A respected Aboriginal man from central Australia died in Darwin's police cells two weeks ago. Few facts are known: he was taken into custody for minor alcohol-related offences, he was detained under new "paperless arrest" police powers, he was found dead in his cell about three hours later.

The coronial inquest should provide the full facts and determine whether the death was avoidable. For now, the irrefutable reality is that yet another Aboriginal person has died the most inhuman of deaths: without family around, on a cold, concrete floor of a police cell.

The family and community trauma caused by a death in custody cannot be over-stated. Credit:Andrew Meares

As a nation, we should be unified in an unwavering commitment to stop Aboriginal deaths in custody. All governments' laws, policies and practices should support rather than undermine this end.

The family and community trauma caused by a death in custody cannot be over-stated. Families must wait months, sometimes years, for answers. When the time comes, they are left sitting through a coronial inquiry learning the hard reality of their loss from people they've never met, giving evidence in a court room. Whatever the circumstances, they learn how their brother/son/husband/cousin tragically died in a context that most of us would find unfathomable.