The report revealed many damning facts including: 1)Aboriginal people were the most disadvantaged group in Australia, 2) recognising the injustices committed by the white settlers upon the Aboriginals, and its consequences to the current Aboriginal condition, and 3) Aboriginal are the highest represented group within our prisons and have the highest death in custody rate.

In tandem with these findings, the Commission published a total of 339 recommendations which would, if implemented assist in pulling Aboriginal statistics out of the red. However, more than a decade later, it is important to look at whether there has been change, whether there have been implementations, and if these have made substantial changes in figures and standards.

The Royal Commission attributed the most prominent cause of the over-representation in cu

Police training has also been upgraded in response to the Commission's recommendations. Duty of care has now become a primary component off all relevant in-service courses which are conducted by the Police Academy. As a result , police are qualified with greater training and skill, especially in dealing with members of the Indigenous community. Henceforth, the adoption of the recommendations of the Royal Commission have seen a dramatic reduction of deaths in police custody, especially the almost total elimination of self-inflicted hangings.

Both Federal and State Governments have not entirely adopted the recommendations made by the Royal Commission. Much of the recommendations have been only partially implemented, due to governments finding it too difficult or unreasonable to completely implement the recommendations. As a result, such half-hearted attempts have only yielded half-hearted results, with the main problem still existent and even worsening.

In terms of implementation of steps toward reconciliation in relation to governments, they have been somewhat hesitant or half-hearted. For example, the current Federal Liberal Government refuses to apologise for the injustices of the past. It is due to this that there has been a 'peoples' movement toward reconciliation

The Royal Commission discovered in their investigations that Aboriginal people were not more likely to die than a non-Indigenous person, but rather that their high rate of deaths was due to the high proportion of Aboriginal people in custody. Thus it was stated that by reducing the number of Aboriginals within incarceration, there would be greater chance of reducing deaths in custody.

One recommendation which the Royal Commission suggested was the increase in contact between the media and Aboriginal organisations in unearthing Indigenous issues. Often, the issues which have been addressed by the media are those concerning alcoholism, petrol-sniffing, unemployment and other such issues. While these are indeed legitimate issues, they are reported in a very negative manner, often pointing the blame on Aboriginal people as the root of the problem, rather than discussing why such a problem exists. By the media depicting and presenting the problems of the Indigenous population in such a superficial way, it is only further securing the commonly held myths about Aboriginal people.

"That Aboriginal people were dispossessed of their land without benefit of treaty, agreement or compensation is generally known. But I think little known is the amount of brutality and bloodshed that was involved in enforcing on the ground what was pronounced by the law"

One such policy which has received wide indignation, both domestically and internationally has been the policy of Mandatory Sentencing which has been imposed in Western Australia and Northern Territory. This policy, in context of the Aboriginal population, completely contradicts what was recommended by the Royal Commission, whereby incarceration was policy of last resort, when all alternate avenues had been expended.

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