2026 National Indigenous Death in Custody Conference

2026 National Indigenous Death in Custody Conference

The 2026 National Indigenous Death in Custody Conference, held on 12–14 August 2026 on Larrakia Country in Darwin, Northern Territory, is one of Australia’s most significant gatherings dedicated to truth-telling, justice, and systemic reform. The conference honours the resilience of families whose loved ones never returned home, placing their grief and stories at the centre of national dialogue. It provides a culturally grounded space for healing, learning, and collective action, where ceremony, yarning, and evidence-based discussion guide the path forward. Families, Elders, Indigenous leaders, legal and health professionals, policymakers, and advocates will come together to face the realities of policing, corrections, coronial processes, and systemic failures that continue to take Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives in custody. Through yarning circles, evidence-based dialogue, and community-led solutions, the conference amplifies Indigenous voices, honours cultural wisdom, and charts a path for urgent, meaningful change in justice, health, and custodial systems. As Australia’s leading national forum on this crisis, the conference demands accountability, challenges institutions to act with integrity, and mobilises coordinated national action. It equips families, advocates, and frontline workers with knowledge, tools, and networks to turn grief into justice, ensuring culture leads reform. Above all, it is a call to the nation: to heal, to act, and to create a future where no more Indigenous lives are lost in custody.