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The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
A scuffle in the lolly aisle. The sickening death toll climbs. Another family face gut-wrenching grief
Five years ago thousands of Australians defied Covid restrictions to pour on to the streets of our cities and towns as part of the global Black Lives Matter movement. The protests here highlighted the appalling rates of Aboriginal people dying in police and prison custody. One death in particular became a rallying point: that of David Dungany Jr, who died while being restrained, pleading that he could not breathe, in similar circumstances to George Floyd in the US. The 26-year-old Dunghutti man, who had diabetes and schizophrenia, was in Long Bay jail hospital in November 2015 when five guards stormed his cell after he refused to stop eating a packet of biscuits. Dungay, known to his family as Junior, was dragged to another cell, held face down and injected with a sedative. In harrowing footage later shown to the coroner and partly released to the public, Junior said 12 times that he couldn't breathe before losing consciousness and dying. Junior's family – especially his mum, Leetona, and nephew Paul Silva – have since been catapulted into representing a movement whose ranks are continuously swelled by more grieving Aboriginal families, all of them forced to deal with alienating and opaque processes of police 'investigation', and coronial inquests that take years to get to court, more years to decide what happened to their loved ones, and then all the years after which nothing appears to change. In Junior's case, the coroner heard that medical staff at Long Bay had failed for periods up of up to eight minutes to perform basic CPR. They had then forgotten to remove the safety cap from resuscitation equipment, which came off in Junior's mouth. The inquest took four years for the coroner to find that while the nurse who administered the sedative might be referred to a professional standards review, none of the guards who restrained Junior should face disciplinary action as their 'conduct was limited by systemic efficiencies in training'. As we stood outside the court that day, an aunty asked: 'How much training do they need to stop killing our people?' On the streets in 2020, people held up placards with the number 432. At that time, it was our best calculation of the number of Aboriginal people who had died in custody since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody in 1991. New placards will be needed for this weekend's rallies in protest at yet another death in custody, in an Alice Springs supermarket last week. The number now stands at 597. Kumanjayi White, a 24-year-old disabled Warlpiri man from Yuendumu died after being restrained by police in the confectionery aisle at the Coles supermarket. According to the Northern Territory police assistant commissioner Travis Wurst, two plainclothes officers were in Coles about 1.10pm when they 'were alerted to a confrontation' between Kumanjayi and a security guard. After being restrained by the officers, Kumanjayi stopped breathing. He was taken to Alice Springs hospital where he was pronounced dead about an hour later. Kumanjayi had disabilities and was living away from his community in supported accommodation. His unnecessary death is a 'tragic case at the intersection of disability and race', the family's lawyer, George Newhouse of the National Justice Project, told Guardian Australia. The family, who are sadly experienced in navigating the nightmare world of police, media and the coronial process, have called for an independent investigation – meaning they want it to be conducted by anyone other than the NT police. Given their years of deeply negative interactions with the NT police, it's understandable. This is the same police force that shot dead the Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu 2019. The same police force in which Alice Springs officers, including those in leadership roles, were revealed at his inquest in 2022 to have exchanged racist, sexist and homophobic text messages. The same police force alleged to have used military-style tactics in policing, amid allegations of the use of excessive force. The same police force in which the TRG elite group, now disbanded, bestowed a racist mock-award known as the 'Coon of the Year' on the officer who behaved 'most like an Aboriginal'. The winner was given a club and made to wear a toga. You can see why they might mistrust the outcome of that investigation. The federal minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, has said an independent investigation 'may be warranted'. The NT Labor opposition leader, Selena Uibo, said she hoped it was 'something that could be considered'. But Wurst has already ruled it out. The family has also called on the federal government to convene an Indigenous-led independent oversight body to supervise the investigation of First Nations deaths in custody as a matter of urgency. And, 'given the mistrust that exists between the family, First Nations community and the police, it is incumbent on police to show close family members the CCTV and body worn footage of the incident as soon as possible', Newhouse told Guardian Australia. The findings in the Walker inquest were due to be handed down in Yuendumu on 10 June. They will now be postponed while the community comes to terms with yet another senseless violent death involving the NT police. Late on Tuesday a former Coles employee came forward to say he'd known Kumanjayi White and had seen him in the shop from time to time. Gene Hill told the ABC he used to spot Kumanjayi wandering the aisles and would 'simply go up to him and grab the products off him and just explain to him that it's got to be paid for'. He suggested that Coles hire more Indigenous staff with local language skills and better support Aboriginal shoppers with disabilities. Also on Tuesday, Coles finally broke its silence on the matter. A spokesperson said the supermarket was 'deeply saddened' and would assist police with their investigations. Almost a week after Kumanjayi White's death in the lolly aisle, it seems a thin response from a company proud of being 'one of the largest private sector employers of Indigenous Australians', according to its website and its reconciliation action plan. One wonders what its chief executive and shareholders think of the optics of Coles now being permanently linked to an Aboriginal man's death involving police. As in 2020, rallies are being planned for this weekend in capital cities around the nation, to mourn the loss of another young Aboriginal person, to support another family devastated by the ongoing obscenity of carceral violence. 