First Nations and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains references of deceased persons.
In September 2016, 29-year-old Wiradjuri, Kokatha and Wirangu man Wayne Fella Morrison, was remanded in custody at Yatala Labour Prison. A short while before he was to face court via prison video link, an altercation ensued. Public CCTV showed more than twelve guards wrestling Morrison, pinning him to the ground and putting a spit hood over his head.
Less than three days later, Morrison’s life support machine was turned off. He died in a hospital in Adelaide with his family by his side.
Almost seven years later, Morrison’s sibling Latoya Aroha Rule continues to lead the National Ban Spit hoods Coalition — a group of non-government organisations, academics and people with lived experience working to establish a legislated ban on spit hoods that will apply to every state and territory.
Spit hoods, a mesh fabric device put over a person’s head to conceal and restrain them, risk a person’s wellbeing, dignity and safety. They have also been implicated in numerous deaths in custody, both in Australia and overseas.
In Australia, their use is permitted in policing, prisons and medical settings, aged care facilities and immigration detention centres.
In August this year, Rule will deliver the keynote at the She Leads Conference in Canberra, addressing the progress of the grassroots movement against torture in Australia and how it is being achieved.
The non-binary, Aboriginal & Māori, Takatāpui (Queer) Research Associate and PhD Candidate at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research at Sydney’s UTS, successfully campaigned to establish ‘Fella’s Bill’ the Statutes Amendment (Spit Hood Prohibition) Act in 2021— making South Australia the only place in the world to have banned spit hoods.
Rule believes that state violence must be considered a form of violence, especially against women.
“Things like spit hoods are state-sanctioned restraint mechanisms, but these also form discourse and understandings about power and rights,” Rule said.
“When the state has the freedom to use devices akin to ‘Guantanamo Bay type inventions’ on children as young as ten years old in this Country, and on those in aged care, it does not make the community feel safe.”
“When police and corrections and MPs used their voices to ban their use of these devices by law in South Australia, it showed us that they can disrupt their own uses of force for reasons that truly serve community safety. I want that for every person, in every state and territory, across this continent.”
The fight to ban spit hood has challenged Rule and their community. After Morrison’s death, Rule said they and their family have been framed as grieving, disruptive, protesting activists.
“While I hold these characteristics as commendations to my name, we have not always been viewed as creative, empowered, informed strategists, academics and caring family members with passion and drive to ensure no one else experiences what we have,” they said.
For Rule, remembering the importance of self-determination was critical at this stage.
“When this is removed or explained in a way that counters how you feel inside and how you wish your loved ones are to be seen it can be hurtful to your spirit,” they said.
“When we begin to see ourselves the way the colony sees us, our light begins to dim and we err on the side of performing the state’s work for them; to render our lives useless and our deaths timely.”
Rule wants all national governing bodies to support the ban on spit hoods.
“The push to remain steadfast in our hope in action toward tangible transformation for our communities, especially up against government’s further investment in policing and prisons and their unions instead of justice, has been really difficult to maintain,” they said.
With such grueling and taxing activism, Rule maintains their righteous anger while looking out for their mental wellbeing by leaving space for creative development and self-expression.
“I like that majority of the work I get to do holds space to move in creative fields,” they said, crediting the “wonderful women” in their life who have provided guidance during difficult periods — “ those who have walked before me in the spaces I now set my feet and those who have been through similar experiences,” they expressed.
“I rely on leaders like Aunty Heather Aguis, Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO, Debbie Kilroy OAM, Associate Professor Maria Giannacopoulos and Dr Michele Jarldorn. They have each kept me safe, encouraged, grounded and strong.”
In the last few years, Rule has been awarded for their important advocacy work. In 2020, they were selected as one of five racial justice ‘Guardians of the Year’ for TIME Magazine, and one of Deloitte’s Out 50 LGBTQ+ People of the Year. They were also a finalist for the Australian Human Rights Medal in 2022.
As a Takatāpui (Queer) prison abolitionist, Rule said they rely on creative practice to keep them sustained and emotionally safe.
“Getting an opportunity to release my feelings and energy through things like protests and vigils, and creative works, reminds me that I’m human, especially when my emotions are responses to acts of dehumanisation,” they said.
Rule believes that creating moments for queer, trans, non-binary, Black, Indigenous and brown people is about “imagining the advancement of Aboriginal rights and sovereignty.”
“It is attaining a time for us where all people can exercise their full rights to freedom from the foundations of violence – it is de-colonial.”
“Queer people have long suffered the outcomes of violence for simply wanting to exist true to ourselves, this is one reason for us to continue supporting the loudest fight for the right to life that we can… because we deserve to live, too.”
Latoya Aroha Rule will deliver the keynote at She Leads Conference in Canberra on August 4, 2023. Find out more about the Ban Spit Hoods Coalition.