MEDIA RELEASE Wednesday 14 July 2021 Frank ‘Gud’ Coleman, a 43-year-old Ngemba man born in Brewarrina and raised in Mt Druitt, died on Thursday 8 July at the Long Bay Correctional Complex. Frank is one of at least 478 Aboriginal people to die in prisons and police incidents since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. He is fondly remembered and...

MEDIA RELEASE Additional note as of 24 June: Due to the COVID outbreak and restrictions imposed, the ALS is postponing the community meeting scheduled in Redfern on Saturday 26 June 2021 to elect ALS Company Members for the Central South Eastern Region. Please disregard information below for the Central South Eastern Region meeting and visit www.alsnswact.org.au/company_elections for up-to-date information. The Northern Region and Western...

MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday 4 May 2021, 4:30 pm   The Aboriginal Legal Service has welcomed charges brought against a serving NSW Police officer for common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, following an arrest of an Aboriginal boy in June last year. Video footage of the arrest went viral at the time, taking place amid Black Lives Matter protests worldwide following...

MEDIA RELEASE Friday 16 April 2021, 6:00 am   The Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT is calling for NSW parliamentarians across the political spectrum to embrace recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry into First Nations over-incarceration and deaths in custody. Today’s report from the NSW Legislative Council’s Select Committee on the High Level of First Nations People in Custody and Oversight and Review of...

MEDIA ALERT WHEN: Friday 16 April 2021, 3:15pm WHERE: The Australian Hall, 150 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. This historic venue was the site of Day of Mourning protests on 26 January 1938. It is operated by the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. WHAT: Opening of the Aboriginal Legal Service 50th Anniversary Exhibition, generously supported by the City of Sydney DETAILS: Mark Davies (Chair),...

MEDIA RELEASE Thursday 25 March, 8:00 am   A community has been left reeling and the Aboriginal Legal Service is demanding urgent accountability after the confirmation of a fourth recent death in custody. Barkindji man Anzac Sullivan, 37, passed away during a police pursuit in Broken Hill on Thursday 18 March. This tragedy comes shortly after the deaths of three Aboriginal people...

MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday 23 March 2021, 4:00 pm   The Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT welcomes research released today by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research showing police are more likely to refuse bail for Aboriginal defendants than non-Aboriginal defendants. “This reflects our concerns of systemic racism within NSW Police meaning Aboriginal people are being locked up simply because they are...

MEDIA RELEASE Update - Thursday 16 September 2021: NSW Police have withdrawn the strip-search charges at the centre of Lacey v AG (NSW). This is a vindication of the position of a brave young Aboriginal woman - now also a mother. 'Lacey' wasn't prepared to run an argument where a male magistrate would see video of her naked and being searched. In...

MEDIA ALERT WHEN: Thursday 11 March, 12pm (midday) WHERE: Coroner’s Court of NSW, 1A Main Ave, Lidcombe DETAILS: Her Honour Magistrate Ryan, Deputy State Coroner, will release the findings into the death of Nathan Reynolds at 10am on Thursday in courtroom 3. Nathan Reynolds’ sisters, Taleah and Makayla Reynolds, will speak to media outside the court at midday. Sarah Crellin, Principal Solicitor...