A Northern Territory doctor has told the coroner investigating the death of Kumanjayi Walker it is "impossible" to raise healthy children in many remote communities and that an understanding of the problems faced in places like Yuendumu is "missing across every profession in the NT".
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains an image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Simon Quilty, who told the coroner he had worked across various health sectors and communities in the Northern Territory for 20 years, told the inquest Yuendumu had "some of the poorest living standards" he had seen.
"It's hard to believe the extent of the poverty even when you have lived in it for 10 years," Dr Quilty said.
"I still don't think most people that I know that work in the space of healthcare appreciate how impoverished remote living people are, from a western point of view."
He said there was an "injustice" in service providers, such as doctors, being "paid more than anyone else in the community" and provided with housing and electricity while "locals get none of the benefits".
"My partner and I were given a really pretty three-bedroom house… and my neighbour lived in a tin shed," Dr Quilty said.
"He had his wife and five kids in that building and I immediately felt uncomfortable."
Bruno Wilson, who was raised in Yuendumu, also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday.
He also told NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage that issues with housing and access to food in the community were directly linked to youth crime.
"Overcrowding, maybe the food finishes, that's why kids go out at night and that's when the crime starts," Mr Wilson said.
"You're living on land which is the traditional lands of Warlpiri people?" asked Yuendumu Parumpurru Committee barrister, Julian McMahon SC.
"Yes," Mr Wilson said.
"But you're living in houses which are, many of them, are very poor quality?"
"Like third world condition."
"And then you're paying the government of the Northern Territory rent to live in those houses?"
"Yes."
Mr McMahon acknowledged questions about housing and food insecurity were "wide-ranging" in the context of the inquest into the police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu in 2019, drawing links between those issues and youth crime.
Mr Walker died after he was shot when police attempted to arrest him for breaching a court order and assaulting police.
Constable Zachary Rolfe, who fired the fatal shots, was acquitted of all charges related to the 19-year-old's death earlier this year.
Mr Wilson also told the inquest he believed developing the Yuendumu swimming pool and providing meals there could help improve school attendance rates and decrease criminal activity.
"It would be great if we had lights at the swimming pool… that would get our kids to stay at the pool and then they keep swimming, when they knock off, go home, go to bed and go to school the next day," Mr Wilson said.
"[And] if we have a lot more food [available] at the pool, it will keep our kids fat and well-organised. Without that, that's when we see the crime. Kids get hungry, go breaking in, stealing in the houses. So, we try to prevent that by maybe food at the swimming pool."
The coroner heard the community had a "yes school, yes pool" policy, meaning children who did not attend school were not allowed to go swimming in the afternoons.
Intervention blamed for lack of discipline
Yuendumu woman Elizabeth Napaltjari Katakarinja, who runs the local night patrol, told the inquest on Monday that parents and elders felt they could no longer discipline children without fear of them being taken away.
"Before the intervention some of the ladies who work on night patrol used to give the young men a bit of a smack with a stick if they were misbehaving?" Mr McMahon asked her.
"Yes," she said.
Ms Napaltjari Katakarinja told the coroner that since the federal intervention in 2007, parents were told if they smacked their children, they would be taken away.
"When I was a child… I used to have a lot of disciplines, like my parents not letting us go out and them telling us to come back on their time," she said.
"[But] now today, there's a lot of kids just going around everywhere."
The current sittings of the inquest will continue until Wednesday, before returning for further hearings in 2023.
