An introduction in 3 parts: Anthropological perspectives on the shooting of Kumanjayi Walker

This is an introduction in three parts. In the first part, I introduce this Special Issue, the briefs that led to its realisation, some of the key themes the contributors wrestle with, and the contributions themselves. The second part is more of a personal introduction; namely, an ethnographic narrative of my own experience of the first hours and days following the shooting. My aim here is to take the reader into the field at the beginning of the events that unfolded from a Yuendumu view (inherently different from the perspective presented by the media and the courts). In the third introductory perspective, I look at the nature of fear. In a series of short ethnographic vignettes, I explore how police and Warlpiri people's fears differed and overwrote each other. I contextualise Warlpiri fears by situating the shooting in an historical timeline with frontier massacres. The main thrust of my enquiry is to lay bare the opposition between Warlpiri people's views and those of the settler colony, and to analyse the power of the settler colony to legitimise its fears and make Warlpiri fears illegible. I conclude by pondering the continuing looming threat of settler-colonial violence in Warlpiri lives from the vantage point of the ‘Red House’, the place where the shooting occurred. This TAJA Special Issue presents recent Australian anthropological work written in response to the shooting of 19 year-old Kumunjayi Walker by Northern Territory police officer Constable Zachary Rolfe.1 1 In Aboriginal central Australia, ‘Kumunjayi’ is a term used to replace the name of a deceased person which cannot be spoken immediately following the death and sometimes for years to come. Kumunjayi is the Warlpiri spelling, in the media often reproduced as ‘Kumanjayi’. Other spellings include Kumuntjayi and the Arrernte spelling ‘Kwementyatye’. On the evening of 9 November 2019, Constable Rolfe and other members of the Immediate Response Team (IRT) tried to apprehend Kumunjayi Walker in his grandmother's house in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, Northern Territory. Kumunjayi Walker died shortly afterwards at the Yuendumu police station, where he was transported by police. In the wake of the police shooting of Kumunjayi Walker, the AAS stands in solidarity with Yuendumu community and the pursuit of justice for Kumunjayi. We grieve with the Warlpiri families, who have lost a son, grandson, great-grandson, nephew, cousin and partner. We heed the voices, perspectives and leadership from Warlpiri communities, their analyses of the situation and the conditions from which it arose, and their recommendations for change. Further, the space opened by the AAS and provided by TAJA allows me to honour requests made by Warlpiri people (in the immediate aftermath of the shooting and over the two years that have passed since) that I help tell their side of the story. I am one of many they asked for support and like many others, I responded to their call, not only because I am deeply indebted to Warlpiri people (my academic career has emerged in conjunction with almost 30 years of working with Warlpiri people at Yuendumu), but also because as events unfolded it became harder and harder to separate their sense of injustice from my own (see also Parts 2 and 3, below). Finally, the shooting affected me personally and not just professionally: it is not that long ago I sat and played cards with his grandmother and others on the very spot where Kumunjayi was shot. While I only knew Kumunjayi as one of the young men who occasionally came and asked his grandmother for something, and sometimes stayed in the room next door, or ate dinner at the same fire, I have known, lived and worked with many of his family for more than half my life. A small part of their pain is also my pain. Indigenous people generally, and in this instance, Warlpiri people in particular, are only too aware of the ways in which the media, the public, and the courts view things from different, and often opposing, perspectives than they do. This is why this Special Issue diverges from what might be considered a more standardised academic response. Rather than beginning with (or for that matter, providing) a genealogy of all the anthropological work that has been undertaken to date in relation to relevant topics (e.g. policing, Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, settler colonial relations, and so forth), it starts with the shooting and its impacts on Warlpiri people.4 4 I refer the interested reader to the following key works and authors: The perfect starting point for exploring anthropological investigations into police-Indigenous relations in Australia are the works of Barry Morris (1989, 2001 and 2010, amongst many others) and Gillian Cowlishaw (1994 and 2004, amongst many others). For ethnographic explorations of policing consult Didier Fassin's work (start with Fassin, 2013). For anthropological analyses of police abuse, Lawrence Ralph's work (e.g. 2020). Shereen Razack's work provides deeply insightful comparisons of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody from the US and Canada (see for example, 2015 and 2020). Australian criminologists and legal scholars provide insightful inter-disciplinary analyses (see amongst others Anthony, 2013 and Cunneen, 2001). Lastly, on the murderousness of the settler-colony, see Wolfe (1999). In this vein, the second part of this introduction provides insights into the community's feelings and