Communicating the Right to Silence to Aboriginal Suspects: Lessons from Western Australia v Gibson

The communication of the right to silence to Aboriginal suspects in police interviews has been problematic for many decades, despite widespread recognition of Forster J's 1976 R v Anunga (NTSC) guidelines for interrogating Aboriginal people. WA v Gibson (WASC 2014) exposes serious consequences when police fail to, or do not understand how to, follow Anunga guidelines. Setting Hall J's decision in Gibson in its linguistic, legal and cultural contexts, the paper argues that it has important implications not only for Aboriginal suspects, but for any suspect whose English proficiency does not enable them to fully understand their rights, as well as how they can invoke the rights, and the consequences of waiving them, or not waiving them.