Kumanjayi Dixon’s family raising money to travel to view Joshua, Deborah Mason’s hit-and-run cover-up court appearance

A Territory grandmother may have become yet another missing person statistic if her disembodied leg was not discovered on the side of the highway. Now her family want to witness as the mum and son co-accused face court.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names and images of Indigenous people who have passed, used with the permission of their families.

A 1500km stretch of road separates a grieving family from the courthouse where a mother and son are expected to appear over allegations they tried to bury an Aboriginal woman’s body in a shallow, unmarked grave.

Joshua Mason did not know the sound of Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon’s laugh, have memories of the Anmatyerre woman’s cheeky smile, or her hushed voice as she told stories to her grandchildren.

But the 23-year-old is accused of conspiring with his mother Deborah Mason to drag the 50-year-old grandmother’s body onto the back of a ute before dumping her in an unmarked grave, 15km from the site of an alleged hit-and-run on the Stuart Highway.

Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon, 50, was fatally struck in an alleged hit and run on the Stuart Highway, Coolalinga on May 30, 2022. Her severed leg was later spotted by motorists.

Kumanjayi Dixon’s family — who were waiting for her to arrive at their Coolalinga home on the night of May 30 2022 — may never have discovered what happened to their loved one if not for one gruesome detail.

Her disembodied leg was spotted by the side of the highway the next morning.

It took three days for police to locate the rest of Kumanjayi Dixon’s body, after allegedly spotting Ms Mason’s blood-stained ute in Palmerston.

The 23-year-old was charged with hit and run causing death, unlicensed driving, attempting to pervert the court of justice, destroying evidence and misconduct with a corpse.

His mother was accused of attempting to pervert the court of justice, destroying evidence and misconduct with a corpse.

Deborah Karen Mason, 50, and her son Joshua Gary Mason, 23, allegedly tried to cover up a fatal hit and run by burying 50-year-old grandmother Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon in an unmarked grave on Monday May 30.

Fourteen months after her death, Kumanjayi Dixon’s family want to be in court to see the case against mother and son.

Her sister-cousin Carol Dixon said while the alleged details of the hit-and-run had shocked many, for her it was part of a long history of trauma generally on Territory roads.

According to government data, since 2000 there have been more than 210 pedestrian deaths in the Territory — 177 of those were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

With Indigenous Territorians making up 84 per cent of all pedestrian deaths, Ms Dixon said

“statistics speak louder than words”.

“It’s not a one-off thing, that’s what’s disgusting about it,” she said.

“Our lives might look a little different, and our skin is different — but at the end of the day we’re all the same people.”

Kalarnna Hardy, left, Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon, 50, and Carol Dixon.

Ms Dixon said her family wanted those same faces to bear witness as Deborah Mason and Joshua Mason faced the Supreme Court on August 1.

“We love her, and we want to be present and be there and stand strong as a family,” she said.

But getting the family, many of whom live in Central Australia, to the Darwin court has posed a challenge.

“I’ve made it my responsibility to make sure we get some family up there,” Ms Dixon said.

“(But) we have family pretty much all across the NT.”

She said she hoped to hire a bus to make the 1500km journey from Alice Springs to Laramba to Darwin, stopping along the way to pick up family along the Stuart Highway.

Janita Dixon, the daughter of alleged hit and run victim Kumanjayi Napurrurla Dixon, at her mother's roadside memorial.

The New South Wales-based woman said she was relying on family members such as Kumanjayi Dixon’s brother Daniel to co-ordinate family.

“I’m not privileged enough to be on Country,” she said.

“But I go back and forth and they’re always there for me.”

When asked how many people would be on the bus, Ms Dixon gave a nervous laugh — “a lot”.

“I’ve already got family ringing up and saying ‘Can you put my name down for the bus?’,” she said.

But Ms Dixon said it was an expensive trip and therefore had to start a Go Fund Me to raise money for the bus hire and accommodation fees.

“With it being so important, we need family there to support, and be present.

“We need to stand strong as a family.

“To provide us the peace that we need.”

Ms Dixon said she did not want her sister’s story to end in the criminal courts, calling for action to address the disproportionate rates of Indigenous road deaths.

“We don’t want another family going through what we’ve had to go through.”

Originally published as Kumanjayi Dixon’s family raising money to travel to view Joshua, Deborah Mason’s hit-and-run cover-up court appearance