‘The history of the national campaign demanding a Federal Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody was coordinated by Aboriginal/Islander families who had a relative die in prison or police custody or their supporters. They are a living testimony of what united strength is all about. The Royal Commission is one of the most recent and greatest achievements of our people. We have turned the tables! Both internationally and nationally we are putting European law up on public trial. It is now forced into explaining why our justice system allows so many of our people to die in their prisons and lock ups.’

Helen Ulli Corbett

Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia [ALSWA] Annual Report, 1987-1988, quoted in Fiona Skyring, Justice: A History of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Crawley: UWA Publishing 2011, 281).

Aunty Helen Ulli Corbett was the Chairperson of the National Committee to Defend Black Rights (NCDBR). In 1992 she presented a position paper, prepared by the NCDBR, entitled ‘Miscarriages of Justice in Australia: Aboriginal Girls and Women‘ at International conferences and forums.

Image: The West Australian. Photo: Alex Bainbridge.

Auntie Helen Ulli Corbett’s foundational role in the campaign to end Black deaths in custody and in the international human rights movement for Indigenous Peoples was recognised by the award of an Honorary Doctorate by Curtin University on February 6, 2019.  Photos: Shaphan Cox.