Aboriginal deaths in custody

  • Mr Ward’s family still denied justice

    On July 2, 100 people rallied at St Georges Terrace in response to the Western Australian Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)’s decision not to lay criminal charges against the two guards involved in the death of Mr Ward. The emergency action was called by the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee and was addressed by Marianne Mackay and Marc Newhouse from DICWC. Some wore T-shirts that read: “What Eddie Mabo was to Native Title, let Mr Ward be to the justice system.”

  • Death in custody: Justice for Veronica Baxter!

    A press conference was held on June 23 behind NSW Parliament House calling for an inquiry into 34-year-old Veronica Baxter’s death in custody. Activists presented 500 signatures to NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale who undertook to present them to the New South Wales Parliament. On March 10, 2009, three days after Mardi Gras,Veronica Baxter was arrested by Redfern police and held on remand at the all-male NSW Silverwater Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre. Six days later, after a 14-hour break between checking her cell, she was found dead, hanging in her single cell.

  • Sam Watson: ‘Jail cops who kill’

    After seven years, the police officers responsible for the killing of Palm Island Aboriginal man Mulrunji Domadgee — and the cover-up that followed — may face new charges as a result of a Crimes and Misconduct Commission (CMC) report. In November 2004, Mulrunji was found dead in a Palm Island police cell within an hour of his arrest by senior sergeant Chris Hurley. Mulrunji’s liver had been nearly cleaved in two by an extreme force and there were signs of bruising to his face.

  • Sam Watson: Heads must roll in Qld police

    Brisbane, June 18, 2010 - “The only way to find out the truth about the behavior of the Queensland police hierarchy in the cover-ups that followed the November 2004 killing of Mulrunji on Palm Island is to institute an independent commission of inquiry run by a respected interstate figure,” Sam Watson, well-known Murri rights activist and lead Senate candidate for Queensland said today. “In the meantime the Queensland Police Service (QPS) hierarchy, beginning with commissioner Robert Atkinson, must be sacked.”

  • Rally protests Black deaths in custody

    Sam Watson, Aboriginal community leader and Socialist Alliance senate candidate for Queensland, spoke at a May 19 rally outside state parliament. He called for the sacking of police commissioner Bob Atkinson; the charging and conviction of police who kill Indigenous prisoners; for investigation of police to be carried out by an independent, community panel; and for a new Royal Commission into Black deaths in custody.

  • JUSTICE FOR TJ HICKEY MARCH

    • Gadigal Country/Sydney

    For almost 14 years, the Hickey family and the Indigenous Social Justice Association has been demanding the reopening of the Coronial Inquiry into the killing of then 16-year-old TJ during a police pursuit. For almost 14 years.

  • 30 Years, No Justice - Stop Deaths in Custody

    • Boorloo/Perth & Walyalup/Fremantle

    Thursday 15 April 2021 marks 30 years since the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were handed down. This rally and march will demand change to: