Lawyer began fight against Indigenous custody deaths in 1987
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By Stephanie Short
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NOEL OLIVE: 1931 - 2021
Lawyers of all stripes have spoken and heard millions of words on Aboriginal deaths in custody. Noel Olive was a lawyer with a difference. He drove hundreds of kilometres in and around the Pilbara, for example, inviting Aboriginal community leaders to say what they needed in order to have full custody of their own lives. He relished opportunities to listen.
Far from the semi-rural outskirts of Sydney where he had grown up before and during World War II, by the early 1990s Noel was in Western Australia on a mission of discovery. Having become a lawyer in his 50s, he was in new territory, geographically and professionally.