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crikey.com.au/2025/07/11/kuman…
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Like a lot of other Aboriginal people across the country, I tuned in on Monday to hear the findings and recommendations of the coronial inquest into the death in custody of Kumanjayi Walker.
For so many reasons, I felt it was important to do so. The findings of Justice Elisabeth Armitage had been a long time coming, and the fact she was delivering them in the town of Yuendumu, face-to-face with the still-grieving family and community members, demonstrated both the importance and the sensitivity of these findings.
And they were so very important. Justice Armitage found that constable Zachary Rolfe — the arresting police officer who shot Kumanjayi Walker three times — was racist, had demonstrated racist attitudes on a number of occasions, had a history of using excessive force on Aboriginal men, and had proudly shared his violent arrest footage with others. She also could not rule out that Rolfe’s racism played a part in his chosen actions on that fateful day.
Armitage additionally found that Walker’s death was avoidable, and that Rolfe had contravened an already-agreed-upon arrest plan that had been negotiated between community members and his senior office because he had a problem with authority (and particularly women in authority) and a thirst for bravado.
Justice Armitage didn’t leave it there though. She also stated that Rolfe was not a “one bad apple” scenario. Indeed, she found racism is a systemic problem within the NT Police, permeating its operations and workplace cultures, and therefore Rolfe was a part of a much bigger problem.
In many ways, Justice Armitage’s findings were unsurprising to anyone who has been following this case. The community of Yuendumu have, since that horrific day, been consistent in stating that they believed racism was very much a factor in how Walker died, and indeed, in their experiences of policing in general in their community. They have been calling for change for a very long time, including requesting that police not carry guns in their community.
What’s more, after delivering a conciliatory speech at the 2024 Garma Festival, the then NT Police commissioner Michael Murphy (who I acknowledge has since resigned due to a mismanagement of a conflict of interest) was essentially set upon by the NT Police Association and ended up resigning his membership, so scared were they of undertaking even a modicum of introspection.
NT prisons are filled with Aboriginal people. Seven years ago, Aboriginal kids made up 100% of the detainees in juvenile detention, and that situation has not really changed for the better since. I will not forget watching the horrors enacted on Aboriginal children at Don Dale any time soon.
Yet the findings of the inquest seemed to escape the notice of the Australian media and public, particularly as the guilty verdict for Erin Patterson — a woman who murdered three in-laws, and nearly killed a fourth, using poisonous mushrooms — was handed down a couple of hours later. It was hard not to feel cynical.
The life of an Aboriginal teenager, taken by a poisonous and violent man in a poisonous and violent system, was of little interest to a nation gripped by a “true crime saga” involving respectable victims and one calculating woman. This is not to diminish the incredible pain that the family and communities of Heather Wilkinson, and Gail and Don Patterson have been going through, and the immense relief they must have felt when the verdict was handed down. Rather, it’s a commentary on a system that cares little for “less worthy victims”, particularly if they are troubled, Aboriginal teenage men from an out-of-sight community.
What’s more, despite these findings and recommendations by Justice Armitage, the family of Kumanjayi Walker will never be able to access justice like this. Rolfe has already fronted court, and a jury without Aboriginal representation has already acquitted him of murder, manslaughter, and even committing a violent act causing death, on the basis of self-defence. Rolfe is out there in the world, at one point trying to book lucrative keynote addresses via his agent, and talking crap about appealing the findings of the inquest.
Out in Yuendumu, it seems community members are feeling some relief that what they have been saying for years has finally been validated, while also feeling cynical that the recommendations will be implemented or make much difference, and concurrently knowing that avenues for justice for Walker’s death are all but closed, despite these findings. It’s a lot to grapple with for a community that is again grieving the death of another young man at the hands of police.
According to reports I have read, Kumanjayi White had not even technically committed a crime (by leaving the store without paying), yet plain-clothed police took it upon themselves to wrestle him to the ground in an aisle with force so violent it allegedly ended his life. White’s death is also being treated as a death in custody, yet I have to wonder, given the circumstances, why it isn’t being straight-up investigated as murder or manslaughter? Will justice be denied for White, just like it was for Walker? How are community members supposed to heal and build positive relationships with these authorities when their vulnerable young men keep on ending up dead?
Meanwhile, more than three decades down the track, the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody continue to gather dust on a shelf of a parliamentary library. Former NT chief minister Michael Gunner spoke big in 2019 about “consequences flowing” from the inquest, yet due to numerous delays as a result of legal processes, he was no longer around to make sure those consequences happened. Current Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, on the other hand, has said nothing at all about the inquest findings, preferring instead to focus on imprisoning more Aboriginal kids at younger ages. Truly, how could anyone hope for better for their families and communities when political reform is so non-existent?
At the end of the day, it should not be too much to ask that Aboriginal lives matter. Yet, as the justice system, the political system, the media class, and broader society keep on demonstrating to us, it appears it is.
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#AusPol #WhyIsLabor #HahahahaLiebs #NatsAreNuts #racism #FirstNations
Kumanjayi Walker was killed by a racist cop. But our media and courts are more focused on white victims
An inquest into the killing of Kumanjayi Walker found Zachary Rolfe, the officer who killed him, was racist. The media doesn't care.Celeste Liddle (Crikey)
![Illustration titled "The four ages of white innocence:
[A white child]: too young to understand
[A white teenager]: made a youthful mistake
[A white adult]: listening and learning
[A white elder]: from a different time](https://fedi.ml/photo/preview/640/386458 "Illustration titled \"The four ages of white innocence:
[A white child]: too young to understand
[A white teenager]: made a youthful mistake
[A white adult]: listening and learning
[A white elder]: from a different time")
