‘I want to break that cycle’: the relatives still fighting for justice over deaths in custody

After the heartbreak of a family member's death, Indigenous Australians face years of gruelling court proceedings, often with little to show for it at the end

One year after the coronial report into her mother's death in a police cell, Apryl Day was leading another protest. It was a national day of action marking the 30th anniversary of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody. As Day stood on stage her mother's face looked back at her from placards, along with the faces of some of the other 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died in custody since 1991.

Tanya Day died from an injury sustained in a police cell after she was arrested for being drunk on a train, under a law the royal commission recommended be appealed 30 years ago. The Victorian government finally agreed to repeal the law in 2019, two years after the Yorta Yorta woman's death, following the sustained activism of her children.