When Cassius Turvey was 13 he cut the lawns of two houses in his own Perth suburb. The next time he headed out with friends he mowed 15 lawns.
It was the start of a business that would see him drag the family lawn mower to more and more houses.
“Later he asked me the question: ‘Because we made some money, mum, do I have to pay tax?’” Michelle Turvey said this week in a statement read out at vigils across the country. “I thought that was so funny. He was thinking like a business person at such a tender age.”
Cassius was attacked on 13 October in Middle Swan when walking home from school with friends. The Indigenous teenager died 10 days later in hospital. He was 15 and about to start working at Kmart, his mother revealed. “He wanted to work. He was so keen to learn more.”
Mechelle Turvey spoke proudly about her son at Perth’s vigil on Wednesday. Reading from one of Cassius’s school report cards she said: “Cassius takes pride in his work and often contributes to his peers’ successes.”
Parents, school friends and teachers all say Cassius helped others with their schoolwork so they could all succeed. This week they have all been united in grief and anger. The local community, and the nation, have grappled with his senseless death.
A 21-year-old man has been charged with murder after the attack on Cassius and his friends. WA police have said they are investigating allegations of racial slurs being used but have made clear they are not speculating about possible reasons for the alleged murder. They have said they believe a metal pole was used in the assault.
This week, tens of thousands of people turned out across the country at nearly 50 candlelit vigils. There were vigils in New Zealand and Los Angeles, too.
Cassius’s death prompted the wider question – how could a schoolboy be brutally attacked when walking home with friends on a sunny suburban day?
Like many Aboriginal mothers across the nation, Michelle Turvey says she told Cassius people would look at him differently because he was a young Indigenous boy.
She said her son wanted to be seen as a good boy who always did the right thing. “Cassius wanted the community to see that young people weren’t bad people and they could do good things,” Turvey said.
Noongar leaders in Perth are calling for action. They want a space for grief and healing. They want to create meaningful connections between young Aboriginal people and the police.
“Our kids aren’t bad, but they are portrayed as bad. None of the kids are bad, they have the right to walk the streets,” Noongar elders said in a statement.
Enough is enough, elder Jim Morrison said this week. “There’s a lot of work to be done and the inequities just keep rising. People don’t know – truth-telling has to get better.”
Noongar human rights advocate Hannah McGlade says naming racism and acknowledging its impact are critical to reducing prejudice.
“There is nothing more important that we can do, but start to see the reality and deal with it,” she says. “We have children coming home from schools crying because they are excluded, they are bullied, they are attacked.”
Aboriginal boys walking together are too often harassed and abused. “Black boys should be safe walking the streets” was a cry echoed at vigils across Australia.
One of the speakers at the Sydney rally on Wednesday, Lizzie Jarrett, said: “The grief and trauma we are all feeling [is] the ripple effect of the reality that our children are still not safe in this country.”
One of the boys Cassius was with on the day he was attacked was 13. Actor Ernie Dingo told the Sydney crowd the boy won’t come out of his room because he doesn’t feel safe walking the streets.
Jarrett asked all of the Aboriginal boys to come to the front of the vigil. There they stood, some in their school uniforms, speaking of their fear.
At Melbourne’s vigil in Thornbury, a group of 15- and 16-year-old Indigenous boys from a local boxing club spoke of how Cassius’s death had made them fearful to go out.
“I’m a 15-year-old boy just like Cassius,” one said. “I’m in my school uniform and I deserve to get home safe.”
Wiradjuri elder and advocate Aunty Jenny Munro said parents were being forced to have difficult discussions with their children.
“Why do we have to lose our children to this racism and hate? This is every Black mother’s, every Black sister’s, every Black aunty’s, every Black grandmother’s … this is all our worst nightmare,” Munro said.
Prominent Noongar journalist Narelda Jacobs from Channel 10 spoke of her grief at losing her cousin Cassius. She said all Australians should feel that grief.
“My first thought was it shouldn’t take Cassius to be related to someone that you know to feel grief,” Jacobs said. “You should … want change in the country that we live in because of our collective humanity.”
Mechelle Turvey wants everyone to unite in peace. The heartbroken mother asked people attending the vigils to be respectful and not “blow their trumpets”.
She is demanding greater investment in youth and mentoring programs to address bullying and violence to help ensure young people can thrive – in all communities. “Kids matter,” she wrote in her statement. “Kids matter. Kids can do it.”
Cassius, she said, was her “shining star” who was already becoming a community leader and an old soul. He was studious, joyful and proud, Mechelle Turvey said.
