Warlpiri Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves has written an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling for urgent action after the death of his 24-year-old grandson in police custody in Alice Springs last month.
Kumanjayi White, who lived with a disability and was under formal guardianship, passed after being restrained by police at a Coles supermarket on May 27.
The incident, which took place during National Reconciliation Week, has sparked widespread grief and anger among the Warlpiri community and beyond.
In his letter, Uncle Ned expressed deep sorrow and frustration over the loss, saying the family and community are still without answers.
"Our family, all Warlpiri people and many others here in Central Australia are devastated by this death," he wrote.
"We don’t know what happened. We’ve been left in the dark."
Uncle Ned called for the immediate release of CCTV footage and police body-worn camera recordings to clarify what occurred during the arrest.
"We want full transparency," he said.
"The public has a right to know how a vulnerable young man ended up dying in a supermarket surrounded by police."
The death is one of several Aboriginal deaths in custody reported this year, adding to a toll that has surpassed 500 since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991.
In the letter, Uncle Ned also highlighted broader systemic issues, including ongoing over-policing, the criminalisation of disability, and the defunding of community-led justice initiatives.
He pointed to the cancellation of a small grant for a Warlpiri Law and Justice group in Yuendumu as an example of government decisions undermining self-determination efforts.
"We are trying to build our own ways to keep our young people safe, to work with non-Indigenous systems in a way that reflects our law and culture," he said.
"But even small steps toward that are being shut down."
The Warlpiri Elder urged the Prime Minister to listen to First Nations voices and act swiftly to prevent more lives being lost.
The incident is being investigated by the NT Police, with a coronial inquest expected.
The Prime Minister is yet to publicly respond to the letter.
Open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, on behalf of the family of Kumanjayi White.
Dear Prime Minister,
We write requesting your urgent support to help us get justice for Kumanjayi White. My Jaja (grandson), our loved one, passed in the custody of off-duty police officers in an aisle at Coles in Alice Springs on May 27.
Witnesses report that Kumanjayi was treated violently by the police and he lost consciousness whilst in their control.
How can this happen in a supermarket aisle! There is no way a white person would have been treated this way.
When George Floyd was killed in 2020 in Minneapolis, it sparked global Black Lives Matter protests. During these big protests, you congratulated the BLM Movement and said that too many Aboriginal people were dying in custody in Australia. Well it’s 35 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in custody made recommendations that have never been implemented. When will Aboriginal lives matter?
Last year, at the Garma festival here in the NT, you said you wanted a country where “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have power over their destiny” and where “your children can flourish, as they walk in two worlds”.
You promised, “we can close the Gap”.
Well Prime Minister, the Gap is getting wider, and fast. More of our people are getting locked up by police and dying in custody than ever before.
Here in the Northern Territory the CLP government is boasting about how fast they are filling up the prisons with our people.
They are putting many oppressive policies onto us, creating an atmosphere of racism that killed my Jaja.
Not long after his death, a senior man from Wadeye, TN, an important cultural leader and educator, also passed in police custody. We stand with his family for justice too.
At the moment our children cannot flourish, we have no power over our destiny.
We need you to match your fine words with action.
The NT justice system is in crisis. The head of the DPP has resigned; the head of ICAC has resigned; the Police Commissioner has been sacked; the prisons are so full they need private security guards; guards on buses and public housing officers are being given guns - this madness must stop. You must step in now.
There is no trust between my people and the NT Police, yet the CLP have just cancelled a long-promised review into racism in the NT police.
We have demanded that the investigation into my Jaja’s death is taken out of the hands of the NT Police.
This demand has been supported now by many organisations - Land Councils, trade unions, legal services, every Human Rights Commissioner.
Yesterday the Federal Minister Malarndirri McCarthy reiterated the need for an independent investigation.
800 people signed letters to the NT government demanding an independent investigation, including a number of witnesses to my Jaja’s death who were horrified at what they saw.
Thousands more have signed our petition.
Your government in Canberra has total power over the NT. You used this power to take away all our rights, our jobs and our assets with the NT Intervention 18 years ago today. Our communities were devastated and we have not recovered.
Now we demand action from Canberra to see that our rights are restored and we are protected from the racist CLP government.
So much of the funding that comes into the NT is supposed to be to “Close the Gap”. But instead we face a government trying to punish us and brutalise us.
We support the calls from the Central Land Council for your government to withhold funding from the NT until they agree to an independent investigation into the Kumanjayi White case and to establish a police integrity commission, similar to other states.
We support the calls from all Human Rights Commissioners for “immediate reform” to implement all the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody back in 1991.
This must include action to stop the racist laws that make it so hard for my people to get bail. More than half of the prisoners in the NT are on remand. They can not get proper legal support.
The CLP cut funding for a local Law and Justice Group at Yuendumu - we need this restored.
We want financial support to set up the Kurdiji Wita Yuendumu Cultural Authority to start taking back control of our community. This should be the start of proper funding so we can reestablish employment and community control here at Yuendumu and across the NT.
Prime Minister, at Garma last year you said “my optimism for the future still burns”.
Take action now so we too can have some optimism. Take action for justice for Kumanjayi White, take action to stop the racist NT government and give power to our people.
