Dead teen Kumanjayi Walker grew up with ‘no hope’, says elder Bess Price

In an interview for The Australian’s new podcast Yuendumu: The Trial, elder Bess Price reveals the troubled early life of her great-nephew, who was shot dead by police.

Bess Price, who was born in Yuendumu and became a minister in the NT government, says the community where her great-nephew Kumanjayi Walker grew up has ‘no hope’. Picture: Justin Sanson

A troubled young man, dearly missed in communities struggling for hope: that’s the way Northern Territory elder Bess Nungarrayi Price describes her great-nephew Kumanjayi Walker.

In 2019, aged just 19, Walker was shot dead by a young constable, Zachary Rolfe, and now the Territory is preparing for one of the most significant murder trials in recent history.

Ms Price, who was born in Yuendumu and served as a Country Liberal Party politician and Community Services Minister, speaks in today’s episode of The Australian’s podcast Yuendumu: The Trial, which will provide daily news and analysis as Rolfe faces the jury.

The trial is due to start on Monday, pending the lifting of Darwin’s lockdown.

Ms Price said the Warlpiri community in the remote community of Yuendumu, where Walker died, “are saying: we want justice for our grandson, and that’s all that matters to us, because of the way - of how everything has gone down.

Yuendumu: The Trial is a gripping new podcast from The Australian

Kumanjayi Walker’s mother died when he was a child and he spent parts of his childhood at the Warlpiri Town Camp, one of several Aboriginal communities within Alice Springs, Ms Price said.

“With the situation the town camps are in, you’ve really got no hope in life,” Ms Price told Matt Cunningham, who co-hosts the podcast with Kristin Shorten.

“That was his upbringing, in a town camp. They tried to do their best to send him, I think they tried to send him to Brisbane at his earlier life, to get away from what was happening in his life and get a chance for him to have a better life.”

Ms Price said she would like to hear more Warlpiri people speaking up about how they feel about Walker’s death and its implications, rather than leaving a small group of “spokespeople” to claim to speak for the community.

“I’d like to see more Warlpiri speak up openly about how they feel, instead of being shut down and told: ‘Don’t speak to the media because his (Rolfe’s) lawyers will take up what’s been said and use that against us’.

“So we’ve been told that’s why not a lot of Warlpiri have put their hands up to talk openly about what’s going on ... What the Warlpiri don’t understand is that they can speak for themselves if they want to.”

Today’s episode is a scene-setter, and when the trial begins a new episode will be available every morning, wherever you get your podcasts.

For the first week of trial the podcast will be available in The Australian’s mobile app and free on all platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play.

Subscribers will get first access to episodes, as well as access to our unrivalled coverage of the trial and its ramifications, including Northern Correspondent Amos Aikman’s up-to-the-minute reports from inside the Supreme Court in Darwin.

We will take audiences from the courtroom to the outback, with special reports from Yuendumu and gripping multimedia packages, plus expert post-trial analysis and reaction from the families and supporters of both young men.

Read our unrivalled coverage: theaustralian.com.au/yuendumu

Hear episodes first by going to Podcasts and tapping FOLLOW in The Australian’s app.

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