In Alice Springs, an inquest for the death of an Indigenous teenager has heard calls for a payback ceremony that would involve spearing a police officer.
In 2019, North Territory police officer, Constable Zachary Rolfe, shot Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker three times in the back and torso during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu, northwest of Alice Springs.
Zachary Rolfe (right) was acquitted of all charges over the death of Kumanjayi Walker, whose photo is used courtesy of his family.
The inquest heard today that traditional payback within customary or tribal law was often misunderstood by non-Indigenous Australians as revenge but was actually more about peacemaking.
NT police officer and Arrernte man Senior Constable Brad Wallace told the inquest: “There is great misinterpretation across the NT when it comes to the concept of payback.
“The concept of payback is interpreted more from a contemporary Westernised side as being revenge or punishment.
“The knowledge I’ve gained in my life it’s based more around peacemaking and bringing balance back to the community.”
Wallace said he had witnessed a payback ceremony in his youth and “it was a process of peacemaking between two clan groups” that stopped the situation from further developing.
Wallace also told the coroner he had previously worked in the Solomon Islands, where “customary law is embedded into the legal system”, unlike in Australia.
Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer agreed that Australian law did not accommodate this, saying “this court can’t condone grievous bodily harm”.
Rolfe, 31, was charged with murder four days after the man died and found not guilty in March after a five-week jury trial that divided opinion across the NT.
The inquest heard police officers in Yuendumu decided to withhold information from Walker’s family and deliberately mislead them over his death in the hours after Rolfe killed him.
The verdict left the grieving Warlpiri community angry and calling for justice. That frustration and outrage was further exacerbated during the inquest by some police officers’ evidence that demonstrated a misunderstanding of what payback was.
Elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves told reporters visiting the remote community earlier this week that payback needed to happen so it could heal.
Yesterday Rolfe claimed legal privilege and refused to answer some questions when he appeared as a witness at the inquest.
The inquest continues.
With AAP
