Death of Indigenous man in custody sparks nationwide rallies as public 'demand justice'
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article refers to Indigenous people who have died.
Crowds have taken to the streets across Sydney and Brisbane in the second day of nationwide protests following the death of an Indigenous man in custody.
Kumanjayi White, 24, died last Tuesday after he was restrained by two police officers at a Coles supermarket in Alice Springs.
Police allege the 24-year-old was involved in an altercation with security guards after being seen placing items down the front of his clothing.
He was placed on the ground by two plain-clothed arresting officers before he lost consciousness and was later pronounced dead at Alice Springs Hospital.
Hundreds of protesters gathered on the steps of Sydney's Town Hall on George Street on Saturday night where the lawyer for Mr White's family addressed the crowd.
'I've just come back from Alice Springs and Yuendumu, I'm angry there are mothers grieving there tonight,' lawyer George Newhouse said.
'I am angry there was a disabled young man calling out for his mother in Coles last week.'
Mr Newhouse read a statement from Mr White's family, mourning the death of the 24-year-old and calling for an independent investigation.
The proceedings opened with a smoking ceremony before the crowd moved south towards the Surry Hills Police Station following speeches and music.
Police attended the scene on horseback and watched on as protestors held signs reading 'Stop black deaths in custody' and 'Justice for Kumanjayi'.
This year alone there have been 12 Indigenous deaths in custody and 597 since the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established.
Meanwhile, similar scenes unfolded at King George Square in Brisbane where organisers also issued calls for an independent investigation.
'No more stolen lives' a banner read, behind a stage where Gungarri woman Dr Raylene Nixon opened up about her own son's death in police custody.
'Today I carry with me, the weight of my own loss of my son Steven Lee,' she said, according to the National Indigenous Times.
'First they criminalise us, then they brutalise us and then they justify it.'
Her son, Steven Lee Nixon-Mckellar, 27, died in October 2021 shortly after being arrested by a senior constable outside his relative's home in Toowoomba, Queensland.
Rallies and vigils commemorating Mr White's death were also held nationwide on Friday, stretching as far as Victoria's state parliament to Alice Springs.
Northern Territory Police said in a statement last week that the cause of the 24-year-old's death remained undetermined and was before forensic pathologists.
They allege he assaulted a woman that was not known to him near a Commonwealth Bank on Gregory Terrace just prior to the incident at Coles.
Investigations into the alleged assault are ongoing.
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'From a basecamp they would descend 11 miles into the gorge, sometimes on spurs only a vehicle width and nearly perpendicular drops into breathtaking hidden valleys,' the Dorrigo Heritage Defenders page notes. 'On many occasions the only option was to drag the tractors to safety in reverse using rear mounted winches attached to a nominated sturdy tree cutting their way as they went.' One 'pretty decent' haul involved a cedar tree trunk 5.5 metres in circumference - roughly the equivalent of ten people standing with their arms outstretched just to encircle it once. It was tough but rewarding work and Bill shared the spoils around. He reportedly built 80 houses, two schools, donated the rich red cedar to Catholic churches in the area and sponsored the local footy team. 'He was a very generous man. He was always helping out the nuns and after the floods in 1949-50, he helped relocate a number of families from downtown to higher land near the Kempsey hospital,' Geraldine added. 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'They found that he had walked off a little bit and then stepped on to a fallen, moss-covered log. 'But the curious thing they all said was that he never got off that log. His tracks just stopped there. It was as if he had vanished on the spot. 'The trail just ended. Some of the trackers said they expected to find his body there but there was nothing. 'They all said it was really weird. And this was coming from expert bushmen.' Mr Lee, who is also President of the Macleay River Historical Society, agreed that his disappearance was 'certainly strange'. 'He was an expert bushman so he probably left the markings on the trees to find his back to camp. But he just never got there,' Mr Lee added. The search was eventually bolstered by 120 soldiers and a Cessna aircraft sent down from Queensland. But after weeks of combing the dense bush it was eventually called off. The investigation His disappearance had a devastating impact on the family that echoed for years afterwards. 'My grandfather's wife - Olivetta - Granny Haydon to us, they said she cried to the day she died in her nineties. She missed him something terrible,' Geraldine said. 'He was a very strong personality so when you took the rudder away they were lost.' The lack of closure of not finding a body gave rise to wild conspiracies, especially given that northern NSW is full of strange happenings. There have been well-documented sightings of a black panthers and UFOs in the regions dark forests. 'I know people that swear they have seen a Yowie in the Upper Macleay valley,' Mr Lee said. Some claim that Bill was taken by one of the mythical Aussie beasts. 'People said all sorts of silly nonsense about his disappearance. We've heard every story going,' Geraldine said. 'Some people claim he actually staged the whole thing and ran away. 'Some swore that they saw him at a race course years afterwards, others claimed he'd been taken by aliens. 'But he would never ever have left our granny. He was a very family-oriented man.' The lack of closure was exacerbated by the fact that a death certificate was never issued. In the process of writing and researching her book, Geraldine pushed for a coronial inquest into Bill's disappearance. 'The police investigated it. They even visited my mother Winnifred in her care home and took DNA in case her grandfather ever shows up,' she said. 'The magistrate was very apologetic and couldn't believe a death certificate had never been issued.' Bill Haydon's legacy continues in the current generation, with Jodie's father Bill being named after him. Her branch of the family settled further south, on the Central Coast where she and Albanese bought a $4.3 million clifftop home in Copacabana. Searching for answers So what happened to the Cedar King? Mr Lee, who is also President of the Macleay River Historical Society, believes he knows the answer. 'There had been mining in the area so he could have easily fallen into the mouth of an overgrown mine shaft,' he said. It's a conclusion that Geraldine also thinks is most likely. The area had been mined for tin in the 1880s. Miners would dig holes just a couple of metres in diameter, which would eventually fill with water and be covered by foliage. 'It was thick bush back then. Very much like a rainforest so it is absolutely possible that even an experienced bushman, which Bill very much was, could have taken a step and fallen into one of the shafts,' Geraldine said. 'If there was water down there and it was wet and cold, he would have died from exposure before anyone could have heard him.' While that remains the most likely outcome, theories will always swirl without a body. 'If only we could find his body the story would end. But there is no closure,' Geraldine added. 'We know he went into the bush but he never came out. It is the big mystery – it's what carries on his legend.' 'But let's be real: it's national park. It's a complete wilderness. There's as much chance of you or I winning the lottery as them finding him.'
