I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that racist terms of abuse like ‘coons’, ‘niggers’ and the like have long been consigned to history’s dustbin of common usage.
However, from the recent revelations in Coroner Armitage’s Report into the death of Kumanjayi Walker it seems that was naïve and, at least among a small group of NT police officers, racialised language was relatively commonplace.
Over the next few months I’ll take a closer look at how evidence of such language and related attitudes surfaced during Coroner Armitage’s inquest – and the long and squalid history of racism in the NT generally – but for now here is a lightly edited piece first published in Crikey in September 2022, just after Coroner Armitage ruled on the admissibility of some of former NT police officer Zachary Rolfe’s emails.
In 1977 Labor MP Jack Doolan began his quest to have NT police ordered to not use derogatory words about Aboriginal people.
They still do.
In September of that year Doolan, the member for Victoria River District in the Northern Territory Legislative Council (pre-NT self-government) rose to his feet in the chamber and asked the then Executive Member for Police, Paul Everingham, if he was:
… aware that many members of the Northern Territory police, particularly in country areas, habitually refer to people of Aboriginal extraction as “Coons”?
Does he know that Aboriginals consider this word to be particularly offensive, and will he ask the Commissioner of Police to instruct members of the police force to refrain forthwith from using this derogatory term?
Mr Everingham took a Point of Order that was not accepted by the Speaker and responded that:
In answer to the first question, I am not aware that police officers in the Northern Territory to refer to Aboriginal persons as “Coons”. I certainly have never heard of it.
Two months later Jack Doolan presented a petition from his constituents objecting to the use of derogatory terms by members of the NT Police Force.
To the honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly for the Northern Territory.
The humble petition of the undersigned residents of Palumpa, Port Keats, Kildurk Station, Wave Hill, Dagaragu, Hooker Creek and Victoria River Downs are deeply concerned that some members of the Northern Territory Police Force habitually and constantly refer to Aboriginal Australians as coons or niggers which we resent.
Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Assembly urge the majority leader and cabinet member for Police to request the Commissioner for Police in the Northern Territory to instruct his officers to desist from using such derogatory terms so that they may give good example to the general public whom they serve and in future refer to us as Aboriginals, and your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.”
Roll on five years and Jack Doolan used the [now self-governing] NT Legislative Assembly to again raise his constituents’ concerns.
For the Chief Minister’s information, Aboriginals in the bush are still commonly referred to as ‘coons’ and ‘niggers’ by policeman in bush stations and bush towns, and probably always will be so referred to unless police are otherwise instructed. If that is not an odious form of discrimination, I would like someone to explain to me why it isn’t.
Roll forward – again – 45 years to 2022 and Jack Doolan’s prediction that bush Aboriginal people would ‘always be referred’ to as ‘coons and niggers’ by NT police officers has the eerie and unfortunate ring of prescience.
As SBS reported, following the acquittal at a jury trial in March 2022 of NT police officer Constable Zachary Rolfe for the murder of Aboriginal teenager Kumanjayi Walker at Yuendumu in 2019, Supreme Court Justice John Burns lifted suppression orders on material relating to the trial, including several text messages sent or received by Constable Rolfe that were ruled inadmissible as evidence for the jury.
Rolfe’s texts read in part:
‘Alice Springs sucks ha ha. The good thing is it’s like the Wild West and f*** all the rules in the job really…but it is a shit hole. Good to start here coz (sic) of the volume of work but will be good to leave.’
‘We have this small team in Alice, IRT, immediate response team. We’re not full time, just get called up from the Gd’s (general duties) for high-risk jobs, it’s a sweet gig, just get to do cowboy stuff with no rules.’
In early 2022 NT Coroner Judge Elisabeth Armitage commenced her inquiry into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.
In September 2022 Coroner Armitage handed down her decision in response to a number of objections raised by Rolfe’s barrister, David Edwardson KC, in the coronial inquest into Kumanjayi walker’s death, including objections to accepting text messages into evidence sent to and received by Constable Rolfe.
Coroner Armitage was satisfied the text messages were relevant to her inquiry.
Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, led evidence from Sergeant Annie Jolley, a 16-year veteran of the NT Police Force then currently stationed at Yuendumu.
Before turning to the text messages, Dr Dwyer asked Sergeant Jolley if she had ever heard NT Police officers refer to Aboriginal people as ‘niggers’, ‘coons’ or ‘neanderthals’.
Sergeant Jolley replied that she had not and outlined what steps she would have taken if she had heard an officer in her charge doing so.
Dr Dwyer then put several texts received by and sent to Rolfe in 2019 to Sergeant Jolley, including those released by Justice Burns following Rolfe’s acquittal in March 2022.
Dr Dwyer: Thank you, 27 April 2019, from a serving police officer to Constable Rolfe, “Heard you had a rough arvo yessie”, as in yesterday, “grubby fucks. Are you running issue duty belt, et cetera. Do you run a comforter?” And Constable Rolfe replies to that officer, “Nah brah, just slightly annoying, ha ha, coons man.” Have you ever heard the expressions ‘coons’ that they refer to, to speak about Aboriginal people?
Sergeant Jolley: Not in the police force. Not – no.
Dr Dwyer: What do you think about reading a text message like that in terms of the use of that expression by a serving member of the police force?
Sergeant Jolley: It’s pretty disgraceful, to be honest. It’s just, you know, disrespectful.
Dr Dwyer: Do you agree with me, Sergeant that it is shocking to hear a serving member of the police force, in 2019, use that blatantly racist, disgusting term to refer to an Aboriginal person?
Sergeant Jolley: Yes.
Dr Dwyer then asked Sergeant Jolley about a July 2019 exchange between Rolfe and an NT Police Sergeant (not Sergeant Jolley).
Dr Dwyer: And then Constable Rolfe writes back to the sergeant, “Yeah, I’m hell keen. It seems he’s getting on board.” … Then the sergeant replies to Constable Rolfe, I’ll just pause. Sergeant Jolley, this is the sergeant replying to Constable Rolfe, “Those bush coons aren’t used to people going after them.” And Constable Rolfe writes, “Yeah, bush cops blow my mind. I’ll tell you about these dudes when I see you”, and then another text message on a different day. So, I just want to ask you about that exchange?
Sergeant Jolley: It’s pretty hurtful, it’s pretty hurtful to all the bush cops as well.
Dr Dwyer: So, there’s two things I wanted to ask you about that exchange, firstly, the fact that a sergeant – – -?
Sergeant Jolley: … Is encouraging that kind of talk is not good.
Dr Dwyer: Do you agree that that reflects a serious dereliction of duty in terms of a responsibility of a sergeant to mentor a young officer?
Sergeant Jolley: Yeah.
Part of another exchange between an NT police officer and Constable Rolfe in July 2019 included comments about the competency of police stationed in remote communities and residents of those communities.
Dr Dwyer: On the same day, another officer, the same officer who Constable Rolfe sent that message to about women, shaped like that, sends a message to Constable Rolfe saying, “Yeah been a bit hectic, but cops out here have fucked this town.” And I apologise, I’m going to say something else offensive, in quote. That constable text[ed] Constable Rolfe, “Yeah been a bit hectic. The cops out here have fucked this town. They have been letting the niggas” [N-I-G-G-A-S] “drink wherever they want ha ha.” And then from Constable Rolfe, back to that officer, “Bush cops are fucking shit house.”
Sergeant Jolley: Yeah, mm, mm.
You can read the full texts of transcripts, Coronial Decisions and tendered evidence at the NT Coroners website here.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.