On February 14, Letty Marie Scott (nee Gibson) Nupanunga, of the Anmatyerre nation in Central Australia, passed away, aged 56. Letty was a lifelong campaigner for justice — especially on the issue of black deaths in custody, which touched her life indelibly.
Letty was perhaps best known because of her husband, Douglas Bruce Scott, who died under suspicious circumstances, found hanged in a prison cell in Darwin's Berrimah jail on July 5, 1985, aged 26.
Even though Douglas was held in custody for "indecent language" for four times the legal remand period, the subsequent inquiry found that he had been in "lawful custody".
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — including eyewitness accounts from fellow inmates — both the police inquest and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody found Douglas Scott's death to be suicide.
After 20 years, Letty eventually succeeded in having Douglas's body exhumed for expert forensic study — which found lesions on his body to be consistent with torture. Even then, the subsequent hearing found in favour of the three prison officers accused of Douglas's murder.
However, the judge also indicated that, "on the evidence before me I am unable to be satisfied that the deceased took his own life", and roundly criticised the police investigation into Douglas's death.
While far from achieving justice, the decision tore apart the veil of police lies around the case.
In 1999, Letty took her struggle to the international level, when the US First Nations people, the Pequot, sponsored her to testify before the United Nations.
In the face of institutionalised racism in the Northern Territory, and in Australia more broadly, Letty continued her struggle for justice up until her death — over two decades after Douglas was killed — calling again in 2005 for the inquiry into Douglas's death to be re-opened. She only withdrew charges when she could no longer afford the legal costs.
Letty lived her final years under the shadow of cancer, and hundreds of friends, family and supporters held a fundraiser in 2008 to help her return to her homeland in the NT, where she hoped to finish her days.
By a stroke of fate, however, it was in Sydney, not the NT, where time's attrition gave Letty the rest she so often refused to take in life.
A fundraiser has been set up to ensure her body is returned to her homeland.
In remembering Letty Scott, we remember an individual who refused to accept the sometimes awful hand that fate dealt her, preferring instead to fight determinedly to the bitter end in the name of justice.
She remains an inspiration and, while the killers of Douglas Scott, Daniel Yock, John Pat, TJ Hickey, Mulrunji Doomadgee, and all the other Indigenous people killed in jail, walk free, she remains a role model for those of us who believe that justice is a right, not a privilege.
Letty is survived by her husband, Daniel, her children Michele, Dianna, Nathan and Monica, by granddaughter Soraya, and by her sisters Linda and Rhubee.
The funeral was held in Alice Springs on February 28. Please contact 0431 069 444 or 0403 294 890.
To donate to the Letty Scott appeal, please make donations in the following account:
Nathan W Scott: BSB 06 2231 account number 10180979.