Aboriginal rights activists rallied across the country on November 13 against Black deaths in custody. The protests were organised in response to a police officer shooting and killing Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker.
Aboriginal deaths in custody
A police officer has been charged with murder over the shooting death of 19-year-old Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker following nationwide protests.
Social justice workers and local First Nations community members spoke out about the dire need for action in the Yamatji region, at a media conference in Geraldton, Western Australia, on October 2.
Tanya Louise Day was a strong Yorta Yorta woman who stood up for Aboriginal families whose loved ones had died in prison or police custody. She died from head injuries sustained in Castlemaine police station, in regional Victoria, on December 22, 2017.
Relatives and supporters of David Dungay Jnr took over the town of Kempsey, in north coast New South Wales, on August 3 to speak out against a corrective services system that claimed the life of the 26-year-old Dunghutti man.
The coronial inquest into the death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day, due to start on August 26, will be the first of its kind to consider the role systemic racism plays in an Aboriginal person’s death in custody.
The investigation into the death of 36-year-old Wiradjuri woman Rebecca Maher concluded that the police were at fault, but stopped short of sentencing those responsible.
"The family just want the truth to come out," Leetona Dungay told supporters and the media outside the New Coroners Court on March 4. Dungay is the mother of Aboriginal man David Dungay Jnr, who died in Long Bay Jail as a result of assault by prison guards in 2015.
Members of the Dungay family and supporters had gathered at the entrance to the court to express solidarity with Leetona in her quest for justice from the NSW legal system at the coroner's inquiry beginning that day.
On February 14, the family and supporters of TJ Hickey will meet at the park they have named after the young Kamilaroi man, 15 years after he was murdered by the NSW police.
In recent years there has been an important revival of Invasion Day marches on January 26. Together with the issues of Aboriginal sovereignty and ongoing injustices against First Nations people, Raul Bassi writes that a focus of this year’s protest will be Black deaths in custody.
About 50 people held a silent march through the beachside suburb of Manly on November 3 against Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Pat, a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy, was killed on September 28, 1983, after a fight erupted between a drunken off-duty police officer and local Aboriginal people in Roebourne, Western Australia. Pat was passing by at the time and was drawn into the melee by police. Pat was subsequently struck by a police officer, falling backwards and hitting his head on the pavement. Denied medical assistance, he died a just a little more than an hour after he was locked up.
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