On the 15th of February 2004, 17 years old Thomas Junior Hickey died after falling off his pushbike and impaling himself on a fence. The Redfern indigenous community says he was fleeing a police car that was chasing him. The police deny the chase.
Three enquiries are on their way to sort out the truth but one thing is sure: T.J was scared by the police car and that fear led to his death.
T.J’s death sparked violent riots in Redfern, as community members and police came face to face.

Pauline Maudy is a French-Australian singer based in Brisbane. The day after the riots, she heard the Redfern story on Hack (a Triple J radio program) and wrote “Look Over”, a song about her perception of T.J’s death. She then decided to launch the Redfernwakeupcall.com Project.

The www.redfernwakeupcall.com web site makes available to the public “Look Over” - the song about T.J Hickey’s death. By downloading the song (free), people can show their concern for the future of racial relations in Australia.

www.redfernwakeupcall.com features a collection of links about Redfern and racial relations in Australia. It incites people to talk about racial issues and take action.

The Redfernwakeupcall.com Project is designed to help communities like Redfern that are plagued by poverty. The site offers people some directions they can take if they want to change things. For example, the visitor can click on a link that will take them directly to the donation page for Reconciliation Australia – an organisation working towards a racially fairer Australia.

Credits:

Project Producer/ Songwriter/Vocalist: Pauline Maudy
Guitarist/Arrangement: Miranda Deutsch
Recording/Sound engineering: Daniel Fournier and
Ben Stuart from Digital Archives Network www.cparis.org
Web Designer: A Vision Studio www.avisionstudio.com
Photos credits: Jim Oltersdorf www.joltersdorf.com

Sponsors:

KPMG Mooloolaba,
Nicolas Doucas
Coolpc.com.au

www.redfernwakeupcall.com

Pauline Maudy
Mobile 0419 669 596
Email pmaudy@keypoint.com.au
Click here to access Pauline Maudy's home page

 

Press Release
April 2004