Warning: This article contains the names of Indigenous people who have died
With at least 630 Indigenous people having died in custody since the landmark Royal Commission 35 years ago, experts and advocates are calling for accountability over the national "crisis" which has seen "silence from all levels of government across the country".
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC), established by the Hawke government in October 1987 and led by Federal Court judge James Henry Muirhead QC, was driven by public outrage over the number of Indigenous deaths in custody and handed down its final report in April 1991.
It investigated 99 deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prisons and police custody across Australia, including the cases of 16-year-old John Pat in Roebourne, WA, and 21-year-old Eddie Murray in Wee Waa, NSW.
However, since the Royal Commission, only one police or prison officer has been found criminally responsible for their role in the death of one of the 630 Aboriginal people to die in custody.
"If this number of First Nations Peoples had died at once, this would have been regarded as a massacre, yet no authority has been held accountable for this long-running tragedy," says Amnesty International Australia's Indigenous Rights Advisor and Palawa Elder, Uncle Rodney Dillon.
"This ongoing massacre would not have occurred had the Commission's recommendations been fully implemented. Yet they continue, even as recently as just weeks ago."
View this post on Instagram
Calls for accountability
The RCIADIC's 339 recommendations for reform included that incarceration should only be used as a last resort — a principle that has since been wound back in several states and territories.
Despite the recommendations, 2025 recorded the highest number of Indigenous deaths in custody since records began in 1979, with 42 per cent of those who died unsentenced, in what was labelled a "profoundly distressing milestone" by NSW Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan.
"These are not mere statistics. Each of these deaths represents a person whose life mattered and whose loss is felt deeply by families, loved ones and communities across the state," she said last year. "They are individuals whose deaths demand independent and careful scrutiny, respect and accountability."
There has been widespread outrage over laws introduced across the country — by both Labor and Liberal governments — which experts argue increase the likelihood of more Indigenous deaths in custody.
In Victoria — often labelled Australia's most progressive state — the government last year introduced laws enabling children as young as 14 to be jailed for life. Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, says the state's system of "oppression and control is killing our people".
"The colonial project to subjugate, control and police our children, young people, families and communities continue," she said. "The laws and policies of this government are inherently racist, and are costing lives."
Policy and political pressure
The federal government has faced sustained criticism for refusing to condemn states and territories for introducing policies — particularly in youth justice — that have led to more First Nations people being held in custody.
Last year, the family of the late Justice Muirhead called on the Prime Minister to step in and override what they describe as the "regressive actions currently being pursued by the Northern Territory Government" regarding justice and incarceration.
During his Closing the Gap address in February, Mr Albanese appeared to back the states' and territories' approach — including laws allowing life sentences for children as young as 10 — arguing they "have every right to put the safety of their communities first".
On Thursday, National Indigenous Times reported the families of at least two people whose deaths in custody helped spark the RCIADIC had been denied a meeting with the Prime Minister.
It prompted Senator Lidia Thorpe, a long-term critic of government policy on deaths in custody, to argue it "tells you everything you need to know about this government's priorities".
View this post on Instagram
Ms Waight argues that, across all levels of government, responsibility for the racism seen in policing, government agencies and corrections is too often avoided, with the result being more deaths in custody.
"Fundamentally, we know that racism is increasing against Aboriginal people, both systemic and interpersonal, all enabled and empowered by governments," Ms Waight says.
"It's becoming harder and harder to call it out, to hold those responsible accountable, to seek systemic reform."
The state's Aboriginal Justice Caucus co-chairs, Aunty Marion Hansen and Chris Harrison, agree, arguing too many of the "failures" identified during the Royal Commission continue unabated.
"Governments know what needs to change, but action has not kept pace with commitment," they say.
"We are not calling for minor adjustments; we are calling for transformational change. This means embedding accountability, cultural safety and Aboriginal leadership at every level of the justice system."
View this post on Instagram
Reform demands remain
Arrernte man and Children's Ground co-chair William Tillmouth, who this year was awarded the Human Rights Medal by the Australian Human Rights Commission, says the RCIADIC clearly set out the changes required, yet many remain unfulfilled.
While a Deloitte-led review of the Royal Commission findings in 2018 found 78 per cent of the 339 recommendations had been fully or mostly implemented, that assessment was labelled "highly questionable" by the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.
"This country continues to invest in systems that punish our people instead of supporting them," Mr Tillmouth says. "That approach is driving more people into custody and keeping them there. Our children are being prescribed a future instead of having the opportunity to determine their own."
He argues the over-incarceration and targeting of First Peoples leaves all communities poorer.
"Systems that are meant to protect must be safe for everyone," he says. "This systemic racism has to stop."
