Uncle Basil (Mulla) Sumner started the motorcycle club Black Death to hold a spotlight to Aboriginal deaths in custody. or signup to continue reading "People think (the group) is an evil, sinister type of thing, but it's not, this is for black deaths in custody," he told AAP. "The colours I put on, I wanted right in the face of the government and the police so they could see it loud and clear.
" It's an issue close to the Ngarrindjeri elder's heart and forms part of his story told through a new documentary, 'There I was, here I am'. He features along with Kaurna-Narungga woman Aunty Frances Chantrill and Ngarrindjeri-Narungga man Uncle Craig Dodd, As a young person, Uncle Mulla was in and out of prison, experiencing homelessness and struggling with addiction. "I remember when I was in jail, when I think about it, it really was all Aboriginal people in jail, just for minor things" he said.
"When public drunkenness was a crime in South Australia, that's what we'd get picked up for. "Before 1967 it was illegal for Aboriginal people to even have a bottle in their house, or carrying a bottle on them..
. it was a crime to be in possession of alcohol and I lived through those days." Uncle Mulla was born at Raukken, known then as Point McLeay Mission, about 80 kilometres southeast of Adelaide.
Now 75, reflecting on his life, Uncle Mulla said the roots of many of his struggles grew from the policy of assimilation, which attempted to erase the identity and presence of Aboriginal people. .