'This is gut wrenching pain. It is sickening. The kind that stops you form eating and keeps you up at night,' Samara Fernandez-Brown, Kumanjayi Walker's cousin, said in a statement. 'I can't believe this has happened again to a young Warlpiri nan, and I am so deeply saddened by the gross injustice of how Kumanjayi White was treated. Absolutely disgraceful. 'Has our community not gone through enough?' Lorena Allam is descended from the Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay nations of north-western NSW. She is the industry professor of Indigenous media at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology, Sydney
The Guardian
a day ago
- General
- The Guardian
A glimpse of hope, then another Aboriginal death in custody: ‘grief-stricken' campaigners mourn lack of progress
The supermarket is silent except for wails of grief. A small procession makes a slow pilgrimage down aisle four of the Alice Springs Coles, where their loved one – a 24-year-old Warlpiri man with a disability – lost consciousness after being restrained by police. He later died in hospital. Outside, the man's grandfather, Warlpiri elder Ned Hargraves, addressed a crowd of hundreds from his mobility scooter. 'Enough is enough,' he said on Friday. 'This cannot keep going.' Five years after the Black Lives Matter movement promised a reckoning for racial injustice in Australia, the grim reality facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is eerily familiar. In 2020, the nation was reeling from the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker by Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe in the central desert community of Yuendumu. Rolfe was charged with murder, but later acquitted. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email This month, as the community braced for the findings of a bruising two-year inquest into the death, they learned another young Warlpiri man from Yuendumu – now known as Kumanjayi White – had died after being restrained by police in the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs. 'We were looking forward to truly beginning our healing process,' Walker's cousin, Samara Fernandez-Brown, said in a statement. 'You have thrown us right back to the start, reopening wounds that were just beginning to scab over.' Police alleged White was shoplifting and said plainclothes officers stepped in after an altercation with a security guard. Hargraves criticised police for portraying his grandson as a criminal while the incident was under investigation. Following the deaths of both young men, the family called for investigations independent of the police– a demand Aboriginal communities and several inquiries have been making for decades. In White's case, police 'respectfully' rejected the request. Rallies are once again being held across Australia in solidarity with Yuendumu. Their calls echo those made in 2020, when record numbers of protesters defied Covid restrictions to demand action to prevent Indigenous people dying in prisons or police custody. At the time, Mililma May, a Danggalaba Kulumbirigin Tiwi woman, helped organise Darwin's largest-ever protest. 'That was a historic moment for Darwin,' she says. 'It did feel like there was momentum, and most importantly, it felt like the community was empowered and activated and determined. 'I am extremely grief-stricken with the position that we're at now, and how we went from bad to worse.' The independent senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurring woman, is similarly scathing about the lack of progress since 2020. 'To see so many people show up was an act of solidarity … you would think that some change would have happened as a result,' she says. 'There's a glimpse of hope and then that just gets taken away as soon as you have to deal with another death.' The solutions to preventing Indigenous deaths in custody have been 'sitting on the shelves' since 1991, says Thorpe, when a royal commission put forward 339 ways to stop them. Three decades later, only about two-thirds of the recommendations had been fully implemented, according to a review described as 'misleadingly positive' by academics. One change has been the real time reporting of deaths through an online dashboard run by the Australian Institute of Criminology. It shows 34 people have died in custody this year – 10 of them Indigenous. Prior to this, Guardian Australia's Deaths Inside database was the only regularly updated source of information. There have been other changes in response to tireless advocacy from families, but often with a caveat. Police in Western Australia agreed to train officers to use alternative restraints to the prone position, but refused to ban the technique outright. Public drunkenness was decriminalised in Victoria, but the laws took three years to come into effect. Spit hoods were banned in several jurisdictions, then reintroduced for Northern Territory children. The core advice of the royal commission – to reduce the number of Indigenous people in prison – appears to have been ignored or disregarded entirely. Despite signing a national agreement to close the gap in incarceration rates, states and territories have passed tough-on-crime measures that are locking up record numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Nerita Waight, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, says governments prefer such 'kneejerk, short-term solutions' over deeper, systemic reform. 'They would rather pursue popular votes and pander to conservative media narratives than actually show a modicum of leadership on the issues that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people,' she says. Former Labor senator Pat Dodson has condemned the gross overrepresentation of First Nations children in the youth justice and child protection systems as an ongoing genocide. But while the calls for reform have only become more urgent, the level of public support appears to have waned. At least 20,000 people marched in Sydney after George Floyd's death in the US. A snap vigil in the city on Sunday night saw about 500 people brave the winter chill to gather on the steps of the town hall. 