Allowed to: Situating and Contextualising ‘exhibit tab’

Written By: Jhanvi Parashar

It is evident that no data can inherently be “raw” nor “objective,” so it must “cooked with care,” (Bowker, 2005: 184), hence why it is necessary for us to recognise the socio-political ramifications that arise from the decontextualization of data by failing to situate our datasets (Haraway, 1988). Gumeroi Poet, Allison Whittaker quantitively renders qualitative data and “cooks” the Western Australia Coroner’s findings on the death of Yamatji woman, Ms Dhu by ranking the forty nine most common top three-word phrases in ‘exhibit tab’ (2018). Therefore, in this essay, I will compare the inquest into the Death of Ms Dhu with Whittaker’s rendering to analyse how both these datasets have represented Ms Dhu, ultimately analysing how qualitative data, and its decontextualization plays a colonial role in framing the death of Ms Dhu. Additionally, I will also employ the semiotic research from D’Ignazio and Klein’s principles of ‘Feminist Data’ (2020) and the Indigenous scholarship of Amanda Porter to further situate (Haraway, 1988) Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’ (2018). For instance, I will analyse how ‘exhibit tab’ (2018) considers context and whether it legitimizes the embodiment and affect for its audiences (D’Ignazio and Klein, 2020). Ultimately, I will situate my knowledge of Ms Dhu and critically examine Whittaker’s data rendering, ‘exhibit tab’ (2018) by situating my knowledge (Haraway, 1988) and recognising that Whittaker’s rendering is purposely partial in the storytelling of Ms Dhu’s death.

‘Exhibit tab’ (2018) as a dataset aims to contextualise the narrativizing of Indigenous people by colonial agents and addresses the exclusion of Indigenous

voices in coroner reports. Upon viewing ‘exhibit tab,’ (2018) Ms Dhu’s full name is presented as the second most common three-word phrase in the dataset, however, in comparison to the inquest into the death of Ms Dhu, her full name predominately appears in the footer of the inquest. Ms Dhu’s name would not be a part of this dataset if only words on the coroner’s report were mentioned. Indeed, Whittaker is aware of the partiality (Haraway, 1988) in Indigenous data when represented in many coroner’s report findings, hence she politically “cooks” (Bowker, 2005) and situates (Haraway, 1988) her data by being inclusive of Ms Dhu’s identity and crossing out her full name not only for cultural purposes, but also to follow the practices of the coroner’s report. Furthermore, Whittaker emphasises on the exclusion of Ms Dhu’s identity in the inquest and the importance of how qualitative data framed Ms Dhu’s death (The Guardian, 2018). Ms Dhu was a victim of domestic violence, where an altercation with her intimate partner in 2014 fractured her ribs (ABC, 2016). Ms Dhu was described as a “stoic woman who was not one to complain about her pain,” however, following her arrest for unpaid fines on 2 August, she numerously complained about feeling unwell to police officers and health staff (ABC, 2016). Ms Dhu died in custody two days later of an infection. In her article, Whittaker exclaims the role of the coroner’s reports in “storytelling and preventing” injustice (The Guardian, 2018), however, the language that was used to describe Indigenous deaths behind custody, ironically pinned the issue on the misconduct of a colonial system that oppresses Indigenous people (The Guardian, 2018).

Furthermore, it was Haraway who coined “the god trick,” an omniscient observer of data that denies subjectivity. If we adapt her term to the dataset of coroner’s reports, it would be the White state of authority that denies the political nature of a death behind custody and decides no further investigation is necessary, as the death cannot hold political ramifications. Furthermore, Whittaker recognises the presentation of coronial data as “accidents” rather than causative, hence emphasising how the ‘objectivity’ in its language allows for the colonial state to escape accountability (The Guardian, 2018). Hence, by classifying her dataset into the template of a poem, Whittaker contextualises the ironic nature of the coroner’s report in ‘objectively’ approaching the death of Ms Dhu by classifying her dataset in the emotive medium of a poem. Ultimately, by viewing ‘exhibit tab,’ (2018) Whittaker contextualises the irony of coroner’s report in its objective language of reporting data on Ms Dhu rather than about her. Moreover, she includes the data from the footer of the inquest into her dataset to purposely confront us with the exclusion of her identity in the initial coroner’s report.

