More than 200 people gathered at Banksia Hill Detention Centre on Sunday in response to the recent riot and ongoing conditions in the youth prison as well as comments made by WA Premier Mark McGowan regarding the children incarcerated there.

Chair of the WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee Des Blurton spoke directly to a line of police where initially blocked demonstrators from advancing up the long drive way to the facility.

"Why does this government call our children 'terrorists' when they are terrorizing children as young as 10 throughout our communities?"

"This is outrageous and unacceptable.

"I challenge Mark McGowan to an open and free debate anywhere on how he can justify what he is doing to our children, using terror tactics against children as young as 10."

Mr Blurton asked why Aboriginal prison officers did not come out to speak with the crowd.

"They allow white people to control the L-A-W. What about our L-O-R-E?"

Auntie Mingli McGlade called on the police to allow the protest to advance up to the detention centre so the children inside would know supporters were there.

"The kids will need to know that we are here and that they are getting support," she said.

She said what has gone on within Banksia Hill "is not right, and it is not legal under international law".

Former child prisoner Victor Calyon warned that ongoing ill-treatment of youth in detention would fuel an ongoing cycle of re-offending and suffering.

"In there I received no education, no rehabilitation… I came out from there with no support. They treated me like an animal and I came out of there like an animal," he said.

"These kids are going to come out of there angry, they are going to come out bitter… They are kids. They are children!

"Let us have a voice, let us control our destiny. Get the mothers and grandmothers involved in the court system.

"The way it is, it creates more trouble and more mess for our society and our children as well. It has got to stop."

Justice advocate and protest organiser Megan Krakouer asked "what kind of society does Mark McGowan want to leave for our children and their children?" as his legacy.

"Let someone in there to help those kids," she said.

"We need a parliamentary inquiry into Banksia Hill Detention Centre."

Dr Hannah McGlade, member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said the key international body had been stunned by revelations regarding WA's youth justice system.

"This abuse of Aboriginal children has been outed at the United Nations before the Australian government and the world," she said.

"The Forum absolutely condemned this violence against children.

"The use of rolling lockdowns against children is prohibited under international law… It is a form of torture."

Dr McGlade said the federal government must be pressured to comply with article 36 on the Convention of the Rights of the Child which outlaws the cruel and inhumane treatment of incarcerated children and youth.

"Australia is not serious about the rights of the child," she said, urging those present to lobby the Attorney General, Foreign Minister and Minister for Indigenous Australians to enforced international human rights standards in Australia.

Dr McGlade added that WA's Children's Commissioner must use her inquiry powers to investigate the youth detention system.

Jacinta Austen, another speaker at the demonstration, urged the broader community to stand up for the rights of incarcerated children.

"People need to wake the hell up because we know that if it was their children they would be as mad as us," she said.

"If we get rehabilitation right we would not need to have been here, instead these kids get guns pointed at their heads."

Justice advocate Gerry Georgatos said that 100 children over the past 20 years have subsequently died or taken their own lives after being released from Banksia Hill Detention Centre.

"There is nothing therapeutic, there is nothing rehabilitative, there is nothing transformations about Banksia Hill," he said.

"WA is the mother of all jailers… We are Australia's Alabama."

Stolen Generations advocate Jim Morrison told the gathered protest that May 26 would mark 26 years since the Bringing Them Home report was tabled.

Mr Morrison said half the Western Australian deaths examined by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were people who were members of the Stolen Generations.

"For the premier to say we are making excuses… There reports are there, the evidence of many many years of trauma," he said.

"So many of those Royal Commissions are really incriminating against governments… There is a lot of work to be done.

"It is a shame and it is disgusting for the premier to blame our parents."

He noted that the WA government had an Aboriginal empowerment strategy in place "since 2019… and done nothing with it".

Rally speaker Simone Loo said: "They are not rioting for nothing. They are not screaming for nothing. The kids in there are hurting."

She added that the community needs to unite to end the ongoing problem.

Police and protest organisers eventually reached an agreement to allow mothers and grandmothers present up to the facility to express their support for the children detained inside.

Ms Krakouer told National Indigenous Times: "This is a day of love. It is a day of peace… The McGowan government can't do it and we can't do it on our own, we need true collaboration in the spirit of human kindness."

Mr McGowan told AAP: "The only reason you end up there (Banksia Hill) is because of your actions... You need to be held accountable for your actions."

The premier said the centre offered programs and pathways for detainees so they could "turn their lives around".

Mr McGowan also denied there was any need for an inquiry into Banksia Hill, saying he was sick of inquiries and the system was improving every day. He said children were only detained at Banksia Hill as a last resort, normally after committing serious or multiple offences.