'We have seen the numbers drop,' says Paul Silva, an organiser of both Sydney events. 'I'll say it for what it is – people will tend to jump on the bandwagon when something is trending.' Thorpe says between the yawning gap in Indigenous disadvantage and the war in Gaza, people are feeling 'traumatised' and 'helpless'. 'We're kind of fatigued by genocide,' she says. May attributed the sense of apathy to a rise in disinformation on social media; which became more prolific throughout the pandemic, the Trump era and the failure of the Indigenous voice referendum. 'The way that people were accessing news and information was really distorted and dictated by their algorithms,' she says. 'I think it's emboldened the views of the right and the views of the racists.' For grieving families, the fight continues. Silva was 17 when his uncle, David Dungay Jr, died in Long Bay prison after being restrained in the prone position by guards. Harrowing footage of the incident, in which Dungay repeatedly says he cannot breathe, has been likened to the death of Floyd. A coroner found the guards involved in Dungay's death should not face disciplinary action and the NSW director of public prosecutions rejected the family's calls to lay criminal charges. After exhausting all other avenues, the Dungay family is still pursuing a complaint to the United Nations, in a bid to shine a global spotlight on his uncle's death. Now 27, Silva has become one of the loudest voices calling for justice through a portable speaker at Sydney's protest rallies. He is planning another in the coming days. The Dunghutti man regularly gets phone calls from distressed families whose loved ones have died lonely, violent deaths at the hands of the state. 'I sit on the phone and listen to them cry, and even cry with them,' he says. 'Deep down, I know that's something that my uncle would really want, and that's something he's guided me to do.' Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
ABC News
6 days ago
- General
- ABC News
Senior leader says Alice Springs 'at breaking point' after Warlpiri man's death in custody
An Alice Springs town councillor and senior Alyawerre man says his town is at breaking point, after a young man died in police custody this week. The 24-year-old Warlpiri man from Yuendumu died after he was restrained by NT police officers following an altercation with a supermarket security guard. NT police say the man was placing items down the front of his clothing at the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs on Tuesday, when he was confronted by security guards. Two police officers were in the supermarket at the time and restrained the man. One eye witness told the ABC the restraint "looked pretty violent". He was taken to Alice Springs Hospital and pronounced dead. An autopsy on Wednesday found the man's cause of death was "undetermined". The man's grandfather, Ned Hargraves, a senior Warlpiri elder, said their family, all Warlpiri people, and many other people in Central Australia were devastated by the death. Mr Hargraves said his grandson was living away from his Yuendumu community and in "supported accommodation because of his disabilities". The most recent high-profile death in custody in the NT was the 2019 police shooting of 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. The long-awaited coroner's findings into Mr Walker's death are due to be handed down on June 10 in Yuendumu. For Michael Liddle, the news of another Aboriginal death in custody brought back familiar feelings. "Here we go again," the Alyawarre man said. The Alice Springs town councillor has spent years working with Aboriginal men who come into contact with the justice system. He said the town's social issues were not going away. "At the moment, there's so much anger … what happens when there's a death in custody? I'm sad to say it's happened on our front door again," he said. Thirty people have died in custody so far this year in Australia, eight of them First Nations people, according to data from the National Deaths in Custody Program. Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said an independent investigation into the man's death could be the best path forward. She said the people of Yuendumu had already experienced "many traumas", and that wounds were reopened this week. She said the best way to navigate the complex issues at play may be to take the investigation out of the Northern Territory police's hands. Ms McCarthy did not suggest which agency should investigate instead, saying that decision would lie with NT Chief Minister and Police Minister Lia Finocchiaro. "I am calling on her to recognise the tensions that do exist, that I've certainly heard from family members, but also are very aware of the difficulties for members of the police force as well," she said. "This may be an opportune time to have something different, to provide that separation and clarity." Thalia Anthony, a law professor at the University of Technology Sydney who has written extensively on the NT's legal system, also said the death should be independently investigated. "I think this has to happen by a body outside of the Northern Territory. We know what a tight-knit group and culture the Northern Territory's police force have," she said. Assistant Police Commissioner Travis Wurst said he would lead the investigation and "provide oversight" along with NT Police's Professional Standards Command, separately to the coronial investigation. Assistant Commissioner Wurst visited Yuendumu on Thursday, two days after the death of the 24-year-old man who hailed from the Central Australian community. Speaking from an energy conference in Brisbane on Thursday, Ms Finocchiaro said the death was tragic, but police had undertaken their duty to serve and protect. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the community at this incredibly difficult time, but we also stand in solidarity with our police and the security personnel involved in this incident and incidents right across the Northern Territory," she said. Ms Finocchiaro said she has not made contact with the deceased man's family. In a statement, Assistant Commissioner Wurst said police were in contact with the man's family and were "providing support" through their cultural reform team.
