How inquest into fatal police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker lays a path for Warlpiri control

Australia Broadcast Center

5 days ago

Sitting around the campfire in the red dust of Yuendumu, Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves tells me stories of the ancient Warlpiri customs that created clear lines of authority, and then, about his old people who were forced to work on pastoral stations for meagre rations.
In the shadow of the protection era (1890s-1950s), Warlpiri people lived as wards of the state — bound by invisible chains, forbidden to roam their homelands, and silenced from speaking their language.
Generations have fought to reclaim control, and the community continues to demand the return of autonomy — something they say could prevent deaths in custody.
"We want to control our business," Ned said. "We don't want Kardiya (non-Indigenous people) to come and tell us what to do; that's got to stop."
It is the day after Coroner Elisabeth Armitage visited the community — three hours north-west of Alice Springs — to deliver her findings on the 2019 police shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.
In the glow of the central desert community's live music stage, Ned's face grows serious as a sad and soulful reggae song hums. He shares with me that as the six-year fight for justice for Walker draws to a close, he must wake up tomorrow and meet with lawyers for a new fight.
His jaja (grandson), Kumanjayi White, another Warlpiri man who lived with cognitive disabilities, died while being apprehended by plain-clothed police on the floor of the confectionery aisle at the Alice Springs Coles in May.
Exhausted does not begin to describe how Ned and his family are feeling, but they are also frustrated.
Frustrated that his vision, resilience, and deep understanding of what is best for Yapa (his people) has been ignored for decades.
The Walker Inquest found the constable who shot Walker in Yuendumu in 2019 and was acquitted of all charges, Zachary Rolfe, held racist views. Walker's death "was avoidable", it found, and "a stark example of officer-induced jeopardy."
Judge Elisabeth Armitage identified "clear evidence of entrenched, systemic and structural racism" within the institution Rolfe worked for — the NT Police.
This is not something you can fix overnight with the rollout of an anti-racism plan. Systemic change can take generations.
Kumanjayi Walker's cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, says asking the NT Police to become "safe" for Aboriginal people is unsustainable.
"It's a band-aid solution, so I'd like to see a structure that replaces that altogether," Ms Fernandez-Brown said in Yuendumu last week.
The Walker findings backed Aboriginal-led solutions and a return to Warlpiri controlling their own affairs.
Judge Armitage called for the development of a 10-year youth strategy for Yuendumu, the expansion of night patrol services, a comprehensive review of available youth programs — including on-country rehabilitation and diversion options — and the potential establishment of a local leadership group to guide these efforts.
"The solutions have already existed prior to the [2007 federal government] intervention," Ms Fernandez-Brown said.
"We're hoping that these recommendations around community authority and a leadership group allow us to get back to that spot."
In the wake of these findings, there is a unique opportunity for organisations and agencies to recognise Warlpiri leadership and build genuine partnerships, a move Ms Fernandez-Brown says will "prevent deaths in custody."
The inquest into Kumanjayi Walker's death dug deep into a long history of colonial violence and the wounds it left behind.
From the 1920s, hordes of gold prospectors and pastoralists moved to Warlpiri Country, putting strain on the only permanent water source, Pikilyi.
Judge Armitage found that Warlpiri people were denied access to water and forced to work in conditions resembling slavery, with reports of people being "tied up and flogged," and women and girls raped and abducted.
In 1928, the Coniston Massacre saw dozens, possibly hundreds, of Warlpiri, Anmatyerre, and Kaytetye people killed in state-sanctioned reprisals after the death of a dingo trapper.
Led by a former WWI veteran turned NT police constable, the attacks went unpunished, with no convictions for any of the killings. The massacre lives on in Warlpiri memory, passed down through generations.
Yuendumu became a rations depot in 1946 with the stated aim to "control the shift of Aborigines (sic) to towns", and some children were stolen from the community and institutionalised in hopes they would "integrate" into white society.
Finally, in the 1970s, the idea returned that Warlpiri could lead.
Federal government policies enabled community governance structures grounded in Warlpiri customary decision-making until the mid 90s, when Yuendumu had at least 13 community-controlled organisations.
Judge Armitage heard evidence that this period was one of "vibrant … intercultural activity, involving Warlpiri and Western attitudes and cultural practices being worked into new and productive engagements, in the context of mutual respect relationships."
She found that during the 90s, elders in Yuendumu had strong lines of communication with police.
But she documented how the so-called "Intervention" systematically undermined and dismantled Warlpiri authority from 2007 onwards.
It imposed compulsory income management, compulsory leasing of Aboriginal land, dispossessed traditional owners of recognition and authority, levied financial penalties for failure to comply with the Community Development Program, boosted police numbers, and brought powers allowing police to enter houses without a warrant.
Community government councils were abolished by the NT government and amalgamated into eight centralised shires.
Judge Armitage found this undercut Warlpiri authority and further diminished job opportunities. Housing was used as a practical example: instead of local workers fixing issues like a blocked toilet immediately, the centralised shire system left tenants waiting three to four months for minor repairs.
The federal government's Intervention was meant to last for five years, but blew out another decade under the "Stronger Futures" legislation introduced in 2012.
Judge Armitage heard evidence from associate professor Melinda Hinkson that, without consultation, the intervention's core measures snatched authority from traditional owners and were an increase in "the punitive governance and policing of the Warlpiri community by external authorities and officials".
Kumanjayi Walker's family would have liked stronger recommendations about police accountability, but the question remains, what worth are such suggestions when the government is in no way legally obliged to implement them?
Barrister John Lawrence SC, who didn't work on Kumanjayi Walker's case but represented families in many coronial inquests into Black deaths in custody and the royal commission into NT youth detention, said the inquest's value was in providing a comprehensive historical analysis of racism in the NT Police.
"Its findings on that are unequivocal and damning: a force riddled with systemic racism which allowed a totally inappropriate man (Rolfe) into the force and who then permitted him and others to, it seems, have a ball at the expense of Aboriginal people," he said.
"He should have been fired way before the killing incident."
Rolfe has rejected the coroner's findings and says his actions were "never about race". He is considering appealing the inquest's findings.
Judge Armitage called the racism within the NT Police "grotesque".
Hearing this was validating for Kumanjayi Walker's family, but without police accountability reforms, Yuendumu is focusing on alternate ways they can avoid it happening again.
Families see a clear path toward greater autonomy and believe that with increased resources and support, Yuendumu can shape a future where youth are no longer caught in the justice system, and where the excessive use of force by police against Aboriginal people is truly a thing of the past.
"Our people have the solutions; we need to take back our rights to run our community and to have peace," Ned said.
"If I could have one (recommendation implemented) today, it would be an independent ombudsman for NT police complaints, but we want investment in community and divestment from police," Ms Fernandez-Brown said.
"We want that to be centred around Warlpiri and mob, by doing that it's going to prevent deaths in custody because there will be programs that offer alternative pathways."
Our communities don't need saving. Our communities don't need saviours … and that is what Judge Elisabeth Armitage's 683-page report confirms.