The National Network condemn, with absolute clarity, the death of a 44-year-old Aboriginal woman in custody at the Tennant Creek Watch House this week.
According to Northern Territory Police, the woman was found unconscious in a cell during routine checks shortly after 1pm. She was taken to Tennant Creek Hospital, where she was declared deceased. Her death is being treated as a death in custody.
This should stop the country in its tracks. It won’t.
‘This is not an isolated incident. It is not a “tragic event.” It is not bad luck or bad timing. It is the predictable outcome of a system that continues to scoop Aboriginal people off the streets, cage them, neglect them, and kill them,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
‘The Northern Territory has a long and brutal history of Aboriginal deaths in custody. Time and again, we are told the cause of death is “yet to be determined.” Time and again, families are left waiting for answers that rarely bring accountability, justice, or change,’ said Debbie Kilroy.
This country is on a killing spree.
‘Aboriginal women are being criminalised due to racism, poverty, homelessness, mental distress, and survival. Watch houses, designed for short-term holding, have become sites of prolonged detention, neglect, and lethal harm. Police cells are not health facilities. Police are not care providers. And yet Aboriginal people continue to be locked in spaces that are fundamentally unsafe,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘Every death in custody is a policy choice,’ said Tabitha Lean.
‘It is the result of governments choosing policing over housing, punishment over care, and incarceration over community-led solutions. It is the result of ignoring decades of recommendations, including those from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, many of which remain unimplemented more than 30 years later,’ said Tabitha Lean.
The National Network demand:
- Immediate transparency and independent investigation into this death
- Full accountability for all officers and systems involved
- An end to the use of watch houses as de facto detention facilities
- The urgent decarceration of Aboriginal people, particularly women
- Investment in Aboriginal-led, community-controlled responses to crisis, health, and safety
How many more names must be added to the list?
How many more families must receive a phone call that shatters their lives?
How many more Aboriginal people must die before this country admits that policing and imprisonment are killing us?
This must stop.
For further comment, please contact Debbie Kilroy on 0419 762 474 or Tabitha Lean on 0499 780 226
Systematic genacide and the NT are getting away with it . The racism and descrimonation is rampant . No wonder they don’t want a UN inspection .
They must be held to account this cannot keep being ignored, even the coroner reports are brushed aside . Shame on you NT and shame on Australia
Watch houses aren’t healthcare facilities. Police aren’t social workers. Yet Aboriginal people, especially women, continue to be criminalised for poverty, homelessness, mental distress, and survival. It’s disgusting that too often it’s costing them their lives.
Every death is a policy choice IMO, because even 30 years later, too many of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s most important recommendations haven’t been meaningfully acted upon. Poverty is a policy choice. Lack of services; a policy choice. Lack of housing; policy choice. And on and on.
It’s time our politicians stopped looking away and took some concrete steps to address the colonial systems that continue to disadvantage Aboriginal people. “Closing the Gap” is nothing but lip service at this point.