For a little bit there, I dared to hope. But Dylan Voller’s plea shows that nothing has been learned from Don Dale

‘As an Arrernte woman who has spent her entire life going up and back from the territory … I am significantly more concerned that pure racism has both won and lost an election,’ writes Celeste Liddle Photograph: Amanda Parkinson/The Guardian

It was the plea from a former child prisoner that hit me. On seeing his picture flooding the media once again last week, Dylan Voller wrote on social media asking that the image of him – as an incarcerated child at Don Dale in a spit hood, tied in a chair – stop being used. Now a young man, in the process of healing, Voller pointed out how retraumatising seeing this image was, and how dehumanising it is.

Voller’s right. It is exploitative and dehumanising. The image was circulating again because many people had just seen an election won and lost based almost entirely on the major parties taking “tough on crime” stances. For better or worse, this image of Voller became iconic many years ago as to where these stances inevitably lead – to systemically abused children.