Gracelyn Smallwood says progress still needed 30 years on from Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody

Three decades have passed since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, but Professor Gracelyn Smallwood says there is still progress to be made.

Indigenous activist Gracelyn Smallwood pictured with Noomba’s brother Jason King. Picture: Evan Morgan

THIRTY years have passed since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, but Townsville Indigenous elder Professor Gracelyn Smallwood says there is still progress to be made. Her comments come as the inquest into an Indigenous death in custody draws to a close in Townsville.

Over three days Coroner Terry Ryan heard from multiple witnesses as the death of Trevor King, 39, known culturally as Noomba was put under the spotlight.

Noomba died in Townsville after he was detained and handcuffed for emergency mental health treatment on February 10, 2018.

Ms Smallwood said it was disappointing that after 30 years just a handful of the royal commission report’s 339 recommendations had been implemented.

Analysis by Guardian Australia found that since the royal commission 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody.

In the five weeks to April 6, 2021, five died in custody across Australia.

According to an Australian Institute of Criminology report the majority of deaths for Aboriginal prisoners were attributed to natural causes followed by suicide,

“There is something drastically wrong with the system,” Ms Smallwood said highlighting the high number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who died in custody. “We need these recommendations implemented urgently.”

Gracelyn Smallwood with Jason King. Picture: Evan Morgan

The 2019 Australian Institute of Criminology report also noted that Indigenous people were less likely than non Indigenous people to die in prison custody but that the age profile of Indigenous deaths was younger.

Over half of Indigenous deaths in police custody rather than prison, like in the case of Noomba, in the 25 years to 2019 were from external trauma with a majority due to injuries suffered during motor vehicle pursuits. This proportion was similar for non-Indigenous deaths in police custody.

Ms Smallwood said she believed extensive and mandatory cross-culture training for all public officers would be a positive step to “close the gap” in health, poverty and the high rate of Indigenous incarceration.

“It has to be a holistic approach … we need to clean up poverty, we need to clean up the social determinants of heath,” she said.

“Our people are still living in third-world poverty in many of our communities.

“The majority of our jobs on our Aboriginal communities go to non-Indigenous people. I am optimistic that once all of this is done, that tomorrow’s future generation of multicultural Australia will be in unity as one.”

Originally published as Gracelyn Smallwood says progress still needed 30 years on from Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody