Momentum is growing behind a campaign for Justice for Kumanjayi White, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man from Yuendumu killed by police in the Coles supermarket in Mparntwe-Alice Springs on Tuesday.
Responding to the death, Ned Hargraves Jampijinpa, the young man’s grandfather said:
“We are devastated… this happened on the 5th anniversary of the death of George Floyd—during Reconciliation Week—but my people have to confront another death in custody”.
White’s death has striking parallels with the police murder of George Floyd. Witnesses say that police held Kumanjayi on the ground for an extended period, with a knee pushed down on his neck, before he lost consciousness and perished.
On Friday, with less than 24 hours notice, more than 300 people turned out in Alice Springs for a lunchtime rally outside Coles, called by Mr Hargraves.
It was an angry and emotional gathering, with family members wailing in mourning and speakers expressing fury at yet another Aboriginal death at the hands of the police.
After speeches, family and other Aboriginal community members led a procession through Coles, carrying gum leaf branches and conducting a mourning ceremony.
The killing comes just two weeks before NT Coroner Elizabeth Armitage is set to hand down findings from the Inquest into the death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, shot dead by police in Yuendumu in 2019.
Mr Hargraves opened the rally by declaring: “We are saying no more! Enough is enough! We want justice for my Jaja (grandson), Jackamarra!”
Warlpiri community leader Karl Hampton praised the turn out, saying: “Let’s not have a waste of this young man’s life. This could be a turning point for our community, where we all work together as one”.
“It’s up to people in this community to force change in how police deal with our mob. But they are not going to listen unless we go as one big force of humanity. So let’s join together, Black, white, brindle, it doesn’t matter… we need your help to make change. Today is a great beginning of a movement”.
Homicide
Due to a disability, Kumanjayi White was living away from his community at the time of his death, under public guardianship orders in NDIS-supported accommodation in Alice Springs.
Speakers at the rally criticised the public guardianship regime and the quality of care provided by NDIS, citing “red tape” that stopped Kumanjayi from being able to visit his community at Yuendumu.
Since the killing, police have worked overtime to denigrate the young man and blame him for his own death. They accused him of stealing and assaulting a security guard, before “officers in plain clothes” intervened to restrain him, “placing him on the ground”.
But police have repeatedly refused requests by family representatives to view CCTV footage of the incident to see what really happened.
In stark contrast to the police story, numerous eyewitness accounts paint a picture of a violent homicide by off-duty police.
One witness told ABC he saw a security guard chasing Kumanjayi, before he was grabbed by “a big white man” in a hoodie. “It looked pretty violent—and then they slammed him to the ground”.
Another said, “some customers were yelling at them [to stop]… the guy was crying loudly, saying ‘mama, mama’”.
A witness told the NT News: “There was an Aboriginal man on the floor and a police officer had his knee behind his head… [his friends were calling out] ‘Hey look, this fella has a disability, be careful’”.
“But obviously no one listened… then all of a sudden he started fitting on the ground like he was having a seizure”.
When oxygen is cut off to the brain, it can lead to a hypoxic seizure, preceding hypoxic heart failure and death.
Eyewitnesses cited by the NT News say one of the officers was Steven Haig, a police prosecutor who works in the local courthouse.
The paper also published a photo of Haig, taken from social media, effecting an off-duty arrest of a young Aboriginal woman in 2024 outside the same Coles supermarket—also placing his knee on her neck.
Such a violent homicide warrants manslaughter charges at the least.
Protest
Mr Hargraves and other family members have called for nationwide protests to push forward the family’s immediate demands.
Through lawyer George Newhouse at the National Justice Project, the family have written to the Police Commissioner, demanding an end to the denigration of Kumanjayi, an apology for prejudicial statements, immediate release of the CCTV and for an independent investigation that’s taken out of the hands of the police.
On Gadigal land in Sydney, the Blak Caucus have called a vigil at 5pm on Sunday 1 June, and further protests are being planned.
In a first for a death in custody, the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Malarndirri McCarthy has supported demands for an independent investigation, saying, “this may be an opportune time to have something different, to provide that separation and clarity”.
Despite almost 600 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the Royal Commission report in 1991, no police officer or prison guard has ever been held accountable.
The brutal killing is just one symptom of the deep crisis facing Aboriginal people across the NTand across Australia as racist policies intensify.
As Mr Hargraves has said: “We are suffering badly under the shadow of the NT Intervention and under a Country Liberal Party government in the NT that is making many racist policies against us—sending more people to jail and threatening our sacred sites. This is making racists more confident to attack us.”
Across Australia, state governments both Labor and Liberal are implementing similar “tough on crime” policies, pushing Aboriginal incarceration to a record 35 per cent of the prison population. Federal Labor is trampling on Aboriginal land rights to push destructive fossil fuel projects.
Demands for justice for Kumanjayi White need to grow and provide the spark for a movement that can take on this whole racist system.
