Smug justice: alienation on the court lawns during the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquest, Mparntwe/Alice Springs

Abstract

In November 2019, Warlpiri youth Kumanjayi Walker died after being shot in his grandmother’s house in the Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, in Australia’s Northern Territory, by police constable Zach Rolfe. Next to grief and trauma, the shooting brought with it a barrage of legal processes causing further trauma. Following the murder trial (which found Constable Rolfe not guilty), the Kumunjayi Walker Coronial Inquest took place (2022-2024). While legal proceedings were held, the Australian National University’s (ANU) First Peoples Social Justice Initiative supported Warlpiri people on the “court lawns” (a safe space for Warlpiri people from which to witness the legal process) through the labour of ANU interns and my own engagement in co-coordinating the lawns. This article is an auto-ethnography of the mounting alienation I experienced during the four months I spent on the lawns during these legal processes. I link my alienation to a material object—a corporate gift I was given by one of the legal firms engaged in the Inquest. Show more