Hundreds Attend Vigil Following Death of Warlpiri Man In Custody

Hundreds gathered at Sydney Town Hall on Sunday evening for a vigil mourning a young Warlpiri man killed by police in Alice Springs last week.

24-year-old Yuendumu man, Kumanjayi White, died after being restrained by police on the floor of a supermarket, following an altercation with a security guard.

The man is the eighth Indigenous person to die in 2025.

At least 593 Indigenous people have died in custody since the findings of the 1991 Royal Commission were passed down.

White’s family said the 24-year-old was disabled and living away from his home in order to access supported accommodation in Alice Springs.

Dunghutti man Paul Silva, nephew of David Dungay Jnr who died in custody in 2015, spoke to the systems continuing to fail Indigenous people across the continent.

“This man was vulnerable,” Silva said.

“We are committed to find justice, not just for his family but for the community and all Aboriginal deaths in custody.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Zebedee Parkes (@zebedeeparkes)

Urgent calls for action

“Our people are not chased, our people are hunted,” said Bundjalung woman Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, lawyer and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory.

“Our people are hunted. When I speak to my children in custody, there are disabilities. There are disabilities you see, and there are disabilities you don’t see. But  make no mistake, being black was the only crime of this young brother we lost. ”

Wiradjuri organiser Ethan Lyons said Australia needed to act as though a genocide were taking place on the country, because this was the reality for First Nations peoples.

“How many more deaths need to happen for us to be liberated? How many deaths need to happen for us to see change? We need to stop relying on the tools of the colony. We need to stop relying on the stories they’re trying to tell us, the narratives they want us to fit in.”

Community and family are calling for an inquiry independent from the NT Police, and for all CCTV and body cam footage of events leading up to, and during Kumanjayi’s time in custody to be released to the family.

A National Week of Action has been called in response to White’s death, with follow-up action taking place on Saturday.