Aboriginal Territorians face racism from cops daily, Kumanjayi Walker inquest hears

The shock and fear sparked by the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker only compounded the fear and racism Indigenous Territorians experience every day, a court has heard.

Parumpurru Committee of Yuendumu Community member Bruno Willson says racist text exchanges between servicing officer were ‘disgusting but not surprising’. Picture: Jason Walls

A Warlpiri leader has told an inquest how the fear his community felt following the police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker compounded the everyday fear Aboriginal people experience in Central Australia.

Parumpurru Committee of Yuendumu Community member Bruno Wilson told the inquiry into the 19-year-old Warlpiri-Luritja man’s death fear of discrimination by police was a daily concern.

“Here in Alice Springs, if you’re travelling past the Stuart Highway, or any streets, if the cop car goes past, say if there’s one Yapa car, Aboriginal car, going past the police will automatically stop him,” he said.

“Stop the Aboriginal person in the car where the whites will be allowed to go past.

“I saw those with my own eyes.”

Then after Mr Walker was fatally shot during a bungled arrest in 2019, Mr Wilson said “the community was angry at that time, but shock and fear as well”.

“After the shots, there was shock and there was fear that the shooting actually happened and it came to reality that the officers who are meant to protect and serve shot our Kumanjayi,” he said.

Mr Wilson agreed with the committee’s barrister, Julian McMahon SC, that the “everyday fear that people experience going about their normal lives due to the police targeting” then “became a reality” after the shooting.

He said it brought back painful memories for those old enough to have close relatives who were victims of Australia’s last known officially sanctioned massacre of Aboriginal people, perpetrated at the nearby Coniston station in 1928.

Territory Coroner Elisabeth Armitage visits Yuendumu during the inquest. Picture: Jason Walls

“Especially for the Elders that we have in Yuendumu, that they remember the time from the Coniston massacre and with this shooting just made it more real,” he said.

“Because of the Coniston massacre and the generations after that, the Elders which knew that it happened and then how come it happened again in 2019.

“The Elders saw that – that the police shooting, it’s still possible.”

Mr Wilson said while he understood officers might need to be armed with Glocks out on the highways, they should not be brought into Yuendumu.

“It’s not necessary to walk around with a pistol,” he said.

“That’s like you’re in the Wild West – no.”

Mr Wilson said he had more recently been pulled over by police for no good reason while his two young daughters were in the car and they were now “growing up with that same anxiety or that fear”.

“My older one, yes, she’s 15 and, it’s no surprise, she sees that happen, here in Alice, even in Yuendumu,” he said.

Mr Wilson said he also often got the sense he was being followed by security in shops and elsewhere.

And he said racist text messages that emerged during the inquest sent between serving officers in Alice Springs were “disgusting”, but not surprising.

“Growing up in Alice Springs, in Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory, you bump into racists nearly daily if you’re Aboriginal,” he said.

The inquest continues on Tuesday.