Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991) investigated Aboriginal deaths in custody between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989. The final report was signed on 15 April 1991, and made 339 recommendations. Many of these recommendations have still not been implemented.

The full report can be viewed here.

Richard Frankland, Janina Harding, Clinton Nairn, Uncle Tommy Day, Andrea James?

"The statistics sadly haven't changed, they just get interpreted with a bit more finesse. I still get phone calls about people dying in custody. About suicides. I guess I always will. I think we've got another couple of rungs on the ladder towards equity and justice, but I think it's in the shape of the dominant culture's... It's not in our cultural shape. I would say that the biggest thing we need now is to establish our cultural authorities."

Richard Frankland (18 December 2020)

Gavin Moore [and others]

"The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody... that was a period when there very few Aboriginal people in government. And most of the deaths were extended family members that I investigated. And I covered two states. And what happened was there was a level of support from community that... enabled me to walk on a lot of different Country and talk about death. Which was unheard of at the time, because the way I had to talk about it was very loud in comparison to the whispers when someone had passed."

"When I started at the Royal Commission I was naive enough to think that we could win that issue there and then, and stop deaths in custody. I didn't realise that, I didn't think I was gonna live... another 30 years. But… all of a sudden, 30 years later, we're still fighting the same issue."

Richard Frankland (18 December 2020)