ABC News
28-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
NT major crimes unit investigates 24-year-old Yuendumu man's death in custody
A 24-year-old Aboriginal man who died after being restrained by police in Alice Springs was from the remote community of Yuendumu. Northern Territory police said the man stopped breathing shortly after two officers restrained him at a Coles supermarket about 1:10pm on Tuesday following an altercation. Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst said the man was placing items down the front of his clothing when he was confronted by security guards. "One of the security guards was assaulted and there were two police officers, who were in plain clothes at the time," Assistant Commissioner Wurst told reporters on Tuesday. "The male behaved rather aggressively and was placed onto the ground by those police officers. "He was later identified as losing consciousness." Assistant Commissioner Wurst said St John Ambulance paramedics arrived and took the man to Alice Springs Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2:20pm. Detectives from the NT Police Force's Major Crime Section have travelled to Alice Springs to investigate. A report will be prepared for the coroner. Police are treating the incident as a death in custody, where a person has died while being detained by law enforcement, or while they were in the custody of a correctional facility. They include deaths in prisons or police stations, during police transfers and in operations like police pursuits. The most recent high-profile death in custody is the 2019 police shooting of 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man Kumanjayi Walker during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. The former NT police officer who fired the fatal shot, Zachary Rolfe, was found not guilty on all charges in 2022. The long-awaited coroner's findings into Mr Walker's death is due to be handed down on June 10 in Yuendumu. Twenty people have died in custody so far this year in Australia, eight of them First Nations people, according to data from the National Deaths in Custody Program. Data shows 593 Indigenous people have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
ABC News
27-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Tasmanian government to fund truth-telling commissioners but drop treaty process
The Tasmanian government will no longer pursue a treaty with Tasmanian Aboriginal people, instead funding the establishment of truth-telling and healing commissioners. The decision came four years after former premier Peter Gutwein announced the commencement of a truth-telling and treaty process. It led to the 2021 government-commissioned report, Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty, which made 24 recommendations, including that truth-telling and treaty work be done concurrently. However, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Jacquie Petrusma said the government would now focus solely on the truth-telling process. "Truth-telling is a necessary step which must run its course, so accordingly, the government will no longer progress treaty," Ms Petrusma said in a statement on Tuesday. This week's budget will include $880,000 over two years for the appointment of independent commissioners to guide an Aboriginal-led truth-telling and healing process. Ms Petrusma described it as a historic moment of recognition, respect and self-determination for Tasmanian Aboriginal people. "It is a critical and necessary step towards recognising past injustices, gaining a greater understanding of the contemporary challenges being faced by Tasmanian Aboriginal people, and making real progress in healing the wounds of the past," she said. She said the government would now work with Tasmanian Aboriginal people to appoint the commissioners, and on the process beyond that. The funding announcement has been welcomed by some Aboriginal organisations, but the decision to not progress with a treaty has disappointed others. Rodney Dillon, who is on the Tasmanian Aboriginal Advisory Group for Truth-telling and Treaty, said the move to appoint Tasmanian Aboriginal commissioners was the right approach. "We've had 200 and something years of colonisation and this is the first time we've taken that step, so that's how big and how significant it is," Mr Dillon told the ABC. "I think it's a good step for Aboriginal people." He said it was important to go through the truth-telling process before moving to a treaty. "Some people will want a treaty first and I can understand that," he said. "But I don't think you can have a treaty without some truth-telling first and the reason why you need a treaty. "And I think that you can take a look around the country, and perhaps around the world where we've had treaties and never put anything in front of them, a lot of them have fallen over. "So I think this is a good foundation to go ahead in the future." The funding for truth-telling commissioners was supported by the Tasmanian Regional Aboriginal Communities Alliance (TRACA). The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT) also expressed its support for the funding. "For more than 200 years, Tasmanian Aboriginal people have endured and resisted policies of dispossession, forced removal and cultural suppression," ALCT chair Greg Brown said in a statement. However, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre chief executive Heather Sculthorpe said she was disappointed the government would no longer follow through with a treaty. She accused the government of "playing tricks". "I cannot see any way our community is going to buy that," she said. The government's budget includes a total of $4.4 million over four years for Closing the Gap commitments, including continued funding for peak Aboriginal organisations, as well as additional funding for the ALCT.
