On Tuesday May 27th, a 24 year old Warlpiri man from Yuendumu, Kumanjayi White, was killed in custody after being 'restrained' by plainclothes NT Police members, inside the Coles supermarket in Mparntwe Alice Springs. He was living with a disability, and was in town accessing care and services.
The NT Greens send our support and condolences to Kumanjayi White's family, and wish them the space and time for grief and mourning. We stand in solidarity with the Yuendumu and Warlpiri communities, join their calls for justice, and echo the family's demands for an independent investigation, the officers involved to be stood down, the release of CCTV and body camera footage, and for NT Police to apologise for and cease publicly criminalising Kumanjayi White in their statements.
This is the tenth First Nations death in custody this year, now almost 600 nationwide since 1991. First Nations people are significantly overrepresented in deaths in custody. In 2023-24, 24% of all deaths in custody were First Nations peoples. People living with a disability are also overrepresented. This latest death comes as the final coronial report into the 2019 death in custody of another Warlpiri man, Kumanjayi Walker, was due to be published.
The death of Kumanjayi White occurs in a context of unprecedented expansion of policing and imprisonment of First Nations communities in the NT, stemming from the punitive and carceral policies implemented under both Labor and CLP governments. In the NT, 84% of incarcerated adults are Aboriginal, despite Aboriginal adults making up only 25.9% of the NT adult population. 100% of young people imprisoned in the NT are Aboriginal. Many of these adults and young people are on remand, yet to be convicted. Since December 2024 an average of 40 Aboriginal people are being taken into custody every day, almost doubling the average daily rate of 23 in January 2020.
These alarming trends represent a long-standing failure of the justice system to address underlying causes of harm and violence. The consequences of ineffective and structurally racist carceral policies impose devastating impacts upon families and communities across the NT, including beyond First Nations communities. Systemic racism must be dismantled, and carceral policies wound back. Funding needs to shift from policing and prisons to the alternatives that have been proven to reduce harm, the alternatives our communities are demanding - social supports, housing, and alternative non-punitive crisis responses.
The NT Greens encourage the NT government to initiate an independent investigation, instead of NT Police. An independent body is needed to ensure the integrity of the investigation, and to deliver unwavering transparency as there is a clear conflict of interest when police officers investigate their own colleagues and procedures. An impartial investigation is essential for ascertaining the cause of death and for preventing similar incidents in the future. We note that acting NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole has spoken publicly against an independent investigation, against the wishes of the family. The Mparntwe, Yuendumu, and Warlpiri communities, and especially the family of Kumanjayi White, deserve true accountability and justice.
