Stories relating to Indigenous Australians in 2012 mostly related to a continuing struggle to improve their health, to explain deaths in custody and to satisfy their desire to be recognised as the first custodians of the land.
Murray Silby looks back at the past year.
A major focus of politicians in 2012 was the building of support for a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution, but that plan was put on hold because the Federal Government said there was little prospect for success.
Instead, the Government introduced the Act of Recognition in the hope that it could be used to build awareness of the proposed Constitutional change.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin told Parliament the interim measure was needed because Indigenous leaders made it clear that a referendum would fail if it was held in 2013.
"It is important to recognise that this Bill is not a substitute for constitutional recognition. The Australian Constitution is the foundation document for our laws and our government, but it is silent on the special place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the First Australians."
Some former members of an expert government panel had cautioned against pushing ahead with a referendum in the current political climate.
Former Co-Chair of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Mark Leibler said the current state of acrimonious politics in Canberra would make agreement between the two major parties difficult.
"Obviously when the political atmosphere is toxic and when the major parties are sort of not agreeing on anything this is not the ideal time to run a referendum, but we don't know if this is going to be the case in six months time or in twelve months time or at election time."
The Northern Territory Emergency Response, or "intervention", which aims to tackle Indigenous disadvantage in health, education and welfare, was extended by the passing of new laws through the Senate in 2012.
Some Indigenous leaders declared a day of mourning after federal parliament passed the legislation to continue the intervention for another decade.
Yolngu leader Doctor Djiniyini Gondarra from east Arnhem Land said the legislation failed to give Aboriginal communities more control over policy development.
"This legislation will be a cause of great suffering in our hearts or in the lives of many Aboriginal people who have been under this Northern Territory Emergency Response and now working for the Stronger Futures (program). For those of us living in the Northern Territory the anguish of the past five years of intervention has been almost unbearable."
In September, Northern Territory Coroner Greg Cavanagh found that a lack of care by police led to the death of an Aboriginal man who died in custody in the Alice Springs watchhouse.
27-year-old Kwementyaye Briscoe died on the fifth of January after being locked in an Alice Springs police cell for "protective custody"* while intoxicated.
He had not been charged with any crime.
Mr Cavanagh found that the man died around the time prisoners in an adjacent cell, who heard him choking, tried to draw the attention of police officers.
In his ruling, Mr Cavanagh strongly criticised police officers of various rank for their mismanagement of Mr Briscoe's care.
"I find that the care, supervision and treatment of the deceased, while being held in custody by the Northern Territory Police was completely inadequate and unsatisfactory and not sufficient to meet his medical needs. This lack of care resulted in his death. That is to say his death was preventable and it should not have occurred."
The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Terry Mills, told the ABC his government was committed to implementing the coroner's recommendations.
"What we will do is to address the underlying cause of the alcohol consumption, working on a range of measures but principally focusing on rehabilitation, dealing with the behavioural problems and the causes of the consumption of alcohol as being our primary focus. And I'm convinced that if we deal with that issue of personal responsibility, strengthening that individual to make a better decision, along with our governance reforms in the bush, I think we've got a better chance."
The Northern Territory Police Commissioner John McRoberts refused to say what disciplinary action had been taken against the police officers on duty at the time of Kwementyaye Briscoe's death, but did say widespread reform had occurred since then.
"We now have nurses in the watchouses in Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin. We have custody sergeants whose role and responsibility is to ensure people who are taken into police care in a watchhouse are appropriately cared for and provided with the necessities of life to ensure that whilst in our care a similar event will not be repeated."
The Northern Territory Police Association president Vince Kelly said alcohol-fuelled arrests are a major problem in Alice Springs and new strategies are needed to assist police and the communities affected to cope with the situation.
"Until we can fix things like basic employment basic education, the cycle will continue of that I am sure. We need to look at ways of getting Aboriginal people employed as police officers in the Northern Territory Police Force because that involvement is critical to us overcoming this malaise which has infected a large number of people in the Northern Territory and the statistics are quite frightening."
There was some marginally good news though in 2012 in relation to the number of Indigenous youths in detention and correctional facilities in Australia.
Focusing on 2010 and 2011, a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found Indigenous youths were 24-times more likely to be in detention than non-Indigenous youth.
As high as that figure is, it was down from the period between 2007 and 2008, during which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths were 28-times times more likely to be in detention.
The Institute's Tim Beard said more still needs to be done to bring the numbers down further.
"In terms of overall numbers, we're seeing quite a small drop, but what we've seen over the past five years is a relatively steady fall in the overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in detention. So we're seeing things move in I guess what you'd call the right direction. Although what should be pointed out is that the numbers are still quite high."
Governments were still planning for the imprisonment of more Indigenous prisoners though with Western Australia opening a new one-hundred-and-fifty million dollar prison in Derby that will focus on the needs of Indigenous inmates.
The Indigenous Superintendant for the West Kimberley Regional Prison said the facility is purpose-built to cater to the cultural, social and physical needs of Aboriginal prisoners to reduce rates of re-offending.
"It's not your standard prison - stock standard - if you like. The housing style accommodation people are put into their particular cultural groups or family groups, if you like, or from the same communities. So there's that support network. All this we're trying to use in a positive way to help build upon again the law abiding skills of women and men that we have inside. And try to send them back out as a better person."
Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda was pushing for a new approach though.
He wanted a justice reinvestment program to address the disproportionate numbers of Indigenous youth in Australian prisons.
He's working with the New South Wales Government to set up a pilot program which would see funding diverted from prisons into prevention and treatment programs for young Aborigines.
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