ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE, REPORTER: It began with three gun shots on a November night. An attempt to arrest Kumanjayi Walker in the remote community of Yuendumu ended in his death.
Now, almost five years later, an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding that fateful night has heard its final evidence.
KATE WILD, AUTHOR: There is so much history that comes behind those police officers walking into that house. There’s so much history behind Kumanjayi Walker and I think those two histories met in in that red house that night and the coroner has the unenviable job of trying to make sense of that.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: As the sun lit up Arrente country on the last day of hearings, the cousin of Kumanjayi Walker steeled herself for another day at the Alice Springs courthouse.
SAMARA FERNANDEZ-BROWN: I don’t have space to process too much because if I do, I’d be a mess.
It’s horrific to witness and, you know, it’s quite painful but I know that I have to take it in, so that I can be able to deliver it to family.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: Zachary Rolfe was acquitted of all criminal charges over the death. In 2022 a jury found he acted in self-defence when he shot the 19-year-old three times after being stabbed with a pair of scissors.
But the coronial inquest had a broader scope, calling the former officer back to the stand in February to answer fresh questions about his past conduct.
REPORTER: Morning Mr Rolfe, how are you feeling about giving evidence today?
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: He was dismissed from the force last year for publishing an open letter that criticised NT Police and breached its media policy.
KATE WILD: So Zachary Rolfe was originally called to give evidence about his own conduct as a Northern Territory police officer. He resisted that for a long time and used a lot of legal avenues to resist giving his own evidence.
When it became inevitable that he would have to give evidence, he dropped a bombshell on the rest of the police force.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: Zachary Rolfe told the coroner that racism was entrenched within NT Police and said an elite unit handed out an annual prize known as the ‘Coon of the Year Award’.
Former ABC journalist Kate Wild is writing a book about the shooting.
KATE WILD: A lot of people were extremely shocked. Senior police put out statutory declarations within 48 hours, distancing themselves from the awards, saying what Zachary Rolfe said they meant wasn’t really what they meant.
We’ve seen very clearly, in this set of hearings, that there is no doubt about how deeply racist and offensive those awards were.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: The coroner heard it was here at police headquarters in Darwin, where an elite unit known as the TRG gathered for its informal annual awards.
The court was shown an image of one of the trophies, a club-like object seized from an Aboriginal community during a period of unrest.
It was the prize for the Nooguda Award.
Sergeant Lee Bauwens told the coroner he was runner up for the award in 2007 for having poor hygiene.
PATRICK COLERIDGE, COUNSEL ASSISTING: You say it started because someone demonstrated an outstanding lack of hygiene, the name chosen for the award was a made-up Indigenous name.
What was the connection, in your mind, between a lack of hygiene and Aboriginality?
SERGEANT LEE BAUWENS, NT POLICE: Well, that is the link, that some Indigenous have poor hygiene.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: When pressed further.
PATRICK COLERIDGE: That’s why the award was called the ‘Coon of the Year Award’, or the award for the most coon-like behaviour?
LEE BAUWENS: That was one of the terms used to describe the award.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: The court was shown images of certificates presented to other winners of the award including one depicting a minstrel show, where white performers would paint their faces black to act out African American stereotypes.
PATRICK COLERIDGE: Is blackface racist?
LEE BAUWENS: I don’t know, is it?
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: The award was renamed two years ago and has since been discontinued.
Sergeant Bauwens told the court he did feel remorse for taking part in them.
LEE BAUWENS: In essence, they were just stupid jokes and that’s the way we saw it, and we were just having a laugh at ourselves.
SAMARA FERNANDEZ-BROWN: With the certificates you’re like wow, people are really being so creative with how racist they’re being, and they’re masking it as a joke.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: Yesterday, the Territory’s top cop was the last of 72 witnesses to front the coroner.
The court heard Commissioner Michael Murphy was told about the existence of the awards at a meeting last August but did not investigate them.
MICHAEL MURPHY, NT POLICE COMMISSIONRE: I probably didn’t treat it with the seriousness I should have. I was quite, this role is quite demanding; I was quite busy.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: When the awards became public in February, reporters asked the Commissioner if he knew about them prior to Zachary Rolfe’s testimony.
MICHAEL MURPHY: No, I was not aware of the TRG, these awards they spoke of.
PEGGY DWYER, COUNSEL ASSISTING: That was incorrect, that answer, wasn’t it?
MICHAEL MURPHY: Yes, it was incorrect now. It wasn’t intentional at the time. I just didn’t draw a link to the meeting in August to the question that I was asked at the press conference.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: At the same press conference, when asked about Zachary Rolfe’s claims of widespread racism within the police force, the commissioner said:
MICHAEL MURPHY: That’s his evidence. That’s the events he is giving to the court in the process. When I go to Alice Springs and the other stations around the Territory, I do not see those behaviours, I do not hear those comments.
PEGGY DWYER: It effectively denies that there is any racism at all in the Northern Territory police force that you’re aware of, and that was not correct – do you agree?
MICHAEL MURPHY: Yes, I do agree with that.
PEGGY DWYER: It is effectively gas-lighting members of the Aboriginal community who have experienced racism and have complained about it, when you deny that there is any racism in the Northern Territory police force. Do you accept that?
MICHAEL MURPHY: Yes I do, and we’ve taken steps to address that.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: Three years ago, the Northern Territory committed to reviewing its government agencies – including police – for systemic racism, as part of a historic justice agreement with Aboriginal people.
PROF. CHRIS CUNNEEN, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SYDNEY: They’re not just about a few bad apples. It’s the whole cart that carries the apples that needs to be addressed.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: Criminology professor Chris Cunneen wrote the first review of the infrastructure and planning department.
CHRIS CUNNEEN: There’s only one that’s been undertaken. We completed that in December 2022. It hasn’t been released.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: A review into racism within the Territory’s elite police unit is underway but it is partly being conducted by internal police investigators.
A spokesperson for the NT Attorney-General said the Anti-Discrimination Commission will also conduct a broader review of systemic racism within the force.
CHRIS CUNNEEN: It needs to be done externally; it needs to be thorough.
ELLA ARCHIBALD-BINGE: As the inquiry – originally scheduled for three months – finally wrapped up after almost two years, the family of Kumanjayi Walker is looking to the future.
SAMARA FERNANDEZ-BROWN: The big picture is around safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It’s about the recognition that these institutions are inherently violent, and that racism does exist and to say otherwise, is really denying our whole life’s experience.
We want to be able to process our healing, but that can only happen when we see the changes coming.