(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The grandmother of a West Australian Aboriginal woman who died in custody is pleading for answers into how the 22 year old lost her life - despite being taken to hospital twice.
Ms Dhu's family wants a coronial inquest as soon as possible.
Their request comes as elders call for another royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody
Ryan Emery reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
31 years ago, 16 year old John Pat died in police custody in Roebourne, Western Australia.
His death would lead to the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody that ran from 1987 to 1991.
While the anniversary of his death was remembered at a memorial in Western Australia, the family of another young Indigenous person, who also died in police care, is demanding answers.
22 year old Ms Dhu died last month after three days in the Port Hedland watch house serving time for unpaid fines.
She'd been taken to hospital twice, but each time she was ruled well enough to be locked up again.
She would be found unconscious in her cell and was pronounced dead when she was taken back to hospital.
Her family wants answers - did a doctor see her when she first went to the hospital?
Why was she considered well enough to be jailed when two witnesses say she was vomiting and crying out in pain in her cell?
An autopsy has proved inconclusive.
So Ms Dhu's family wants a mandatory coronial inquest into her death to be brought forward.
Coronial inquests can take years to eventuate.
Ms Dhu's relatives, the Roe and Kelly families, have issued a statement:
In it they say:
"On behalf of the Roe family, Grandmother Carol Roe sends her deep condolences to the Pat family and all others who have lost loved ones in custody.We want Truth and Justice for our granddaughter and all others who have died in custody. We are overwhelmed with sadness as this young woman should be with us today."
Their call for immediate answers has been echoed by the relatives of John Pat.
His aunt Allery Sandy says Ms Dhu's relatives have a right to a quick answer considering how shocking her death was.
"For this young girl, you know, I just pray that something would be done for the family so they can have peace of mind. They want answers. You know, they need answers. It didn't happen at a community, it didn't happen out on the street, it happened inside so give them the answers that they need. I'm so grateful that there are many people out here for that kind of issue."
Noongar elder Ben Taylor says one of the 339 recommendations of the royal commission was to jail Indigenous people only as a last resort.
It has never been adopted.
"There should be sobering up shelters, and places where they can sit down and talk to get medical treatment because Aboriginal people are dying on their feet when they go to those lockups. There's diabetes, heart disease and everything like that. They're just physically, mentally, spiritually bankrupt in every way."
In Western Australia, more than 587 people were jailed this year for unpaid fines.
Of those more than 267 were Indigenous.
Last month on average 12 people were in jail each day for fine defaulting and they spent an average nearly five and a half days in custody.
Elder Ben Taylor says the royal commission in the late eighties gave him hope that there would be fewer Indigenous people in custody and no more deaths.
"Well, I was very happy. I thought that we were going to get justice now. Every Aboriginal death in custody is really going to be investigated and see what happens cos it's got to stop. But it's just continued. There's been hundreds and hundreds of deaths every since that royal commission and it's still going on today."
He wants another royal commission to be held and any recommendations made law.
"They should have made it a law that says this is the law you've got to do this. Not recommend it whether they can do it or not. You got to have a law that says, if you don't do this, then you're going to get charged. You got to get justice. All those recommendations and nothing has happened."
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