In this week's episode, we're sharing a really special interview with Dr. Raylene Nixon. Dr. Nixon is a Gungarri woman, an academic researcher and writer, and in 2021 her beloved son, Stevie-Lee, was killed in police custody in Toowoomba . Steve had been recently hospitalised with severe asthma, and (as the family later found out) pneumonia, and had been on his way back to his grandmother's house to be cared for by family. As Raylene explains in this interview, he was sitting in a parked car in his Aunty's driveway when police officers arrived, smashed the car windows, and then violently restrained Steve using the widely condemned Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint - or chokehold. This interaction led to Steve's death at the age of 27.

His family have been fighting to find out what really happened that night and why. In our interview, Raylene reflects on the violence of the coronial inquest itself, the ways that her family were further silenced through the process of attending the inquest, and how Steve's humanity and dignity were stripped from him at every point in the inquest process.

She also reflects on the ongoing fight for justice for Stevie-Lee, and the family's ongoing campaign to put pressure on the Queensland Coroner to accept their request to release the bodyworn camera footage from the police officers whose violent interaction with Steve led to his death. You can support that campaign by signing their petition here: https://www.change.org/p/release-footage-of-killing-by-police-chokehold-now-justice-for-stevie-lee

A note to listeners that this week's interview with Dr Nixon includes graphic descriptions of the police interaction that led to Stevie-Lee's death, as well as discussions of racism, the death of a child, and police brutality.