the disregard for Aboriginal aspirations for self-determination still the everyday experience of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders today?"These questions still stand.Of course I can't speak whatsoever for Aboriginal people. Too many people try to do that.But I can speak for myself.While the abuse exposed by Four Corners was not directly about deaths in custody, it does reveal a terrible truth about the structural relationship between a paternalistic and racist Australian state and the First Nation people of this continent.The report I wrote took its title from something Nancy Napanangka, a woman from Utopia outstation, said."White governments come and go but since the Europeans arrived our country has changed from the Land of the Dreamtime to the Land of Promises, promises which are always broken."I am full of despair and horror and anguish at what those boys went through.But my true fear is that they aren't alone. I fear there will be more promises that will be broken.There will be calls for inquiries. And they must occur.A royal commission is to be established. And perhaps that is a just path to follow, too.But will these provide structural justice? Will this stop the abuse? Will the recommendations be implemented or will they, too, gather dust?Will everyone just move on to the next outrage?