VIDEO: From the Archives: The Prosecution of Nancy Young

SARAH FERGUSON:  Now it's time to delve back into the ABC's archives.

In 1969, First Nations woman, Nancy Young, was sentenced to three years jail for the manslaughter of her baby daughter.

Four Corners went to the outback town of Cunnamulla in Queensland to highlight the injustice of her conviction, revealing racist attitudes as well as the squalid conditions people there were living in. 

The episode caused an uproar and was later used in her appeal.

We're revisiting the story now and in doing so will feature the names and images of people who have died.

7.30's Alison McClymont met with Nancy Young's three daughters.

RHONDA NAGGS:  Well, this is where I think we were born here in the Yumba and this is what's left of it now, the Yumba. All this rubble. 

SANDRA TURNBULL:  We were expecting to see something still standing, you know what I mean? 

REPORTER (Archival): Head due west across billiard table grazing lands deep into the black soil plains of southern Queensland, and sooner or later, you strike Cunnamulla.

It's a typical Outback town with some of the finest sheep and beef cattle in Queensland. It's a prosperous town, and a proud town. 

On the outskirts of town hard alongside the local cemetery, there's something Cunnamulla is not altogether proud of. Something that townsfolk, at least some of them, would sooner forget. Aboriginal fringe dwellings like these have become an all too familiar site.

With jocular contempt, locals refer to this as Hollywood. Here in shanties of wood and scrap iron live about 150 Aborigines and their families. They've occupied this camping reserve for the past 30 years.

JOANNA TURNBULL:  Mum told us where we lived was small. 

It was behind a cemetery, down at the bottom camp. All she had was a share in one bit tin shed, about four or five families in one. There was a lot of children and that and elders. 

REPORTER (Archival): Home is about the size of an average garage. Overcrowding occurs in many of the shanties. The roof leaks, the walls are riddled with holes, and there's little means of protection against extremes of cold and heat.

It has no running water, no lavatory or bath, no electric light.  

SANDRA TURNBULL:  I've never seen that. 

To actually live there. To think that Mum was there with us children. I know she did her best but to live like that. You wouldn’t expect that here in Australia, you know. 

It would have been hard on Mum. 

REPORTER (Archival): In this camp under a tin roof in February last year, an Aboriginal baby was born. Her name, Evelyn Young. 

Evelyn died only four months after she was born. She became critically ill on a winter's night last year. 

Her mother, Mrs Nancy Young, who has eight other children, carried her through bushland scrub to seek medical help at the local hospital a mile from the camp.

It was 1am when Evelyn was admitted to hospital. Nurses found she was bruised about the body and in a dirty state. The child's condition was regarded as not serious enough to need a doctor's immediate attention. Evelyn's condition got worse, and two days later, she died. 

JOANNA TURNBULL: That’s just sickening. She wasn’t sick enough for them. 

If they knew the child was that sick. Why didn't I tend to straight away? Why wait?

Because she’s Aboriginal. I’ll get straight to it. She’s Aboriginal. If it was some other child – a white child – oh yeah, straight in there. Straight into bed there. 

REPORTER (Archival): At Cunnamulla police station, Mrs Young was subsequently charged with having unlawfully killed her baby.

The indictment alleged she'd neglected her child and failed to provide adequate food and seek adequate medical attention. 

Mrs Young was placed in custody to await trial. She remained behind bars without bail for three months before she was released to look after her children pending the trial.

JOANNA TURNBULL:  The prison cell where she was locked up. That’s filthy. That’s worse than a dog living in that shit. You know? They might as well have tied her to a tree and be done with it. It’s sickening.

SANDRA TURNBULL:  I'm just thinking of Mum and her emotions. You know what she's going through? You know how she's feeling? Being locked up like that.

REPORTER (Archival):  This morning inside this courthouse, an Aboriginal woman is to stand trial for the man slaughter of her four-and-a-half-month-old baby daughter. 

The all-male jury in this manslaughter trial seemed a highly attentive lot, and a very hungry group as well. As each lunch break came in the three-day trial, they headed off down Roma's Main Street in the bunch for a free meal at a local hotel.

At her trial, there was conflicting medical evidence about whether the baby died from the effects of malnutrition, or whether a possible inbuilt vitamin deficiency was responsible for her death. Evidence was also given that no doctor examined the baby until eight hours after she was admitted to hospital. 

The prosecution claimed the baby's condition must have been apparent to Mrs Young well before she took it to the hospital. Mrs Young's defense counsel pointed out that she was separated from her husband, had only child endowment and a few dollars a week to buy food for her family.

JOANNA TURNBULL:  If it had been neglect, if she had neglected, she wouldn’t have took her to the hospital in the first place. Where’s the neglect there? When she walked that many miles to get to the hospital. Goes to the hospital and then told to go back home. Where’s the neglect there? Where’s the doctors? Where’s the nurses? Whatever. Why couldn’t they have been a helping hand to my mother with our sister? 

REPORTER (Archival): Nancy Young was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three years hard labour with a suspension of her sentence after nine months. Subsequently, a retrial dismissed the charges against her and one wrong was put right. 

JOANNA TURNBULL:  Mum told us all about it when we grew up to be teenagers. She sat us down and told us all about it. 

She said I went to jail for murder. And I said what murder? I didn't even know that I had a sister. She said, "Yeah, well, I got convicted over something I never done wrong."

SANDRA TURNBULL:  We were told our mother didn’t want us. That's why we were put in a home, and I ended up hating, yes, anger took over me. Yeah. 

Used to get into a lot of fights trying to get that anger out of me saying, oh, my own mother didn't want me and, you know, just threw me away, threw us away.

I didn’t have contact with Mum at all when I was growing up. The only time I met her was when I actually met my sisters.  Yeah. That’s when I was 16.

JOANNA TURNBULL:  When we was in the home there was always a lot of other Aboriginal children who was taken from their parents too. 

I felt comfortable around my own colour because we were picked on all the time at school. 

White people used to show up in their face “Look at you, you niggers, look at you abos. 

REPORTER (Archival):  Evelyn's resting place, a hump of sun-baked mulga soil is but one grave of several hundred Aboriginal children who die every year throughout Australia. 

This bouquet of wild flowers was Evelyn's only remembrance; that and one stark unanswered question - in the years ahead, how many more Aboriginal babies like Evelyn will die needlessly in Australia. 

SANDRA TURNBULL:  Now that Mum’s passed, she’s over here resting in peace now. 

RHONDA NAGGS:  Yeah, she had all us kids,

SANDRA TURNBULL:  Full circle it is. 

RHONDA NAGGS:  And we’ve all sort of come back home as well. 

SANDRA TURNBULL:  This is home. To me its home.