It is a disturbing number that has risen for decades in the backs of police cars, behind the walls of Australia's prisons and in plain sight.
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At least 432 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody delivered its final report in 1991.
By the time tens of thousands of Australians who marched against police brutality and indigenous deaths in custody on Saturday returned home, the number had risen again.
Helen Eason, a Gomeroi Biripi woman, says the non-indigenous Australians who marched alongside her in Sydney must continue to back the civil rights actions of First Nations people.
"I felt strength, empowerment and unity, and it is something that we need to feel all the time," Ms Eason said.
She has spent years fighting the removal of indigenous children from their families with Grandmothers Against Removals, a grassroots organisation created by her mother, Aunty Hazel Collins.
"It is a continued genocide," Ms Eason said.
"This is happening in every community, where our children are being taken from community and the rights are now given to foster carers to keep our children, instead of given to the parents to be restored."
She wants individuals to lend their support by calling on government officials to act.
"Be a part of helping us make the government accountable and bringing it to the public eye," Ms Eason said.
Ruby Wharton, a Gamilaraay Kooma woman, said the toll was huge on First Nations activists fighting to end systemic racism and deaths in custody.
"This is a very, very tough fight," Ms Wharton told AAP.
"It's very traumatic and it opens a lot of wounds."
Ms Wharton described the Black Lives Matter/Stop Black Deaths In Custody protest she helped organise in Brisbane as a turning point for the many non-indigenous Australians who turned up for the first time.
"It's definitely a new day, that's for sure," she said.
But the moment must not pass.
Fourteen demands have been put to the Queensland government to end indigenous deaths in custody, and there are moves to establish a committee of activists to spearhead those actions.
"Even if it's not to take up a fight politically, it's to hold safe and protect those loved ones and mend and heal those scars," Ms Wharton added.
It is now time for the wider community to step up.
Nerita Waight, a Yorta Yorta woman and co-chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, has mixed emotions about the sudden groundswell of support.
Black Lives Matter protesters around the world repeated the words of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man who died during his arrest in Minneapolis.
"I can't breathe" were also the final words of Dunghutti man David Dungay Jr, who died in Sydney's Long Bay prison hospital in 2015.
"I'm thankful for the Black Lives movement inciting this support here in Australia, but it also makes me feel really sad that we sort of haven't mattered until now," Ms Waight said.
The African American civil rights movement is well known, but less attention is paid to indigenous activism on Australian soil, such as Yorta Yorta man William Cooper's 1934 petition for an indigenous representative in federal parliament.
Long-lasting change starts with telling the truth about the history and experiences of First Nations people, and supporting organisations through campaigning and donations, Ms Waight added.
"That's why educating the community is really important."
Australian Associated Press
