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On Saturday, a 19-year-old Warlpiri man named Kumanjayi Walker was shot dead by police in the Northern Territory community of Yuendumu.
Two officers entered a residence in the community at 7:15pm to arrest Walker for alleged property and assault offences, police report.
There was an altercation and Walker was shot by police.
Instead of being taken to a medical facility, he was taken to the police station where he died a short time later.
Family members were told on Sunday that he was dead.
The community has called for an immediate independent investigation into Walker’s death; including why police didn’t use non-lethal Tasers, why the medical centre was closed on Saturday night and why family members were not allowed into the police station.
Warlpiri elder, Eddie Robertson, told the ABC the community was in mourning, “Today we are still crying and we don’t believe that we lost a young bloke in our town. The whole community is in mourning, even the kardiya [white] staff are in mourning, and we are standing together strongly.”
And we need to stand alongside them to show our support and solidarity.
As actress Miranda Tapsell wrote on Instagram, “We all have skin in the game and non-Indigenous people have to stop divorcing themselves from the things that happen to us. Direct your anger to somewhere useful. Please. If you’re sick of hearing this, read up and share. Go to the protests. Turn up #istandwithyuendumu”
That’s why we’re leaving work early tomorrow – to turn up at the protest at 5:30pm at Sydney’s Town Hall. Please join us.
Protests are also being held across the country at Melbourne’s GPO, Brisbane’s King George Square and Darwin’s Parliament House.
A young man is dead, a community is in mourning and we need to rally around them – especially non-Indigenous people.
Please join us.
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