The Northern Territory police has told Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering that the force has ‘made mistakes’ and vowing his force will be accountable for harm inflicted in the past 150 years.
‘I cannot change or undo the past,’ Commissioner Michael Murphy told those gathered at the Garma Festival at Gulkula, in northeast Arnhem Land, on Saturday.
‘But we can commit to not repeat mistakes and injustices.’
Mr Murphy said he would work to transform relations between police and Indigenous Australians and use his position to ‘make every effort to eliminate racism in the Northern Territory Police’.
‘I acknowledge this challenge will be hard … but the alternative is unacceptable,’ he said.
Mr Murphy used his speech to formally apologise for a history of injustices involving NT police.
‘I am deeply sorry to all Aboriginal Territorians for the past harms and injustices caused by members of Northern Territory Police,’ he said.
Mr Murphy also addressed the ‘profound and ongoing intergenerational impact’ of colonisation.
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy has apologised for ‘mistakes’ made by his force towards Indigenous people
‘Intergenerational impacts of colonisation including poverty, ongoing disadvantage and racism are reflected in the over-representation of Aboriginal people that are incarcerated,’ he said.
The ‘cruel and inhumane’ decades-long practice of removing children had left a long-lasting societal impact of trauma and harm, he said.
‘Those impacts play a critical role in what causes disengagement, anti-social behaviour, offending and violence today.’
Vowing to address the deep-rooted causes of dispossession and disempowerment, Mr Murphy pledged his force would work to prevent further harm.
‘Northern Territory Police need to be accountable for the past treatment of Aboriginal people,’ he said.
‘At times, police officers have abused their powers or fallen short in their duty of care towards Aboriginal offenders, witnesses and victims of crime.
‘I intend to develop a new relationship built on mutual respect, trust and human rights.’
Commissioner Murphy made the apology while at attending the Garma Festival at Gulkula, in northeast Arnhem Land, on Saturday
The Garma festival is Australia’s largest Indigenous annual gathering and is held on the NT’s Grove Peninsula
The NT Police Force has come under scrutiny in recent months after evidence of racism was uncovered at a coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.
Mr Walker was fatally shot by then-constable Zachary Rolfe in November 2019 during an attempted arrest.
His death offered an opportunity for the force to reflect on its history, Mr Murphy said.
He revealed NT police were pursuing an active cold-case investigation into the disappearance of Tuckiar Wirrpanda, an Aboriginal man from Woodah Island suspected of being killed by police officers in the 1930s.
Mr Murphy acknowledged the way forward could only be achieved in partnership with Aboriginal Territorians and community organisations.
The force’s new direction would also involve the development of an ‘anti-racism strategy’ led by Leanne Liddle, the most senior Indigenous employee at NT Police.
‘The timing is right,’ the Central Arrernte woman and former director of the NT’s Aboriginal Justice Agreement said.
‘We need to recognise that there’s been damage and hurt and pain by Aboriginal people, and the apology will do something towards healing that.’
Garma Festival – a four-day Indigenous gathering on a ceremonial site in northeast Arnhem Land – began on Friday.
