Last week Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe was acquitted for the murder of Kumanjayi Walker after a five week trial. The decision has left Aboriginal people and our allies across Australia despondent, hurt, and betrayed.
The family of Kumanjayi Walker in their public statement, broadcast on National Indigenous Television, said this: ‘It was hard to come here. We thought we were coming to a neutral ground, where we would have a multicultural jury, instead of just non-Indigenous people, but there were no Yapa (Indigenous) people on that jury. We felt we were left out. Are we not part of Australia? We want Yapa people on that jury. It’s always Kardiya (white) people on that jury, they see through their eyes but they need to see through our eyes too’.
Police that come to the communities should meet Yapa Elders, senior knowledge holders and their own community police officers. They should learn from the people how the community works, and gain a better understanding. ‘We are the custodians of this land, we need to be recognised as true owners.'
Family and friends of Kumanjayi Walker outside the Darwin Supreme Court after the acquittal of Zachary Rolfe. Source: NITV News
Indigenous people are simply told that racism is not a factor in the killings and deaths of our people, many of whom were young with lives before them. There have been over 500 Aboriginal deaths in custody, and yet still not one conviction. Over 20 years ago I studied the killings of Aboriginal people by non-Aboriginals, identifying a clear pattern of unequal treatment. This was evident from early contact and an observation by a concerned Swan River colonist that ‘No Jury Will Convict’. In practically every case studied the non-Indigenous accused was acquitted. The acquittal would happen regardless of evidence of guilt. If not acquitted, the conviction would be for a lesser offence than murder, namely manslaughter.
In another case in Western Australia, we sat through the trial for the murder of JC, shot by an officer in Geraldton last year and resulting in an acquittal by a jury - which included no Indigenous people.
The violence used against the victims in these cases was horrific, with frequent evidence of racial motivation denied in the court room process. Time and again, it was clear that juries which comprised no Indigenous peoples and were largely all white had refused to place weight on evidence that could lead to a finding of guilt and a conviction. In one case, a victim’s family asked, ‘How can the jury reach a verdict of not guilty when the defendant’s admitted to going back to finish them off?’
My research made several recommendations to address racial violence and ensure that Aboriginal people were properly represented in jury trials, however, this has not occurred.
It seems that we cannot have an open debate about racism and racial justice in Australia, unlike the US where these issues are commonly engaged with and where the newly elected President Joe Biden declared that he would ensure justice prevailed in future for African American people, along with his deputy, the first Black woman to hold the position of Vice President.
In the 1980’s Aboriginal people across the nation marched on the streets for justice for the Aboriginal men who were dying in custody in police and prison cells. Many in violent and brutal circumstances, such as young John Pat killed by several off-duty police officers who’d been drinking that night at the Roebourne pub. They were eventually charged, although not convicted.
We know now that Aboriginal women and girls are the single most over-represented prison population and the deaths of Ms Dhu, Ms Day, Rebecca Maher have become highlighted why the US movement #Say Her Name is relevant also on our lands. Nobody has been charged for their deaths.
For too long our people have been made silent in the face of the racism and violence that is endemic and systemic in Australia today. We are constantly told we cannot talk about it and are punished when we speak out. We won’t be silent in the face of the wrongful deaths and killing of our people. Evidence of racism in this country is widespread and the issue of jury bias must be addressed.
Reconciliation Australia is now urging people to be brave and take brave actions to address systemic discrimination that is blighting the lives today of so many people. However, reconciliation has become a superficial process in Australia concerned more with corporate image and economic financial incentives than racial equality. Aboriginal people know that there is no progress, engagement is superficial and even worse, that things appear to be going backwards.
Take the Australian Law Reform Commission Inquiry Pathways to Justice tabled in federal parliament in late 2019. Aimed at reducing incarceration and supporting Aboriginal community justice responses, the report has largely gathered dust as incarceration and deaths in custody steadily rise.
The decision in the NT Supreme Court shows we have not come very far at all and highlights the imperative of meaningful structural change to ensure our voices are in future properly heard. And yet the Uluru Statement from the Heart was dismissed by two Prime Ministers while our people still die young.
As Kumanjayi’s family asked: ‘When are we going to get justice? When?'
Dr Hannah McGlade is a Noongar human rights lawyer, writer and social justice activist.
