Last Friday, June 5th, 2026, Eileen and Marion Murray, sisters of Eddie Murray, set off from Redfern, Sydney on a ‘Justice Ride’ around northern NSW to meet up with families and bring attention the ongoing spate of Aboriginal people who have been killed in custody.
Eddie Murray was a Gomeroi man and promising rugby league star, who was found hanged in his cell in 1981 under suspicious circumstances, after being picked up by local police outside a public hotel in Wee Waa. After a string of internal investigations, no police were ever been held accountable for Eddie’s death, despite the family’s claims that he was murdered.
Eddie Murray’s death was the catalyst for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody in 1987. The Commission’s report was handed down in 1991. Thirty-five years later, almost all of its recommendations have still not been implemented. Last year, Australia recorded its highest number of Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1979.
Inspired by the Freedom Rides of 1965, the Murray sisters’ Justice Ride will run for a week and stop off at Moree, Collarenebri, Brewarrina, Bourke, Walgett, Lightning Ridge, Narrabri and end up with a vigil in Wee Waa, the site of Eddie Murray’s death.
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