The rising number of First Nations deaths in custody has been denounced, as the nation marks thirty-five years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its final report.
The landmark inquiry concluded in 1991 that the disproportionate number of deaths was linked to the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody.
At that time, First Nations people made up 14 per cent of the adult prison population.
That figure has since risen to 37 per cent, with Indigenous people in Australia now among the most incarcerated populations globally.
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Indigenous adults are 17 times more likely to be imprisoned than non-Indigenous Australians, while Indigenous children are 26 times more likely to be incarcerated.
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe said the majority of the Commission’s 339 recommendations had not been properly implemented.
“That is not an accident, it is a political choice,” she said.
“Since this report, at least 630 of our people have died in custody. We are on track to break records again this year. This is a national disgrace.”
Senator Thorpe called for stronger oversight and urgent reform from the federal government, including support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.
“The government should urgently fund and empower the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner to oversee and track implementation of the recommendations, and hold governments to account when they fail,” she said.
“Ending deaths in custody is not complicated. We know exactly what needs to be done. The solutions have been there for 35 years.
Advocates and community leaders are also highlighting the need for alternative approaches to incarceration.
Noongar Yamatji man Devon Cuimara, founder of an Aboriginal men’s healing centre, says rehabilitation must focus on addressing underlying causes of offending.
“The work has been about truth telling and helping men face their behaviours honestly reconnect with their culture you know and learn how to live without violence,” he said.
Cuimara, who has previously spent time in prison, said personal change does not come from punishment alone.
“I didn’t change because of my punishment and I don’t believe any man does that I changed because I was finally given space to take responsibility and to be held to account basically and at the same time to heal.”
He is seeking to establish a residential healing centre in Newman in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, aimed at addressing the structural drivers of violence rather than relying on incarceration.
However, the project has yet to receive federal or state funding.
Cuimara described his work as focused on cultural re-connection and accountability.
“I’m reclaiming my role by embracing the cultural responsibility of being a protector a care giver a contributor to my family my community I strive to restore my relationships constantly by prioritising repair and respect and re-connection instead of just punishment,” he said.
“This work that we do is vital because it disrupts the cycle ... it recognises the incarceration as a continuation of colonial control rather than a solution to harm.
"It doesn’t excuse violence, what we do, but it confronts the root causes.”
Human rights advocate and academic Dr Hannah McGlade says systemic issues remain at the core of the crisis.
“This is a form of modern racism that our people's own well thought out, considered solutions about healing on Country aren't being given the attention and support needed,” she said.
Dr McGlade has lodged a complaint with the United Nations regarding Australia’s practice of detaining children as young as 10.
She argues that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in custody reflects broader patterns of discrimination.
“We see there's a pattern here with the over impact on Aboriginal children that this is a form of systemic racial discrimination and we think its time to name that up so Australia can take a good look in the mirror,” she said.
She also pointed to longstanding structural inequalities stemming from colonisation and a lack of reparations for injustices.
“We have so many unmet needs now in our community. Largely this is related to that lack of reparations for dispossessions.
"We didn’t have the treaties, we didn’t have the significant settlements in Australia that you will see in Canada in the US in New Zealand.
"We don’t have constitutional protection of settlements either.”
The Royal Commission identified socioeconomic disadvantage - including unemployment, insecure housing, disability and intergenerational trauma - as key drivers of Indigenous incarceration.
Despite decades of government intervention, many of these underlying issues remain unresolved.