experiences following the shooting—from my perspective as an anthropologist, as a person impacted by the events, and as someone doing their best to support Warlpiri people in their quest for justice for Kumunjayi Walker.5 5 My involvement ranges from the personal, such as participating in mortuary rituals and sharing food and shelter in Alice Springs, to the professional, such as providing genealogies and other anthropological help to the teams of lawyers, and the applied, such as organising and supervising ANU student interns to support Warlpiri people on the Alice Springs and Darwin court lawns during the 2022 murder trial earlier. Part 3 of this Introduction lays out some of the groundwork for investigations into the divergent and opposing views into the events by providing some vignettes of Warlpiri-police relations in the days following the shooting and a brief historical contextualisation of this relationship (see also Curran, Vaarzon-Morel, and Redmond, this Special Issue). The article following this introduction presents Warlpiri voices collated by Georgia Curran, another anthropologist, who like myself, has been working with the community of Yuendumu throughout her career. The aim of this piece is to let Warlpiri words speak for themselves; something Georgia wanted to do without causing further trauma by asking Warlpiri people revisit the events, which is why she collated Warlpiri voices as they were quoted in the media. The remainder of the Special Issue speaks to the shooting of Kumunjayi Walker by providing anthropological contexts and analyses of issues of immediate relevance to and raised by the shooting death: In her article, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel provides a perspective from Willowra, a neighbouring Warlpiri community to the north of Yuendumu. At Willowra (as much as at Yuendumu), the shooting was seen as the latest materialisation of an ongoing, highly fraught relationship with the police. Vaarzon-Morel addresses the contours of this troubled history by interweaving historical material from the Coniston Massacres of 1928 onwards with findings from a 2009 report on police stations established as part of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER, also commonly referred to as ‘the intervention’),6 6 For other voices viewing the NTER as opening paths that led to the shooting, see contributions in Curran (this volume) and Hinkson (this volume). For more on the NTER itself, see Altman and Hinkson (2007), and on the politics surrounding the NTER in Australian anthropology, see Altman and Hinkson (2010). and ethnographic vignettes from her own long-term fieldwork with Warlpiri people. The following essay takes the reader to the town of Alice Springs/Mparntwe, the central Australian service centre which looms large in Warlpiri life. In this paper, Lora Elizabeth Chapman draws on her recent PhD fieldwork with young Aboriginal people in the town to explore the ways these youths navigate and, at times, resist the all-pervasive surveillance and over-policing that characterises their lives. Through fine-grained analyses of young people's interactions with police and security personnel, as well as conversations about these interactions, Chapman illustrates how Aboriginal youth understand the police force as ‘peopled’ and, also how subtle they are in their critiques of interactions with police – a most important insight that echoes across this Special Issue. Anthony Redmond's contribution focusses on the political economy of Australia's prison-industrial complex, its history, and its relentless impact on Indigenous communities. He does so by interconnecting historical, statistical and ethnographic data (the latter from his long-term fieldwork with Ngarinyin people from the Kimberly region of Western Australia). His insights provide an invaluable and immediately relevant comparative contextualisation of the situation in Yuendumu. Patrick Horton presents evocative ethnographic vignettes of what he terms ‘carceral spectres’ – indices of how Indigenous life in the Victoria River District, NT, is haunted by hyper-incarceration and hyper-policing. His analyses show how the violence of the settler colonial state is co-present in everyday life, not just through outward force but also in constant and almost imperceptible ways. While his paper is deeply ethnographically local and Timber Creek-specific, his insights hold true for Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory, and I would suggest, elsewhere in Australia. Liz Scarfe's study considers Northern Territory former Chief Minister, Michael Gunner's promise of grief counselling for families in Yuendumu in the aftermath of the shooting as the starting point for an analysis that interrogates multiple relationships between the Australian settler colonial state and the psychological care sector in central Australia. Perceptively, Scarfe exposes settler colonial sleight of hand tactics, from ‘downgrading’ trauma to grief, to the inequity in counselling service provision for non-Indigenous and Indigenous people, respectively. These contributions were written before the March 2022 conclusion of the trial of Zachary Rolfe in the NT Supreme Court in Darwin and have been awaiting the lifting of all associated suppression for This also they were written before of knew or not Constable Rolfe would be of of the The for the police in the made the that the were and that was the of that The in a and without and so the this be used as that the was the of the threat of and that the of an to and to those police