The family of a 22-year-old Aboriginal woman who died in custody more than two years ago has criticised a West Australian coroner for reserving her decision over whether to release footage of the final days and hours of her life.

Ms Dhu was jailed in August 2014 for unpaid fines and died fewer than three days later of septicaemia and pneumonia.

A coronial inquest into her death wound up in March but coroner Ros Fogliani refused to release the footage showing the events leading up to it, despite the family's consent.

Despite ongoing pleas from the family and media, the coroner on Wednesday reserved her decision over whether to allow the footage to be made public, angering Ms Dhu's uncle Shaun Harris.

"It needs to be seen to show the world what really happens and the institutional and systemic racism that still thrives Australia-wide," he said.

"Why have so much cameras on us for evidence of guilt or non-guilt when the evidence is being suppressed and vital evidence at that?

"This footage is major evidence in justice for Ms Dhu and the suppression of it quite frankly speaks for itself to the public.

"People have been questioning globally 'what have they got to hide?'"

At various points in the footage, Ms Dhu can be heard crying out in pain and seen writhing on the floor of her cell trying to get comfortable.

The haunting final scene shows Ms Dhu taken out of the paddy wagon, slumped into a wheelchair and wheeled into the Hedland Health Campus.

She died less than an hour later.

Mr Harris said it was hard to watch but it was footage Australia needed to see.

"It's hard-hitting. It will open up eyes and wake people up hopefully to the fact of the police brutality that still exists out there towards our people," he said.

"And just as importantly, the negligence and malpractice that's still being inflicted by the health system and not just in West Australia but Australia-wide."

Death in Custody Watch Committee wants footage shown

The Death in Custody Watch Committee also expressed frustration at the decision.

Committee member and relative of Ms Dhu, Carolyn Lewis, said the footage needed to be shown.

"Aboriginal people and Torres Strait people have been in and out of this system for a long, long time and it's always been our word against theirs," she said.

"But the footage is real and this is sadly what's happening in the country today."

The Death in Custody Watch Committee is calling for a custody notification service to be introduced, a 24-hour legal advice phone line for Aboriginal people taken into custody.

NSW and the ACT have had a custody notification service in place since 2000, operating under the Aboriginal Legal Service.

While WA has an Aboriginal custody hotline in place that can be accessed by people in custody, their families and friends, it is managed by the Department of Corrective Services.

Ms Lewis said the proposed initiative would have a big impact.

"If that was in place, she [Ms Dhu] would be here," she said.

"It is effective, we don't have it, it's minimal cost, I believe something like $500,000 to $600,000 a year to run.

"It scares me that we don't have a Custody Notification Service here in Western Australia, so if our children go to a lock-up and prison, they do not have to notify anybody."

Mr Harris said Ms Dhu's family wanted more.

"My niece was born 25 years ago, months after the royal commission's findings were released, that's testament as to nothing has changed," he said.

"The fear is that more people will die and young people at that.

"People like [Ms Dhu] help make the world a better place and yet, when they're taken away like that ... sure as hell the anger and frustration starts to boil over especially after years and years of oppression."