The following is an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, written by Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves on June 21, on behalf of the family of Kumanjayi White, the 24-year-old Warlipiri man who was killed by police in Mparntwe/Alice Springs on May 27.
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Dear Prime Minister,
We write requesting your urgent support to help us get justice for Kumanjayi White. My Jaja (grandson), our loved one, died in the custody of off-duty police officers in an aisle at Coles in Alice Springs on May 27.
Witnesses report that Kumanjayi was treated violently by the police and he lost consciousness whilst in their control.
How can this happen in a supermarket aisle! There is no way a white person would have been treated this way.
When George Floyd was killed in 2020 in Minneapolis [in the United States], it sparked global Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests. During these big protests, you congratulated the BLM movement and said that too many Aboriginal people were dying in custody in Australia. Well, it’s 35 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody made recommendations that have never been implemented.
When will Aboriginal lives matter?
Last year, at the Garma festival here in the Northern Territory, you said you wanted a country where “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have power over their destiny” and where “your children can flourish, as they walk in two worlds”.
You promised, “we can close the gap”.
Well, Prime Minister, the gap is getting wider, and fast. More of our people are getting locked up by police and dying in custody than ever before.
Here in the NT, the Country Liberal Party (CLP) government is boasting about how fast they are filling up the prisons with our people.
They are putting many oppressive policies onto us, creating an atmosphere of racism that killed my Jaja.
Not long after his death, a senior man from Wadeye, NT, an important cultural leader and educator, also died in police custody. We stand with his family for justice too.
At the moment, our children cannot flourish, we have no power over our destiny.
We need you to match your fine words with action.
The NT justice system is in crisis. The head of the Director of Public Prosecutions has resigned; the head of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption has resigned; the NT Police Commissioner has been sacked; the prisons are so full they need private security guards; guards on buses and public housing officers are being given guns — this madness must stop. You must step in now.
There is no trust between my people and the NT Police, yet the CLP have just cancelled a long-promised review into racism in the NT police.
We have demanded that the investigation into my Jaja’s death is taken out of the hands of the NT Police.
This demand has been supported now by many organisations — Land Councils, trade unions, legal services, every Human Rights Commissioner.
Yesterday, the Federal Minister Malarndirri McCarthy reiterated the need for an independent investigation.
Eight-hundred people signed letters to the NT government demanding an independent investigation, including a number of witnesses to my Jaja’s death who were horrified at what they saw.
Thousands more have signed our petition.
Your government in Canberra has total power over the NT. You used this power to take away all our rights, our jobs and our assets with the NT Intervention, 18 years ago today (June 21). Our communities were devastated and we have not recovered.
Now we demand action from Canberra to see that our rights are restored and we are protected from the racist CLP government.
So much of the funding that comes into the NT is supposed to be to “Close the Gap”. But instead, we face a government trying to punish us and brutalise us.
We support the calls from the Central Land Council for your government to withhold funding from the NT until they agree to an independent investigation into the Kumanjayi White case and to establish a police integrity commission, similar to other states.
We support the calls from all Human Rights Commissioners for “immediate reform” to implement all the recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
This must include action to stop the racist laws that make it so hard for my people to get bail. More than half of the prisoners in the NT are on remand. They can not get proper legal support.
The CLP cut funding for a local Law and Justice Group at Yuendumu — we need this restored.
We want financial support to set up the Kurdiji Wita Yuendumu Cultural Authority to start taking back control of our community. This should be the start of proper funding so we can reestablish employment and community control here at Yuendumu and across the NT.
Prime Minister, at Garma last year you said “my optimism for the future still burns”.
Take action now so we too can have some optimism. Take action for justice for Kumanjayi White, take action to stop the racist NT government and give power to our people.