who the or The in police of what I to and a and a made by in to his shooting of is one that is by as it is on the that a threat to the a threat that only force as and for doing what he to do in the wake of such a force with In the Walker the for referred to Constable Rolfe as a and about Kumunjayi Walker that he was and of his own 9 a Warlpiri perspective, the of not sense and too much sense at they asked on the court lawns where Warlpiri families to support each other during the who not be this is a police before an Australian court and a non-Indigenous Northern Territory – what A would have the for a in the relationship between Warlpiri people and the settler colonial is it would have a in the it might not have long term by police at a 19 year-old Aboriginal in Darwin during 5 of the see also it would only have been the first on the long to terms with the shooting. the and and years of in the in the aftermath of Immediate Response Team (IRT) Yuendumu on a in November Hinkson with an long-term history of work with people from has the the one contribution to this that was written the trial provides an analysis of the Australian in the narrative of events, and of the as the the of Kumunjayi Walker, and the of by the ways in which the settler colony with the shooting as a for the contributions to this Special Issue perspectives on how anthropological voices the between Indigenous people and the settler colonial Australian generally, and the Australian at a of for this I am that I have been to a of which as well as scholars two PhD and one who work with Warlpiri people and who work further as well as academic and I to not only the AAS brief anthropological perspectives to on the issues by the Yuendumu but also the Warlpiri one tell the so that people and understand the Warlpiri to it The the the of the the that this was that this was first of what was to an trauma that was to for years to come. On the evening of 9 2019, my and I sat on a in a house in the of Australia's This was the of a We worked and this was My I A The and as on that each on her to different of at Yuendumu in the of people in of the police station, the events of the evening of 9 November as from Yuendumu by by were on what so and what was on at Yuendumu in in the of events, on the between from and passed on to and all of by Warlpiri people the police station, NT and all at The of the situation to that point were In the evening of 9 November 2019, some community members were at the Yuendumu following the of a community of police to apprehend Kumunjayi Walker at his grandmother's house were not local police but members of an Response who in Yuendumu for the first the same the three were before community members the a and Kumunjayi Walker to the police and to the police from the in the at more community members what to the police station, where family the Aboriginal of Kumunjayi members of the Yuendumu Warlpiri and of the to with the to out how Kumunjayi Walker was and to for members of his a of the Northern Territory was in an where a in Yuendumu was that an officer was during that and the person who was passed some situation I have been on is that two members the in an to apprehend for that a and two were and he passed an been opened and the death been a death in as At Yuendumu, people in mortuary community and a to the police in Alice Springs, Indigenous and (see in and and with and and and I the house in the to to and I almost Yuendumu of but was so that the long without during the to central Australia would be from to Alice Springs and at Yuendumu on the my and my of the first at Yuendumu are I do is a sense of because I made it and (see sharing grief grief more 9 cannot be that Warlpiri mortuary rituals are a for with not A my of of media and I my to more with and so that stands out in my is how during those first person I at Yuendumu their experience of events as they where they were they first the that been what at the place and who what was for the police what on police came to Yuendumu for a first community and of and all of they the were who been how many were the first and the and so on and so and over these at I in my as I provided the in the at the in of the this was all was was the events over and to make sense of what in a of grief, and While the NT to Yuendumu on the to the community in person (as well as members of the response in of see also this and further by at Yuendumu who have community to the best of my counselling were the that the community was deeply and some to from as I this is see also Scarfe (this and for trauma counselling by Warlpiri Warlpiri people, the the media, the public, and more have been with the and of the shooting of Kumunjayi to into one of two one that views the shooting as an during which Constable Rolfe and and the other that that with the shooting of Kumunjayi Walker at the murderousness of the settler colony was in in the of Yuendumu. me that which view one to a large is by one or more the of Indigenous people amongst many others, Anthony, Cunneen, or Warlpiri fears of I am the of violence on the of not a and in on of to the of and the experience that Aboriginal people have with the as a this as as who The of Kumunjayi Walker and, generally, Aboriginal people, young the of Rolfe and, generally, into house with is more more to The the of Aboriginal people is into the of the settler is and The of by the police is seen by the settler This was made during the which on Constable of the threat he in Kumunjayi Walker and Kumunjayi of two men on in his grandmother's is also the only why