In 2024, twelve Aboriginal people have died in custody across New South Wales, Lindsay McCabe writes, this underscores a troubling rise in deaths and the ongoing failure to prevent them, despite decades of calls for change.
In January this year, the Productivity Commission released their report, highlighting that the number of deaths in custody of Aboriginal Peoples across Australia had doubled since 2007. In New South Wales, a ‘death in custody’ is any death that occurs during a police operation, in the custody of police, or deaths that occur in the custody of Corrective Services NSW. These are sometimes referred to as ‘Section 23’ deaths, as these deaths are reportable to the coroner under the Coroners Act 2009 (NSW).
The Coroner’s Court of NSW will soon release their annual report, where they must inform the government and community of the number of deaths in custody that have occurred over the year. So far in 2024, there have been twelve deaths of Aboriginal people in custody across NSW. Twelve lives taken too soon by the violence of the colony. Twelve families and communities who are grieving. Twelve coronial investigations, forcing these grieving families to interact with police over a long period of time, before ending in a coronial inquest.
Inquests often take place many years after a death has occurred. The trauma this causes for those left behind cannot be understated. Once the inquest begins, the State comes out in force, armed with legal representatives that absolve the police and the correctional officers from their roles in these deaths. Too often, it is their indifference to Blak lives and Blak bodies that kills – Canadian scholar Sherene Razack calls it the ‘killing indifference’, a complete lack of care. The inquest often ends with a number of recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths from occurring in the future. We need only look at the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendations, and how few have been fully implemented, to know how futile this can be.
If this continues, NSW will be on track to match the year with the highest number of deaths in custody. In 2021, there were 16 deaths of Aboriginal people that occurred during police operations, or in police or Corrective Services NSW custody. We must keep putting pressure on governments and government agencies to stop these deaths from occurring.
Sovereignty is a coloniser concept. We need Law in Country
Uncle Jim Everett - puralia meenamatta Elder and philosopher has been defending native forests in Tasmania from logging. In the face of colonial law, Uncle Jim writes, First Nations people need to honour our commitment to Country, and fight for the future of our lands, before colony-imposed climate change becomes a death sentence for our world.
Survivance: How can mob protect cultural narratives in our arts and practices?
Earlier this year, Wiradjuri Blak Queer artist Clinton Hayden was confronted with cultural and professional harm at the hands of an arts organisation he was commissioned to exhibit with. His experience, Clinton writes, is not an isolated incident, and shows a need for not just acknowledgement of cultural significance, but guaranteed survivance for First Nations artists and cultural practitioners in so-called Australia.
Stop asking us to explain, define or defend our Aboriginality
Danika writes of her experiences navigating academia and life, and the power of mob and the knowledges we hold. This article is part of the Black Knowing series, a partnership with QUT’s Carumba Institute and Indigenousx.
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