Mervyn, who passed away on 14th of July 2024, was a much loved and highly valued member of Knowledge Consulting’s team. He had a lifelong passion to work to support First Nations people to overcome institutionalised racism and disadvantage imposed upon them since colonisation.
He was devastated by the intergenerational trauma that blights the lives of so many First Nations people and their terrible overrepresentation in the criminal justice system and in prisons.
He was greatly influenced by his mother Muriel Langford who worked to garner support for the referendum in May 1967 to amend the Australian constitution, which treated First Nations people as second-class citizens, and to acknowledge them as equal citizens. At the age of 15 years, he assisted her with this successful campaign.
Mervyn as a Non-First Nations Contributing Author provided valuable input to the submission we have included here on our Website – Proposed First Nations Justice Reform Partnership with Queensland and Federal Governments to Advance Justice reinvestment in Queensland – Commencing with Community Trials in Parallel with Treaty – Voice and Truth Telling. (download PDF here)
Page 6 of the submission provides a brief biography of this wonderful Australian.