Warlpiri people were into the police the the of a overwrote about the of a from by those who with to his I here some ethnographic vignettes of Warlpiri and police and in the days following the shooting to how those views with and overwrote each other in those and historical to the Warlpiri perspective (see also Vaarzon-Morel, Redmond, and this Issue). a death Warlpiri people the and other and of the former (see also On the following the shooting, a of Warlpiri people in from to the police At the police station, each person with a and, the with was an at the as the first people and a long of people to the are just and and the take care of Warlpiri people are of non-Indigenous of and to and those were what to do with the in the of people (in they and person their in the of the to a of and their on the of the police police help and out of to in the of place in and to the police which was in of in the of the with and see police for hours to the This short lays out some of the as it the subtle (see also this volume) and of by Warlpiri people not of is a long from the by the police and the the different ways in which Warlpiri people and the in the aftermath of the and the to about who was the in the hand for the by Kumunjayi Walker, for in the Australian In the days immediately following the shooting, the police a response at Yuendumu. This a community by one of much former police on the of Yuendumu, of the to Yuendumu and Alice Springs in of and on the between Alice Springs and Yuendumu. This a the fears of the settler The over of the violence of the shooting for more violence are in these for and of Warlpiri In they the of with and community police to show a by to on the of of which with for their it became that the community was to to Alice Springs for the people each other about by police not to take their with might and take with an of care but as very about police violence and Warlpiri people have been While they are not the shooting has to the and each the colony to with the shooting, the was – like these and Warlpiri many Warlpiri people to to (the of Zachary and many to to the trial in Darwin for of by police and their on the long from the While the might not be the I take the very (see also at Yuendumu, during the in Alice Springs, was Warlpiri the of Warlpiri people before and during the from the Alice Springs lawns to the Alice Springs court to be are and We to show are not the the an of and a of died in the Alice Springs police house in to my were men This was and for and with I I was so The settler colonial of this was to me by Liz Scarfe who was by some of her that they the and the as is to understand that in the shooting was as an Aboriginal in Custody, for Warlpiri people, the was an of Australia's frontier the Coniston Massacres of 1928 (see also Curran, and Vaarzon-Morel, this and of that a on and led by Constable Constable he in a In response to the of and his and on the between and and people (see amongst many others 2019, The of at the of of in the or by in the and of to through Warlpiri lives. At Yuendumu, the Coniston Massacres are not (in the sense of a a an in the but something that to and of those experiences in everyday life, the as a of Warlpiri of their relationship to the settler colonial Warlpiri people made a about the and they often take non-Indigenous to from the unfolded (see also – all ways of their side of the story. this perspective, Aboriginal Deaths in Custody are a of frontier violence in a the frontier in is in and than family and more often through of care than outward violence (see also out of of the settler public, in and police In other Warlpiri people Patrick view of as an than the Warlpiri perspective, this is not just a but they that they or their might in in and in the of police is to who has died in This is of the as violence that is out to Aboriginal people in settler is a and I would the settler colony out of its to fears about this violence with its own which the and the Warlpiri perspective, the shooting of Kumunjayi Walker was a that is space from which to shelter from settler-colonial The the very threat of and in police not just into the – but into the into and was something I in the days following the shooting. The Warlpiri view is I would the anthropological perspective that the shooting of Kumunjayi Walker in his grandmother's in the of the the violence that the settler colonial state in into the of the the shooting this violence in short not by the media to the what was as the of the settler colony (see this for an analysis of some of the of this and this about the of the and the stands as a to the events of 9 November in a have been with the Aboriginal and with and and this it as ‘the house where it the house is a to the shooting, the room where he was has a to Kumunjayi. In the days the shooting, in with Warlpiri to the house on the spot in the where he was is a with a of a and another of and his in as well as an of stands in the of Yuendumu, a community with not be as the and of what made that The of to a not a associated with the constant of in this a death that to be in view and a death that cannot be by Warlpiri is where Warlpiri people at the of – much as is in the of Yuendumu, so is the shooting at the of the they from the that be I am deeply to the for Walker, the ANU (the Australian the of the the TAJA and the for this Special Issue to Alice Walker, Georgia and Kumunjayi Liz Patrick and Lastly, I would like to the for this and all the other in this Special Issue for their

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