Case 21: Coroner investigates the role of systemic racism in the death in police custody of proud Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day

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Proud Yorta Yorta woman Aunty Tanya Day –a much-loved sister, mother, grandmother and advocate - died in December 2017 after being arrested for being drunk in a public place after she fell asleep on a train. Despite causing no disturbance, a V/Line train conductor set off a series of events that led to the police arresting her in circumstances where the Coroner found that the police should have taken her to hospital or sought urgent medical advice. While locked in a concrete police cell, Aunty Tanya Day fell and hit her head on the wall and subsequently died. The Day family’s staunch and ongoing advocacy led to the Victorian government committing to decriminalise the offence of public drunkenness in August 2019 and replacing it with a public health response. The Coroner investigating Aunty Tanya Day’s death accepted submissions by the Human Rights Law Centre and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission that the Coroner’s Court of Victoria is bound to act compatibly with human rights and to consider human rights when making decisions — including the right to life. The Coroner accepted that this meant that their inquiry needed to scrutinise not only the immediate causes of Aunty Tanya Day’s death but also the role systemic racism played in her death. This included allowing witnesses to be questioned as to whether racism played a part of their decision making, including Ms Day’s treatment, options considered, their motivations and potential unintended effects of their decision-making. The Coroner ultimately found that Aunty Tanya Day’s death was preventable had she not been taken into police custody; that the V/Line train conductor’s decision making was influenced by her Aboriginality and unconscious bias; that the police officer’s checks while Aunty Tanya Day was in the cell were inadequate and that she was “not treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of a human person as required by the Charter”. The Coroner found that the totality of the evidence supported a belief that an indictable offence may have been committed, and referred two police officers for criminal investigation. The Director of Public Prosecutions did not, however, prosecute. The Coroner also recommended that V/Line and Victoria Police request the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to conduct a review of the compatibility of its training materials with the Charter.

Sources: Human Rights Law Centre, which represented Tanya Day’s family in the inquest. See also Inquest into the death of Tanya Louise Day (COR 2017/6424), Coroner’s Court of Victoria.