Calls grow for an independent inquiry into Kumanjayi White’s death

June 3, 2025

Issue

Candles lit at the Justice for Kumanjayi White vigil in Gadigal Country/Sydney on June 1. Photo: Zebedee Parkes

Hundreds joined vigils for Kumanjayi White in Mpartnwe/Alice Springs and Gadigal Country/Sydney ahead of a national week of action to stop Black deaths in custody.

White, a 24-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man, was killed while being restrained by plainclothes police officers inside a Coles supermarket in Mpartnwe on May 27.

Ned Hargraves, White’s grandfather and Warlpiri Elder, said on May 28 that White was “held down by two police until he lost consciousness and perished”.

“But we are in the dark, at the moment, about what really happened,” Hargraves said. “My people are being routinely brutalised by police. We are going into jail in record numbers — men, women and children alike.” Hargraves said his grandson was killed on the 5th anniversary of the death of George Floyd, during Reconciliation Week.

His death comes less than six years after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot and killed 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker, in Yuendumu, in 2019. Rolfe was acquitted of the murder and the long-awaited coroner’s findings into his death will be handed down on June 10.

At the “I stand with Yuendumu” vigil for White at Sydney Town Hall on June 1, Wiradjuri activist Ethan Lyons said “there can be no peace without justice and liberation for our people”. “How are we expected, as mob, for our family to be murdered and then continue business as usual?”

Gumbaynggirr Dunghutti Bundjalung woman Lizzie Jarrett, Dunghutti activist Paul Silva and Uncle Dave Bell also spoke.

White’s family and community want an independent investigation into his death, immediate access to footage of the incident and for the police and media to stop vilifying the victim.

Justice not Jails (JNJ) said an independent investigation is needed. It criticised the NT Police’s “repeated use of internal investigations, despite long-standing and well documented patterns of racial discrimination”.

It said White’s death took place in the context of the NT Country Liberal Party government’s “relentless and racist attacks on Aboriginal families and communities”, including bail and sentencing reforms that have significantly raised the number of Aboriginal people in prison.

“Other attacks include evicting public housing tenants, fining parents when their children don’t go to school and weakening protections for sacred sites,” JNJ said.

Independent Victorian Senator and Djab Wurrung Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe said Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy must “stand firm” and support an independent investigation.

“The NT Police’s response has been disrespectful and predictable,” Thorpe said. “They’re already spinning a narrative that blames Kumanjayi, while refusing to release the footage that could help the family better understand his death.

“After everything revealed through the Kumanjayi Walker Inquest about racism and misconduct in the NT Police, the need for true independence in this case is more urgent than ever.”

There have been almost 600 First Nations people killed in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, including at least 10 this year. Only one of the 339 recommendations handed down by that commission has been implemented: regular reporting on the number of deaths was secured by Thorpe last September.

Join one of the rallies demanding accountability and justice for First Nations communities across the country this week (details below).

[Sign the petition to support the family’s urgent demands relating to the current police investigation.]