Although Whittaker engages in quantitative measures to classify her qualitative data, her dataset does not legitimise embodiment and affect (D’Ignazio and Klein, 2020). Whittaker emphasises the dangers of partiality of Whittaker’s dataset as she includes the footer in her dataset, however, without presenting the number of times each phrase was used, her dataset does not legitimise embodiment and affect. As a non-Indigenous audience, I am unable to appropriately grasp the level

of frustration felt by Whittaker as the sample size is not clear and the horrific events of Ms Dhu’s death are not embodied by purely viewing her dataset. I was shocked to find the initial length of the coroner’s report and how any mention of Ms Dhu’s name in the three-word phrases were predominately in the footer of the document. Additionally, Whittaker aims to confront us with the harm in “objective language” yet there is a lack of multiplicity that embodies the depth of her data rendering for those without prior context. Furthermore, by not stating how many times these phrases were used in her dataset, Whittaker feeds into 5D data and quantitative avoidance of Indigenous data, ultimately being unable to appropriately narrativize the extremity of Ms Dhu’s death (Walter and Suina, 2018). Quantitative avoidance is a measure to escape the colonial dangers of 5D data, where the mainstream presentation of Indigenous quantitative data that focuses on “Indigenous difference, disparity, disadvantage, dysfunction and deprivation” (Walter and Suina, 2018: 235). However, by avoiding quantitative data in her data rendering, Whittaker loses the opportunity to epitomise the dataset and place onus on policymaking states in their role of objectively framing Ms Dhu’s death. More importantly, Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’ (2018) holds the potential to embody grief felt through employment of stimuli that appeals to our senses. Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’ (2018) politically renders a colonial dataset, deliberatively aiming to highlight the importance of language in the framing of Indigenous deaths in custody. Conversely, as an audience, without prior context, we could not feel the importance of language without the conduction of our own

research. Instead, it was through viewing an SBS interview with Ms Dhu’s grandmother (SBS, 2018) consequent to her death that emphasised the stark nature of the coroner’s report’s language and the length of it failing to take accountability. Hence, Whittaker should further legitimise embodiment and affect by appealing to more senses for us audiences to comprehend the grief felt by Ms Dhu’s community and family, as Indigenous deaths in custody are inherently political (Porter, 2023), and subjectivity should be utilised in addressing the failures of the state police and health staff of Western Australia.

Thus, as Whittaker “cooks” (Bowker, 2005) her data and produces her rendering, she should consider the socio-political implications of how she also narrativizes Indigenous deaths behind custody. Although, Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’ (2018) is in response to the partiality of the coroner’s report, the lack of multiplicity in her dataset risks her ability to appropriately situate the key findings of Ms Dhu’s inquest. The consequences of this are the false narrativization of Ms Dhu’s death. Moreover, without asking “who is this being represented in this data?” Whittaker qualitatively reduces the identity of Ms Dhu to her coroner’s report. Whittaker must consider the social implications of communicating her data set to non-Indigenous audiences who have no prior knowledge on the matter of Indigenous deaths in custody, as she herself cannot take the position of “God” and have only one perspective presented to us, as this is “the view from nowhere” (Haraway, 1988). It is also to note that if Whittaker works with only one mode of

colonial data, she risks the opportunity to present Indigenous data that is extracted from Indigenous scholarship or voice.

