Narelda Jacobs breaks down on TV reporting on Cassius Turvey’s death

Channel 10 star Narelda Jacobs has broken down in tears while talking about the alleged murder of an Indigenous schoolboy after he was chased and bashed with a metal pole moments after getting off his bus.

Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy from Perth, was allegedly bashed with a metal pole while walking home from school with friends and died on October 23.

Ms Jacobs, a Whadjuk Noongar woman also from Perth, made an emotional plea this week as she was presenting for Studio 10, calling on Australians to stand together as vigils are held for Cassius across the nation on Wednesday.

‘Seeing those pictures from home, that’s all my family,’ Jacobs said, her voice cracking.

‘Around the country we are feeling this so deeply … I cannot tell you enough how important the vigils will be this week.’ 

Ms Jacobs said Cassius was part of her family and called on Australians to stand up.

‘We will be seeing people turning out in record numbers across Australia, because we want an end to violence, we want an end to the alleged racism that allegedly murdered Cassius, and we need allies to stand up,’ she said through tears.

‘Australians have had enough of this, and we’re going to be standing in solidarity with Cassius’ family, who is also my family, so please turn out.’

Ms Jacobs also said she has a close connection to Cassius’s family. 

She referred to Cassius as her nephew and said her daughter Jade, who is based in Perth, had been asked to paint his coffin. 

Jade also performed a smoking ceremony with her cousin Elijah to ‘tell any bad spirits that were lingering to leave and to welcome the good spirits in to sit with the coffin and be there for Cassius as he joins the ancestors’. 

She also joined fellow Indigenous TV star Tony Armstrong in calling out Channel 9 and 7 for not giving extensive coverage to the story and being ‘absent in this whole conversation’. 

Thousands of Australians are expected to pay their respects to Cassius Turvey at events and vigils on Wednesday.

Aboriginal leaders in Perth condemned the Cassius’ tragic death and urged authorities to heed their concerns.

Jack Steven James Brearley, 21, has been charged with his murder and is due to face a Perth court on November 9.

More than 40 events honouring Cassius are scheduled this week, including gatherings in every capital city, man regional centres, New Zealand, and Los Angeles.

More than 1000 people mourned the teenager on Monday night at a candlelight vigil in Perth attended by Noongar elders and state and federal politicians.

Attendees were invited to take gum leaves or branches and add them to 15 smoking fire pits arranged in a circle, each representing a year of Cassius’s life.

Cassius’s uncle Mark Kickett told the vigil First Nations voices had to be heard.

‘It is now time for us to look really deep into our own souls, and to have an understanding of what needs to take place if there indeed is going to be healing,’ he said.

‘It’s time for the voice of Aboriginal, Islander and First Nations people to stand up and be heard, and to be counted.’

Local federal MP Tania Lawrence, who paid an emotional tribute to Cassius in parliament last week, said a national dialogue was needed.

‘Ready or not, we have to have that conversation,’ she told AAP.

‘I think there’s this undercurrent of racism that has held Australia for too long, and we can’t be defined by it.

‘We have to be better than this, and at the moment, we’re not.’

Friends and family described Cassius as a ‘teddy bear’ with an infectious smile who was always there for others.

His mother Mechelle Turvey told the vigil her son’s name, a nod to boxing great Muhammad Ali, representing him ‘to the tee’.

‘So many people have said so many things about Cassius but my son is my greatest,’ she said.