{"id":277662,"date":"2025-10-04T17:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T17:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277662\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T17:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T17:39:17","slug":"hundreds-attend-justice-march-for-kaiden-morgan-johnston-in-morwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277662\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds attend justice march for Kaiden Morgan-Johnston in Morwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the main street of Morwell, in eastern Victoria, the sound of marching footsteps and the rhythm of clap sticks could be heard ringing out.<\/p>\n

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers\u00a0are advised this article contains the image and name of a person who has died.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around 600 people marched from The Gathering Place community centre to the police station, where they called for action on violent crimes in the wake of the alleged murder of Kaiden Morgan-Johnston, 18, on the other side of town, last Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Elders addressed the mourning crowd, calling for Indigenous voices to be heard and for Mr Morgan-Johnston\u2019s death to bring positive change in the community.<\/p>\n

He was walking to a friend\u2019s house and was about 200 metres from his home when he was allegedly stabbed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kaiden Morgan, 18,\u00a0died in hospital following the incident. (ABC Takeover)<\/p>\n

His best friend, Tyrese Walsh, 20, \u00a0was also allegedly attacked but survived.<\/p>\n

Tyson Fenton, 19, and a 16-year-old boy have been charged with Mr Morgan-Johnston’s murder and have been remanded in custody to appear in court in coming months.<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan-Johnston and Mr Walsh were part of the cultural dance group called the Boorun Boys and were featured on ABC Takeover<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The justice marches<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, more than 200 family members and friends walked to Mr Morgan-Johnston’s memorial<\/a> site on The Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ABC outside of the family home, loved ones said he was a proud Indigenous man who always made everyone smile, was a “generational leader” and their lives would never be the same without him.<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning the community gathered a second time for the even larger march.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan-Johnston’s supporters are seeking justice for the teenager whose life was tragically cut short. (ABC Gippsland: Bec Symons)<\/p>\n

Supporters painted their hands and printed them on banners, which were displayed in the march.<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan-Johnston’s loved ones aimed to send a message that the machete ban wasn’t doing enough to stop youth crime and violence, and changes needed to be made to protect the community and prevent further tragedies.<\/p>\n

Family speaks out<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan-Johnston’s mother, Sascha Johnston, told the ABC the march was a true representation of who her son was.<\/p>\n

“He brought everybody together, every walk of life, every generation; it didn’t matter if you were Indigenous or non-Indigenous, he was a true lover of life and people,” Ms Johnston said.<\/p>\n

“He would have been so proud.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan-Johnston’s parents, Willy Morgan and Sascha Johnston, comfort each other during the march. (ABC Gippsland: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

“Kaiden became a target in primary school because he was trying to protect other children [and] he was strong enough to stand up for himself as well.”<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan-Johnston’s brother, Jake Muller, said all offenders needed to be taken off the streets.<\/p>\n

“It’s got to stop,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to lose any other boys; and if Kaiden is the reason that it stops now, that would make him rest a lot easier knowing it was for something in the end.”<\/p>\n

‘Hole in our hearts’<\/p>\n

Mr Muller said there was no-one else like his brother.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chants rang out during the protest, seeking justice for the beloved teen. (ABC Gippsland: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

“Every one of his mates would say he was the first one to be there for them, he was just an amazing person,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He has left a big hole in our hearts that we will never fill ever again, and the community has even got a hole in their hearts, as you can see from today.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The family said bail laws needed to be tougher.<\/p>\n

“I always used to say to Kaiden, someone out there is a future victim; I didn’t think it would be him,” Ms Johnston said.<\/p>\n

“He was a lover of life and people.<\/p>\n

“I had people messaging me that he went to primary school with, all mums that have said their kids have talked about the impact Kaiden made for them; that Kaiden looked after them when they needed it, things that I didn’t even know about that my son had done.<\/p>\n

“He was the kindest person.<\/p>\n

“We are a very strong community, when something happens we do stick together, but Kaiden has impacted everybody, more than anything that we have seen before.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hands were painted red in honour of Mr Morgan-Johnston. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

His father Willy Morgan said he wanted justice.<\/p>\n

“I’m not getting any younger but before I go, I want justice,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I made a promise to my son and I will keep it.<\/p>\n

“It’s so unreal, the heart that boy had; he was beautiful.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gunaikurnai elder Reverend Kathy Dalton said the community lost a strong, young Aboriginal man.<\/p>\n

“His life was taken too short, for what? For people hating and causing pain within our communities,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Aunty Kathy Dalton says the government needs to fix the crime crisis. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“We should be able to walk home, or walk down the street of the town we live in without fear from everyone.<\/p>\n

“We should be able to speak freely about the wrongs in our community, when people do wrong in the community, we should be able to pull them aside and say ‘Hang on a minute, we do not do that’.”<\/p>\n

Ms Dalton said violence needed to stop and everyone needed to look after each other.<\/p>\n

“Government, fix the crisis of crime that keeps happening and keep making those laws and close that gap,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Now we wait, we wait as a community, as a family, for justice. We want justice, proper justice, so healing, peace and forgiveness and hope for our community can be done.”<\/p>\n

Action by police<\/p>\n

Minister for Community Safety, Police and Victims Anthony Carbines said in the first month of the machete amnesty, more than 3,200 weapons were surrendered by members of the public and more than 3,400 by a major retailer.<\/p>\n

“This is on top of the 11,000 weapons Victoria Police have seized this year as part of OMNI operations where they can search anyone anytime,” Mr Carbines said.<\/p>\n

“We have also strengthened the bail test for knife offences, and this week Australia’s toughest bail test came into effect.”<\/p>\n

Mr Carbines said what happened to Mr Morgan-Johnston was a tragedy.<\/p>\n

“My thoughts are with his family, friends and the community during this time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Knife crime has claimed too many young lives and we’re doing everything we can in Victoria to put an end to it.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting more knives off our streets than any other state through our nation-leading machete ban and the expanded stop and search powers we gave Victoria Police.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the main street of Morwell, in eastern Victoria, the sound of marching footsteps and the rhythm of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":277663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8811,11341,4740,718,281,40922,71383,143561,35115,3250,35114,50,7358],"class_list":{"0":"post-277662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-aboriginal","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-court","13":"tag-gippsland","14":"tag-justice-system","15":"tag-kaiden-morgan","16":"tag-latrobe-valley","17":"tag-march","18":"tag-morwell","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-stabbing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115317123782610380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}