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"Wrong Skin" Murder... (Read 2557 times)
Grendel
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"Wrong Skin" Murder...
Jul 16th, 2018 at 8:09pm
 
SMH
By Richard Baker
16 July 2018

A skeleton, a missing person and a wall of silence: ‘We found in a bowerbird nest, human knuckles’

Julie Buck’s friends never believed the young mother would have abandoned her daughter when she disappeared with her forbidden lover. It took nearly a year for her remains to be found.

The former detective who identified the skeleton found near the remote Aboriginal community of Looma in 1994 as Julie Buck says there was always a suspicion that tribal punishment may have been a factor in her death.

The mystery of how the 23-year-old mother died and the fate of her missing boyfriend, Richard Milgin, who was 24 at the time, are at the centre of The Age’s new investigative podcast Wrong Skin.

Paul La Spina had only recently been posted to the Kimberley region when he collected the human remains, including knuckles in a bowerbird nest, found by a group of boys.

Pathologists were unable to find a cause of death and La Spina’s investigation struggled to explain who killed Julie or why.

“There was suspicion but no evidence, unfortunately, that there was some sort of foul play because of tribal law,” La Spina says.

“I think there were rumours circulating … that there was tribal retribution for the fact that Julie Buck and Richard Milgin had been partnering up.”

Julie had been promised as a bride to a much older Looma man, a custom in parts of the Kimberley during that time. But she wanted to be with Richard.

Making matters worse, Richard was from a skin group which made his relationship with Julie forbidden under traditional law, commonly called “wrong skin” in the region.

Being in such a relationship exposed the couple to the risk of punishment from senior men whose role was to enforce the traditional law.

La Spina, who only recently retired as a police inspector, remembers thinking that people in Looma may have been too scared to help the couple escape from the tension their relationship was causing.

“My only thought was that nobody wanted to help them. If that was the case, why was that the case? Was there some fear of retribution if someone did help them?” he says.

La Spina is pleased the Cold Case Homicide Squad from Perth has taken a fresh look at Julie’s death and Richard’s disappearance. He remains hopeful people in the Kimberley community will provide new information.

The head of the cold case squad, Detective Senior Sergeant Quentin Flatman, is determined to find answers for Julie and Richard’s families.

“Whilst we believe a suspect may be out there, or somebody knows about it, we'll always hold onto that to try and make sure that we can bring some kind of closure or justice for those that have been victims of that crime,” he says.
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Setanta
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #1 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 8:31pm
 
Wrong skin? Tinted?
Honour killing?
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #2 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 9:35pm
 
skin groups define who can get married to who
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #3 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 9:51pm
 
You cant say that bwian and the progs will start calling aborigines racists...
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Reply #4 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 10:17pm
 
rhino wrote on Jul 16th, 2018 at 9:35pm:
skin groups define who can get married to who


I know. Playing to the OP. Either way, it's an honour killing if that was the case.

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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #5 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 10:19pm
 
Grendel wrote on Jul 16th, 2018 at 9:51pm:
You cant say that bwian and the progs will start calling aborigines racists...


I dare say they will leave it alone. Raven might have something to say but it's a hard thing to accept. Culture deciding life and death. If what the OP sates is correct, it is an "honour" killing.

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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #6 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 10:49pm
 
The noble savage. What a paradise they lived in before the white man.
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #7 - Jul 16th, 2018 at 10:53pm
 
rhino wrote on Jul 16th, 2018 at 10:49pm:
The noble savage. What a paradise they lived in before the white man.


I don't know that they were any more "un-noble" than others either, just more human beings working through life with all our faults. "Skin" groups mattered like out incest laws, there was a reason for them when they were introduced. I dare say as time went by it became less needed but the culture remained. Much like the animal "totems", there is a reason why they exist.


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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #8 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:08am
 
Was it a sallow job...... again....???????
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #9 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:10am
 
rhino wrote on Jul 16th, 2018 at 9:35pm:
skin groups define who can get married to who


Yup - but this response seems to be a bit extreme..... I've talked to Aboriginal elders, male and female, and the women can be very smart about such things........
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Reply #10 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:11am
 
I dont think youd call it an "honour" killing, it was punishment, different thing.
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #11 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:16am
 
rhino wrote on Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:11am:
I dont think youd call it an "honour" killing, it was punishment, different thing.


For breaking the consanguinity rules?  Isn't taking it to the extreme of killing something of an 'honour' thing?
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #12 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:28am
 
Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:16am:
rhino wrote on Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:11am:
I dont think youd call it an "honour" killing, it was punishment, different thing.


For breaking the consanguinity rules?  Isn't taking it to the extreme of killing something of an 'honour' thing?
Skin groups are not just about consanguinity rules, they dictate just about everything in their daily life.
Quote:
The kinship system is a feature of Aboriginal social organisation and family relationships across Central Australia. It is a complex system that determines how people relate to each other and their roles, responsibilities and obligations in relation to one another, ceremonial business and land. The kinship system determines who marries who, ceremonial relationships, funeral roles and behaviour patterns with other kin.

https://www.clc.org.au/index.php?/articles/info/aboriginal-kinship
By breaking the skin group rules they are breaking a fundamental tribal law .

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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #13 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:43am
 
rhino wrote on Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:28am:
Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:16am:
rhino wrote on Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:11am:
I dont think youd call it an "honour" killing, it was punishment, different thing.


For breaking the consanguinity rules?  Isn't taking it to the extreme of killing something of an 'honour' thing?
Skin groups are not just about consanguinity rules, they dictate just about everything in their daily life.
Quote:
The kinship system is a feature of Aboriginal social organisation and family relationships across Central Australia. It is a complex system that determines how people relate to each other and their roles, responsibilities and obligations in relation to one another, ceremonial business and land. The kinship system determines who marries who, ceremonial relationships, funeral roles and behaviour patterns with other kin.

https://www.clc.org.au/index.php?/articles/info/aboriginal-kinship
By breaking the skin group rules they are breaking a fundamental tribal law .



Worthy of death?  Is a 'culture' that important that it needs to feed regularly off the lives of some within it?  For that matter, is a law that important that it requires ritual death of any who breach it?  Perhaps there is a kind of RealPolitik justification for this, as a means of ensuring that the general populace live in fear of divine retribution and lack/loss of control over their own lives, and thus toe the line ..... but is that good enough reason for ritual killing?

Aren't we past the lizard brain period of human history, and this desperate need for total control on the part of a few demented individuals?
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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rhino
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Re: "Wrong Skin" Murder...
Reply #14 - Jul 17th, 2018 at 12:51am
 
I didnt say it was worthy.
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