Warning: This article contains the names and details of deceased Aboriginal people.
The lawns outside the Alice Springs courthouse have once again become a sacred ground for mourning. Smoke from smouldering eucalyptus leaves curls into the dry desert air as Warlpiri elders stand barefoot in grief. Beside them, signs bearing a single name: Kumanjayi White.
The 24-year-old Aboriginal man with disabilities died last month after being restrained by Northern Territory police inside a supermarket. His family says he was hungry. Instead of receiving care, he was pinned down by multiple officers—one reportedly placing a knee to the back of his neck. He became unresponsive and died shortly afterwards.
“Hear us when we say: we won’t give up,” said Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, White’s grandfather, as supporters gathered at a vigil.
“We will fight for justice for our loved one. We will fight for justice for all yapa (Indigenous people) who have died in custody. Every single one.”
The outrage over his death has reignited a national reckoning over Indigenous deaths in custody—one that spans generations, reports, royal commissions, and still no justice.
Senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, called for urgent accountability.
“Five years ago, the world rose up after George Floyd was killed,” she said. “In this country, we marched to say Black Lives Matter… Five years later, nothing has changed.”
White, who was under state guardianship at the time of his death, has drawn painful comparisons to Floyd, particularly from Indigenous leaders.
“Kumanjayi White should still be alive,” Thorpe said. “He was hungry. He needed care. Instead, he was pinned to the ground by police… and now he’s gone.”
A Crisis Compounding
White’s death marks one of two Aboriginal deaths in custody in the Northern Territory within the same fortnight. Days after vigils for White took place across major cities, another Aboriginal man—a respected 68-year-old elder from Wadeye—died in Darwin Hospital following an arrest by Australian Federal Police.
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency has now called for a national “emergency intervention.” Their acting CEO, Anthony Beven, said a forum between First Nations leaders and government officials was urgently needed to address “a system clearly in crisis.”
Warlpiri leader Karl Hampton, speaking on behalf of White’s family, echoed that sentiment.
“My concern is that we see the Territory at the moment in a flux, almost to the point of a crisis,” he said. “The systems are broken in the Northern Territory.”
Yet police leadership has pushed back against mounting calls for an independent investigation.
“The Police Administration Act establishes the Northern Territory police force for the purpose of preventing, investigating and detecting crime, so that’s not something we can just hand to somebody else,” said Acting Police Commissioner Martin Dole.
Hampton described that response as “just an excuse.”
“In terms of legislation, that can be amended,” he added.
A Family Repeatedly Devastated
For White’s family, the loss is not new. His relatives are still grieving the 2019 police shooting of another Warlpiri man, Kumanjayi Walker, in the remote community of Yuendumu. Officer Zachary Rolfe was acquitted of all charges in that case, and the drawn-out inquest into Walker’s death has been delayed—now further disrupted by White’s killing.
“It’s trauma after trauma for our families,” said Senator Thorpe. “No one is ever held accountable.”
She noted that since the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, more than 595 Indigenous Australians have died in custody—with at least ten deaths so far this year alone.
“Not a single police or prison officer has ever been held criminally accountable. Not one.”
“The inaction we see is a political choice that sends a clear message: to allow Black deaths in custody to continue.”
A Broken Promise of Reform
Across Australia, there have been thousands of pages of coronial reports, inquiries, and recommendations. And yet, Indigenous incarceration rates remain among the highest in the world, and deaths in custody continue at alarming rates.
“The Royal Commission handed governments the solutions over 30 years ago,” said Thorpe. “But they’ve been ignored by every government, time and time again.”
The Warlpiri community is now demanding what they see as the bare minimum: an independent investigation and the release of the CCTV footage showing the final moments of Kumanjayi White’s life.
“Right now the least governments could do is listen to the family,” said Thorpe. “Implement a truly independent investigation, and release the footage.”
Back outside the Alice Springs courthouse, Hargraves closed the vigil with the same promise he’s delivered at every gathering since his grandson’s death:
“We will fight for justice for our loved one,” he said. “Every single one.”
Senator Thorpe offered her own call to action:
“This week we’re inviting this country to stop deaths in custody. Turn up, speak out, and stand with Yuendumu and the Warlpiri people. Enough is enough. We want justice.”
If this story has raised any distress, support is available.
13YARN offers a confidential 24/7 crisis support line for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at 13 92 76.
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