There have been聽聽First Nations聽deaths in custody since the final report of the聽Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) was tabled in聽1991. Thirteen First Nations people have died in custody this year 鈥 28% of total deaths in custody 鈥 a massive over-representation of First Nations people, who only make up 3.8% of the total population.
The RCIADIC was limited in scope, failed to properly identify the systematic racism at the heart of the issue and did not result in the prosecution of any of the killers聽in the 99 cases that it聽investigated.
But it made 339 modest, and entirely practical, recommendations for reforms that could reduce, if not eliminate, First Nations people鈥檚 deaths聽in custody. Yet, after聽34聽years, these reforms have yet to be fully implemented.
After initially falling聽after the RCIADIC,聽First Nations聽deaths in custody have been rising sharply again.
This is because the main cause, as the RCIADIAC identified, is the higher incarceration rate of First Nations people.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on June 30 last year that聽36% of all prisoners in Australia were Aboriginal聽or Torres Strait Islander.
So, was it worthwhile for First Nations and allied activists to put so much time and energy into campaigning for a royal commission back in the 1980s?
My answer is: Yes.
John Pat
On September 28, 1983, 16-year-old First Nations youth John Pat was聽killed by off-duty police聽in Roebourne, in the Pilbara in Western Australia. The autopsy revealed a fractured skull, haemorrhage and swelling, as well as bruising and tearing of the brain.
John Pat had sustained a number of massive blows to the head.
One bruise at the back of his head was the size of the palm of a hand, and there聽were聽many other bruises visible. In addition to the head injuries, he had two broken ribs and a torn aorta, the major blood vessel leading from the heart.
Jan Mayman, an independent journalist from WA, went to Roebourne聽and聽covered the trial in more detail than any mainstream journalist.聽This drew nationwide attention to the issue.
But the alternative media, including Direct Action (the forerunner to聽一品探花), also played a significant role.
One two-page story I wrote for聽Direct Action on John Pat鈥檚 brutal death in 1984 had a wide impact; the Northern Territory Land Council ordered a bundle of that issue.
Very few聽First Nations聽deaths in custody聽have made it to trial.聽In the John Pat case, an all-white jury eventually acquitted the police of manslaughter in 1984.聽Thirty years after John Pat was killed, however, the WA government made an apology to his family.
No cop or prison warden has ever been found guilty of a聽First Nations聽death in custody in Australia.
In September 1984, the Committee to Defend Black Rights (CDBR)聽was聽formed, initially to highlight John Pat鈥檚 death, but it聽also聽prompted other families to speak out too, such as Eddie Murray鈥檚, who died in police custody聽in 1981聽in Wee Waa, New South Wales.
It was First Nations-led, and mainly by women, such as Helen Ulli Corbett, Karen Flick, Rose Stack and Rosemary Wanganeen.
Later Cathy Eatock and her brother Greg joined CDBR. Their mother, Aunty Pat Eatock (a veteran of the original Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra and Socialist Alliance member) also played a leading role in the 2000s.
From the beginning, some non-First Nations activists were聽very聽active in the CDBR,聽among them聽Vanessa Forrest and Matt Davies.
The CDBR empowered the victims鈥 families, among them younger activists who would later play leading roles in later聽phases聽of the campaign against Black deaths in custody and other First Nation rights campaigns.
Uncle Ray Jackson, another First Nations socialist and聽trade unionist also set up the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee (ADICWC), which worked hand-in-hand with the CDBR.
In September 1986, CDBR organised a national speaking tour featuring members of some of the family members of those who had been killed to share their stories.
Corbett also聽addressed聽the聽United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations聽in August 1987 in Geneva. She pointed out that First Nations聽deaths in custody recorded that year alone by the CDBR had added up to one聽every 14 days.
She also pointed out that if the same rate of death in custody were happening for the population as a whole, there would be 1500 deaths in custody a year!
The CDBR also worked to educate international networks, including through the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific, Indonesia, South Korea, Amnesty International in Britain, and even in Cuba, alongside聽protests and public meetings around Australia.
On August 9,聽1987, a mass public meeting organised by CDBR and ADICWC聽filled Sydney Town Hall.聽
The next day,聽then聽Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke announced a royal commission into聽First Nations聽deaths in custody.聽
Over the four years聽of the royal commission, the CDBR worked聽relentlessly聽to mobilise the families of those who had been killed, not only to give their testimony but also to arm them and other First Nations communities to hold authorities to account.
It held workshops聽in First Nations communities聽so that deaths in custody would never again be hidden from the public.
In the few聽states that the RCIADIC recommendation聽that any First Nations person taken into custody be immediately noted to the Aboriginal Legal Service was implemented, the rate of deaths immediately dropped.聽
After the RCIADIC report was tabled, in April 1991, the CDBR continued to press for full implementation of the recommendations and an investigation of the excluded cases. It also took the issue into international forums.
In the 2000s, the聽torch was taken upon by other organisations, including the Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA), led by Ray Jackson and Raul Bassi, and the Blak Caucus, among others on Gadigal Country/Sydney.聽Action groups were also started up in other cities.
The case of 17-year-old TJ Hickey, killed in a police pursuit through Redfern in 2004, was taken up strongly by ISJA, and his mother Gail Hickey continues to lead annual marches every February 14 through Redfern to demand justice.
TJ鈥檚 impalement sparked聽a night of 鈥渞ioting鈥 in the Redfern Block. The community built barricades and kept the cops out of their neighbourhood for some time after his killing.
The Black Lives Matter movement in the United States was a huge boost to the movement here. New layers of mainly young people joined huge marches around the continent.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥 had a grim resonance here.
Centrality聽of Black deaths in custody issue
Racism is the systematic expression of historic oppression and a tool of oppression. This is the case not just in Australia but in the US, Apartheid South Africa and apartheid Israel.
It is a central feature of European colonial settler dispossession and genocide everywhere. The dispossessed are branded 鈥渟ub-human鈥 and the dispossessors superior.
Land theft drives the genocide and then survivors are driven off their traditional lands into concentration camps. They are stripped of dignity, culture and hope, and kept in place by ongoing terror 鈥 administered primarily by the police.
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This is why the campaign around Black deaths in custody inevitably unpicked the history and led to the 1992聽Bringing Them Home聽report into removal of First Nations children and then the launch of the official Closing the Gap campaign.
The acknowledgement of the historical trauma finally came with Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd鈥檚 apology 33 years later.聽
However, the rate of First Nations children being removed from their parents continued to rise from 47.3 for each 1000 in 2019, to 50.3 for each 1000 last year. This is 10 times the rate compared to non-First Nations children and accounts for nearly 24,000 First Nations children (and more than 43% of all children in the system).
The Productivity Commission鈥檚 2025 Report on Government Services showed the child removal system costs $6.6 billion a year, and the child prison system costs more than $1 billion.
This money needs to be spent on addressing the real social issues and on programs to divert the next generation from a course to prison, set in childhood.
This year鈥檚 Closing the Gap report found that聽First Nations children are 27 times more likely to be imprisoned than children in the rest of the population.
This is the grim forward indicator that guarantees that the numbers of聽First Nations聽deaths in custody will keep rising.
We need聽a lot more聽truth-telling and real action to聽deliver justice.
[Peter Boyle, a long-term campaigner for First Nations rights, helped the聽Committee to Defend Black Rights in its early days. He is a member of the Socialist Alliance.]