Standing strong in a storm

A little over a year ago, 15-year-old Perth boy Cassius Turvey died after being beaten by strangers on his way home from school, and in the aftermath his mother’s call for peace united the nation. The Weekly meets Mechelle Turvey, WA’s inspiring Australian of the Year.

- SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

The repetitive beep of vital signs monitor, lines rising and falling in waves, traces the rhythm of life on a screen. A 15-year-old with a bandaged head looks as if he might be sleeping, though he's been lying here in an induced coma for days. Beside him, in the soft blue glow of the Intensive Care ward, his mother whispers the stories of his childhood and hers, of her parents and grandparents, weaving her son's life into a tapestry of family and community, as if to hold him here.

The woman is Mechelle Turvey.

Ten days earlier, her son Cassius, a Noongar/Yamatji teenager, was walking home from his Perth school when he was set upon by strangers, one of them brandishing a metal pole. Friends who witnessed the attack called an ambulance and Cassius was rushed to hospital, his forehead slashed, his brain hemorrhaging in two places.

Cassius went home five days later, but within hours he was felled by a series of seizures. Back in hospital, he underwent brain surgery and doctors learned that he had suffered two strokes. After five more days sitting by his bed in hospital, Mechelle was told she must bid her youngest son goodbye.

In the aftermath of Cassius' death, as people gathered at vigils and rallies around the country, Mechelle called for calm. In the depths of her grief, she united the nation.

"I am angry. Cassius' friends and family are angry," she wrote in a statement that was read to the thousands who gathered around Australia in November 2022.

"But I don't want any form of violence at these rallies in the name of my child. Violence breeds violence. I want calm and peace. I don't want to fuel prejudices, biases. I don't want to fuel the stereotypes of First Nations people... My family and I send our love to each one of you for supporting, for raising voices and for showing so much kindness and respect. I am overwhelmed and eternally grateful."