Stuart Highway prepares to ‘go off the air’

By Rob Inder-Smith

Legendary Darwin human rights activist Stuart Highway is preparing to go “off the air” 62 days into his imprisonment at Berrimah jail.

Stuart has been telephoning friends in anticipation of being found guilty at a “hearing” tomorrow morning, which will try him for being an identified drug user (IDU).

If found guilty, Stuart will spend 28 days – almost the entirety of the rest of his three-month sentence – in a punishment cell.

He will lose all privileges, including visits and possibly the right to receive letters.

”I’m expecting to go off the air,” he said by phone early this afternoon.

“The hearing is a kangaroo court. Even the guards say that.”

Stuart was found guilty of being an IDU early last week for refusing to provide a urine sample, which determines whether inmates have been using drugs.

Inmates knew something was about to happen when a large group of prison officers “swarmed” (Stui’s word) into the compound and began calling names, apparently at random, and informing them that they were to be drug-tested.

The tests demand that prisoners strip naked and piss into a jar while being watched by two officers.

Stuart refused. Asked why, he said:

”Because I’m in NAP (the Network Against Prohibition). Because it’s the state. I wasn’t going to co-operate.”

He said the drug-tests were a “totally stupid waste of tax payers’ money”, and added that he expected to be called to step up to the “white line” tomorrow.

“That’s the line you have to step up to when they’ve got something planned,” he said.

" ‘Highway! Up to the white line, fully dressed with all your gear. You’re going up the back (to the punishment cells)’."

Stuart talked of how he had come to be in jail, saying that chance had played its hand during his Supreme Court trial.

“Gaz (fellow Nap member Gary Meyerhoff) was ill, you were in Perth and I found myself talking and talking,” he said, joking about his self-represented appearance before Justice Trevor Riley.

“Riley sentenced Nicolette and Mickey (Burrows and Barry, the co-accused who faced the same charge of criminal damage) and highlighted the contrast between us (Barry and Burrows pleaded guilty, Stui not-guilty).

“Then he came to me and said that I had shown no remorse and blamed the police and the government.”

Stuart was philosophical about his predicament, describing the boredom of prison life and pointing out that some men had been locked up in Berrimah for years. He called jail life “hell” and said that sometimes he thought the inmates would “just explode” with frustration.

”People have wondered why I should have gone to jail for smashing a windscreen,” he said, referring to the alleged act that resulted in him being charged.

“They say a fine would have been sufficient, not a jail term.”

On the evil done by Riley, Stuart said:

“It’s the whole system that is evil, from the prison guards who need their uniforms, to the judges and magistrates, court officials, the police, security guards . . . it’s their job.

“They pray on us. They suck our blood. They need fresh flesh to feed the maggots.”

Stuart said that people “on the outside” did not protest because they had been “conditioned to be passive”.

“They (our governors) convince people they can do nothing,” he said.

“We have to break that mindset. We’ve got to get our shit together. I’ve had a gutful. Things would really change if more people said, ‘Right, we’re not going to take this anymore’.

“But they’ve been conditioned to be passive, with their TVs and videos. Things would really change (if we stood up).

“If NAP had more members, we could take the town by storm.

“Imagine what we could do with hundreds of members. It’s just a question of getting organised.”