Conclusively, ‘exhibit tab’ (2018) attempts to contextualise the coroner’s report regarding Ms Dhu’s death, however, caution must be taken in narrativizing her dataset. In her rendering, Whittaker emphasises the importance of language and insightfully highlights the failures of the Western Australia Police and WA Health Country Services taking accountability for the death of Ms Dhu. She achieves this by classifying her data in the format of a poem inclusive of the footer. However, Whittaker must consider who her audience is when presenting her rendering. Moreover, Whittaker’s data must legitimise embodiment and affect (D’Ignazio and Klein, 2020) through further engagement with visual stimuli for us to appropriately understand and comprehend the grief of Ms Dhu’s family and community, or Ms Dhu’s identity remains publicised through the colonial medium of the coroner report’s language.

Reflection:

In my rendering of Allison Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’ (2018, I situated my information (Haraway, 1988) regarding Ms Dhu’s death by engaging in further research. Moreover, it was in May of 2024 that the Government of Western

Australia and WA Country Health Services released a formal joint apology on their website almost a decade after the death of Ms Dhu. The Guardian released the response of Ms Dhu’s family Human right lawyer who said the apology had been accepted by the family but “the family doesn’t accept it has procured accountability” (The Guardian, 2024). Additionally, after this context, I went on a search for interviews regarding the passing of Ms Dhu and came across an emotive SBS interview in 2018 with Ms Dhu’s grandmother, Nanna Carol. In this Interview, Nanna Carol requested Ms Dhu’s autopsy be postponed, so Ms Dhu’s family could bid their farewells (SBS, 2024). However, when their requests were denied, and autopsy went ahead before the family’s appointment, interfering with their grieving process (SBS, 2018). In my rendering, I aimed to present the emotive interview with Nanna Carol to legitimize and embody the effect (D’Ignazio and Klein, 2020) of Allison Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’ in expressing the interrupted grief felt by Ms Dhu’s family and community. Thus, I aim to embrace multiplicity (Haraway, 1988), legitimise and embody affect whilst being inspired by the template in which Whittaker classifies her data set.

In my rendering I situated myself by viewing a variety of news articles on the death of Ms Dhu and the Inquest into Ms Dhu’s death alongside Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’. Firstly, I intended to highlight Whittaker’s laborious process of classification by searching up the Inquest findings and pressing [Command + Shift + F] to search up the three words phrases in Whittaker’s dataset. Surprisingly, I

found that the phrases regarding Ms Dhu’s death and her name were predominantly present in the footer of the inquest. Hence, I reduced my sample size to only consider words that were not a part of the dataset to see the difference. I then found that the top phrases that were not in the footer did not mention Ms Dhu at all but the Constables and the dates leading up to Ms Dhu’s death. My findings proved that there was a decrease in the mention of the date Ms Dhu was admitted and complained about feeling unwell. Hence, I wanted to emphasise this by putting in the number of times each of the phrases were mentioned, like how the footers were structured. In my rendering, I also wanted to parallel the “objective” nature of Whittaker’s exhibit lab by classifying Nanna Carol’s data into three-word phrases, yet they were not assorted like ‘exhibit tab’ nor the joint apology. I wanted to present the oxymoronic nature of “raw data” (Bowker 2005), as the data is not as classified or categorised like the other datasets, yet it holds much power in communicating the frustration felt by Dhu’s family.

Conclusively, I also considered the role of contextualising and embracing multiplicity as I classified the joint apology released by the Government of Western Australia and WA Country Health Service. I went on the website in which the official apology was released, and then copy and pasted the qualitative data on the page, onto another document. I then went through the same process Whittaker did in classifying and sorting the data on the top ranked three words

phrases. However, I only got up-to seven three-word phrases, hence why I reduced the data set of ‘exhibit tab’ as well. Ultimately, quantitatively contextualising the difference in the joint apology and the inquest findings. The apology quantitatively holds substantially less due to the lack of phrases as well as the lack of accountability, even after a decade of Ms Dhu’s death.

