Acquittal in Aboriginal town stirs ghosts of Australia’s last massacre

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Instead of Australia’s first conviction of a police officer for the murder of an Indigenous person, the jury delivered an acquittal. And despite additional allegations of misconduct, the officer and his supporters are now on the offensive.

The outcome struck many in Yuendumu as doubly cruel. At times, the trial and the media coverage seemed to focus more on the mistakes of the troubled teen than the officer who killed him. And for the local Warlpiri people, the verdict cut against cultural ideas of justice.

For the Warlpiri and other tribes whose ancestors were killed or scattered, however, the event has been recounted from one generation to the next, as if it had just occurred. But when the proceedings began in February at the territory’s Supreme Court building in Darwin, where visitors walk over a Warlpiri mosaic as the portraits of White justices peer down from above, there was no mention of the Coniston Massacre. There was barely any mention that Walker was Aboriginal.what prosecutors could present in court.

“He was not able to learn from his mistakes, so he basically functioned in survival mode,” said Kerri-Anne Chilvers, a trauma specialist who knew Walker well. At 19, she said, he had the self-restraint of someone half that age. Sometimes, Walker would get so overwhelmed that he would curl up in a ball. If feeling threatened, his response would be to fight or flee.

Koalas are getting harder to find. Scientists in Australia are on a quest to uncover a hidden population. “He used to say, ‘Auntie, I don’t like these police. They are going to kill me one day,’ ” she said. Eventually, Walker was sent to Don Dale, a youth detention facility near Darwin where children have been tear-gassed, tied to restraint chairs and covered with spit hoods, according to theWalker never received the help he needed, Chilvers said. Instead of learning to control his impulses, he continued to lash out. Sometimes it was at the police officers who were arresting him.

While Walker was inside, Oldfield saw the officers approach. Rolfe asked to search the house, and she consented. The Northern Territory’s top official at the time, Chief Minister Michael Gunner, quickly dismissed the idea.

 

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