The Cat Empire’s Felix Riebl Has Recorded A Heartbreaking Song About The Death Of Ms Dhu

The Cat Empire frontman Felix Riebl has teamed up with Marliya singers from the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir for a new protest song about the death of 22-year-old Indigenous woman Ms Dhu, who died from septicaemia and pneumonia after 45 hours in police custody.

The song, titled ‘Ms Dhu’, describes the circumstances of Dhu’s death in a South Hedland police station in August 2014, while highlighting the wider problems of institutionalised racism in Australia.

Lyrics include “every black death in custody’s a blight on our souls” and “will we ever see a cop locked up for negligence?” The chorus features the lines “we’re not going away, it’s our home, our home / and we’ve been losing our youth for too long.”

The song is accompanied by a confronting music video that includes CCTV vision of Ms Dhu in the hours before her death, as well as archival footage of protests and police brutality throughout the years.

Last month, the coroner found that Dhu endured “unprofessional and inhumane” treatment at the hands of West Australian police, and that the level of medical care she received in hospital was “deficient”. Before she died, police and doctors accused Dhu of exaggerating her pain so that she would be given drugs. In fact, the pain was caused by an infection in a broken rib, which eventually spread into her blood stream and killed her.

Riebl told The Guardian that the song was recorded with the permission of Dhu’s family, who hoped that it would draw international attention to their campaign for justice. He also called Dhu’s death “one of the most devastating stories that I have ever seen.”