As for the numbers that represent citations, I coloured the inquest into Ms Dhu’s death in red, not to just represent the Aboriginal identity of Ms Dhu, but to represent the blood at the hand of Western Australian authorities. This was to quantitatively place onus on the coroner’s report in failing to take accountability over the death of Ms Dhu. Moreover, the black of Nanna Carol’s words, represent the Indigenous voice, and how these words were taken straight from the interview, holding power in her voice and anecdote to achieve justice. However, the blue in the joint apology is the same colour of the title in the Inquest into Ms Dhu’s death, and like the colour of the website. Thus, this is to emphasise that the apology still does not hold accountability, and unless actions follow the apology, they were not meant for the Indigenous community or Ms Dhu’s family. It was for themselves.

References:

C. Bowker, G 2005, ‘Raw Data’ Is an Oxymoron, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, pp. 184.

D’Ignazio, C & Klein, LF 2020, Data Feminism, MIT Press, CAMBRIDGE.

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, [online] 14(3), pp.575– 599. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3178066.

Hirini, R 2018, Ms Dhu’s family opens up about the aftermath of her death, SBS , NITV.

Mayes, A 2016, ‘Ms Dhu, a “bright, cheerful” woman who died in police custody’, ABC News, 16 December.

Porter, A. (2023). Quantifying an Australian crisis: Black deaths in custody. [online] Pursuit. Available at: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/quantifying an-australian-crisis-black-deaths-in-custody [Accessed 7 July. 2024].

Press, AA 2024, ‘WA police formally apologise to family of Aboriginal woman who died in custody in 2014’, The Guardian, 31 May, viewed 21 July 2024, <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/31/wa-police apology-ms-dhu-death-in-custody-arrest-ntwnfb>.

Rogowska-Stangret, M 2018, New Materialism, newmaterialism.eu, viewed 29 July 2024, <https://newmaterialism.eu/almanac/s/situated-knowledges.html>.

The Guardian. (2018). ‘Dragged like a dead kangaroo’: why language matters for deaths in custody. Alison Whittaker. [online] Available at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/07/dragged-like-a-dead kangaroo-why-language-matters-for-deaths-in-custody.

The Guardian.com (2016). Ms Dhu death in custody: CCTV footage shows ‘inhumane’ police treatment – video. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2016/dec/16/ms-dhu-death-in custody-cctv-footage-shows-inhumane-police-treatment-video. [accessed 24 July 2024]

Walter, M. and Suina, M. (2018). Indigenous data, indigenous methodologies and indigenous data sovereignty. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, [online] 22(3), pp.233–243. doi:

https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2018.1531228.

Western Australia Police Force and WA Country Health Service 2024, WA Country Health Service - Joint Apology Ms Dhu, Wa.gov.au, viewed 21 July 2024, <https://www.wacountry.health.wa.gov.au/News/2024/05/31/Joint-Apology Ms-Dhu> .

Whittaker, A 2018, Blakwork, Magabala Books, Broome, Western Australia, pp. 70–72.

3

Allowed to

Inquest into the death of Ms Dhu (11020-14) [2016]

The seven most common three-word phrases in the Western Australia Coroner’s findings on the death of Ms Dhu, ranked.

174 119

First Class Constable Class Constable Matier

106

4 August 2014

97 88 87 79

Senior Constable Burgess 3 August 2014

At the inquest

2 August 2014

SBS interview with Ms Dhu’s Grandmother [2018]

Ms Dhu’s Nanna Carol’s request for the autopsy be postponed to say goodbye to Ms Dhu. Her requests were denied

They said no

“we will not

do it Mrs

Roe, we will

not touch her,”

We wasn’t allowed

to touch her

or anything or

cuddle her. We

weren’t allowed to

touch her to

grieve in the

process, we weren’t

allowed to cuddle

her or nothing,

I feel her,

Our kid will

never rest until

we get justice

… I hope

I get justice

Before I die.

Joint Apology - Ms Dhu [2024]

The seven most common three-word phrases in the Government of Western Australia and WA Country Health Service’s joint apology for the death of Ms Dhu, ranked.

3

WA Country Health

3

Country Health Service

2

Joint Apology Ms

2

of Western Australia

2

Government of Western

2

Apology Ms Dhu

2

the circumstances of

© Inspired by Allison Whittaker’s ‘exhibit tab’