After another Yuendumu death in custody, Australia must confront some harsh truths

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names of Indigenous people who have died, used with the permission of their families.
In November 2019, the shooting death of a 19-year-old Aboriginal man in the remote Central Australian community of Yuendumu by a police officer sent shock waves around the nation.
Kumanjayi Walker's shooting was investigated as a death in custody and the officer who pulled the trigger, Zachary Rolfe, was charged with his murder before being acquitted by a jury in 2022.
The Supreme Court trial was followed by the longest-running coronial inquest in the Northern Territory's history — an inquiry which brought to the surface shocking allegations of racism in the NT Police Force (NTPF).
The findings from Mr Walker's inquest are due to be handed down in less than a fortnight, on June 10, but whether that goes ahead as planned in Yuendumu is now up in the air.
On Tuesday, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man with a disability, also hailing from Yuendumu, died after being restrained by police officers in aisle four of one of Alice Springs' main supermarkets.
The NTPF has said plain-clothed officers were responding after Kumanjayi White — Kumanjayi being a western desert name for somebody who has died — allegedly assaulted a security guard in the store, after being confronted for shoplifting.
This incident is now also being investigated as a death in custody.
Police say forensic pathology results pinpointing the man's cause of death could still be weeks away after an initial autopsy was inconclusive.
In the shadow of the Kumanjayi Walker inquest, a number of similarities stand out — more than just the men's young age and the fact they came from the same remote First Nations community.
Both men also faced continued interaction with the justice system during their young lives.
Mr White had faced court on charges of aggravated assault and assaulting police as recently as this year, which were ultimately withdrawn due to his disability.
He had previously spent time on remand over charges related to dangerous driving and a police pursuit.
Both men's deaths have also rocked the wider Central Australian community with ripples of grief and outcry.
The political reactions to each man's death have also borne some similarities, as well as some starkly different approaches by the leaders of the NT government.
In 2019, then-chief minister Michael Gunner travelled to Yuendumu in the wake of Mr Walker's shooting and gave a speech to community members promising justice.
His promise that "consequences will flow" led to accusations of political interference when it came to a murder charge being laid against Mr Rolfe, which haunted the NT government.
Since Mr White's death, current chief minister Lia Finocchiaro has chosen her words more carefully.
Ms Finocchiaro has offered her condolences and said she wants the investigation to run its course but has not yet travelled to Central Australia.
Instead she spent the week attending a gas conference and the NRL State of Origin in Brisbane.
While there have been calls for an independent investigation to take place at arms length from police, Ms Finocchiaro is yet to give any indication that proposal will be taken up.
The NTPF has been firm in rejecting calls for an external inquiry.
A coronial inquest into Mr White's death will likely eventually look into the broader circumstances that led to it and perhaps seek to answer some pertinent questions.
One such question being, how did a young man with a disability and on a guardianship order manage to come into contact with the criminal justice system multiple times during his young life, including stints behind bars on remand?
If anything has been learned from Mr Walker's inquest, it is that during the months that follow this latest death in custody, Australia must be prepared to confront multiple uncomfortable truths about systems in place in the remote NT.