Justin Peisley, Rebels MC outlaw bikie and son of national icon Aunty Shirley Peisley AM, has died aged 52

The life member of the Rebels MC outlaw bikie gang and son of a national Aboriginal icon has died.

Justin Peisley, life member of the Rebels bikie gang.

Life member of the Rebels Motorcycle Club outlaw bikie gang and the son of a late national Aboriginal icon, Justin Mark Peisley, has died.

Mr Peisley a proud Ngarrindjeri and Buandig (Boandik) man died in Adelaide on February 19.

Tributes from fellow gang members for the 52-year-old bikie detailed the significance of his affiliation to the Rebels.

Mr Peisley was the son of Ngarrindjeri/Boandik Elder Aunty Shirley Peisley who became an icon during the 1967 Australian referendum to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the census.

She died in August last year.

For nine years, Mr Peisley worked as a senior cultural heritage officer for RAW Group, a company that provides workplace training for Aboriginal people and opportunities for ex-convicts.

Mr Peisley was also a cultural heritage officer for the Kaurna Nation Cultural Heritage Association between 2008 and 2016 and a park manager for National Parks and Wildlife South Australia at Monarto from 2002 to 2004.

Aunty Shirley Peisley AM with her portrait by artist Dr Ali Gumillya Baker that is now hanging in Adelaide Town Hall. Picture: Supplied

Past and current Rebels members praised Mr Peisley as someone “widely respected by all”.

He made close friends with a popular animal activist and film director Joey Carbstrong.

“He wasn’t a normal bloke, he was someone that made an impact in people’s lives, and was someone who was always going to be remembered,” Mr Carbstrong posted on Facebook.

In a death notice in Saturday’s Advertiser, Mr Peisley’s wife Tessa described her husband as a “remarkable man”.

“Thirteen years ago, our paths crossed, and little did I know that this moment would forever change the course of our lives and Romeo’s,” she wrote.

“From the very start, you embraced both Romeo and I with unconditional love, and for that, I am eternally grateful.”

Last year, Mr Peisley shared a cryptic message on LinkedIn.

“We all come into this world, pure and innocent. But unfortunately some of us are handed not the best of hands,” it read.

“We grow up and then make wrong decisions. Go down forbidden paths and then become labelled as societies misfits. Undesirables.

“But when you go back to that pic as a child. You wonder when did that child lose its innocence.”

Originally published as Justin Peisley, Rebels MC outlaw bikie and son of national icon Aunty Shirley Peisley AM, has died aged 52