The 30th anniversary of John Pat's death in a Roebourne prison has re-ignited calls for justice in Australia's correctional services.
Marches were held in a number of cities across the country over the weekend to call on Australians to stop deaths in custody.
The Indigenous Social Justice Association says the commemoration march is for all individuals who die in custody, including asylum seekers.
Rallies held in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney highlighted concerns around the failure to implement all of the recommendations from the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
The Royal Commission inquired into 99 deaths which occurred over a ten year period.
Ray Jackson from the Indigenous Social Justice Association says these deaths could have been prevented if the recommendations were implemented.
"If the states and territories had fully implemented the 339 recommendations we would have saved over 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives," says Mr Jackson.
The death of John Pat in Western Australia sparked the beginning of a Royal Commission. Last week, the West Australian Parliament unanimously moved a motion to apologise to the Pat family.
Many other families across Australia also commemorated the death of their loved ones.
In November 1993, 18-year-old Daniel Yock died after being arrested while drinking with friends in Brisbane.
Then in 2004, Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee also died in police custody. This death, which resulted in the burning down of a local police station, was also followed by an inquiry.
The Australian Institute of Criminology monitors statistics on deaths in custody with its most recent report showing that in 2010-2011, there were 83 total deaths in custody and 20 of those were Indigenous.
However, Mr Jackson emphasises the importance of investigating all deaths noted in this recent report.
"We decided that nobody was looking at these other deaths in custody, something had to be done about them.," says Mr Jackson.
"So we included the asylum seekers because nobody was looking at their deaths either. So we have a very big brief. We look at deaths in custody in total in Australia."
Indigenous Social Justice Groups will meet in 10 days in Redfern to continue their awareness campaign to stop deaths in custody.
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