More than one thousand people gathered in Boorloo/Perth on Sunday to call for justice for Kumanjayi White and an end to deaths in custody.
The action was one of many events held across the country in recent days in an expression of national solidarity with Mr White's family and community.
Rallies have been held in Naarm/Melbourne, Sydney, Magandjin/Brisbane, Darwin, Wollongong, Mparntwe/Alice Springs and elsewhere.
Among the speakers, Kurin Minang human rights law expert Dr Hannah McGlade noted that more than three decades after a national movement to Stop Black Deaths in Custody led to the establishment the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, many of the hundreds of important recommendations from the Royal Commission have been ignored.
"If anything, the situation has gotten worse with increasing introduction of punitive laws that largely impact Aboriginal people and violate UN human rights commitments," she said.
Dr McGlade, a member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said there must be an independent investigation into Mr White's death in custody.
"Kumanjayi White was the ninth Aboriginal person to die in custody this year. He was just 24 years old and living with disability under the guardianship of the state," she said.
"We stand in solidarity with the people of Yuendumu who are still waiting for the coroners finding into the death of Kumanjayi Walker with evidence of systemic racism in the NT police force."
Noongar justice advocate Roxy Moore, one of the co-organisers of the rally, said "we are here today because the racism continues in this colony".
"A 24 year-old Warlpiri man was killed at the hands of the police. He was at Coles. He was hungry. He should have been treated with dignity and respect. His name Kumanjayi White. Instead, he was dealt with brutally. He was restrained by police and died. They had their knees on his neck," she said.
"He had a disability that was known to community. He had been living in supported services, and they say the police are going around saying that he's a criminal. It's not true. They're lies. His family are calling for those lies to end. The only thing he did was living while Black, but that apparently has a death penalty in this country.
"We call for justice, and we won't stop calling for justice, because we know so many of our families have had their loved ones been killed and murdered in police and prison custody."
Many family members of people who have died in custody made their voices heard among the speakers at the rally in Boorloo's Forrest Place.
Noongar man Eric Hayward expressed solidarity with "the brothers and sisters across the desert in Mparntwe, Alice Springs, we feel your pain and sorrow and stand with you today".
"These Australians marched in the streets around our nation demanding an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody. Our people have been killed by British troopers and police for over 200 years, and we are still marching because Black lives matter," he said.
"We have been ignored by governments, but we will not stop speaking out for justice. That is what that is why we are here today. Since the release of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody report, nearly 600 Indigenous people have had died in custody.
"Royal Commission… Recommendation 33 was that all officers involved in the investigation of a death in police custody be selected from an internal affairs unit or from another police command area, and should be as independent as possible. Recommendation 33 says that there needs to be an independent investigator. But the Northern Territory Chief Minister is refusing to appoint one. Commonwealth Attorney General, Michelle Rowland needs to listen to Marion Scrymgour, the MP for Lingiari, and intervene by handing over the investigation to the federal police."
Mr Hayward backed the Central Land Council's call for the withholding of federal funding from the NT governmet until it sets up an independent Police Conduct commission.
He echoed Dr McGlade's point that the standard required under international human rights law is that police cannot investigate police because this is not independent or impartial.
Mr Hayward noted a series of cases in which an Aboriginal person was killed by police, no independent investigation was held and no consequences were faced by the officers involved, including the deaths of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu and JC in Geraldton, in WA's Mid-West.
"WA and Northern Territory police officers, please stop killing our people. Black Lives Matter," he said.
On Saturday it emerged that a 68 year-old Aboriginal man died in custody after being arrested on May 30 in Darwin, the second Indigenous person in the NT to die in custody in two weeks.
