Thread by @Jumbunna_Inst

We're on Gadigal land tonight to hear from Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves, Lizzie Jarrett, & Latoya Rule. They're talking #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri — a #CeaseFire campaign led by senior Elders, families & community members of the Warlpiri Nation.
karrinjarlamuwajarri.org

We'll be tweeting major points from their conversation here. Join us on Zoom if you can't make it in person tonight, or follow along here! #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Nadeena Dixon is now Welcoming those present to Gadigal land. 'It's my great honour to support Karrinjarla Muwajarri and to Welcome you. We need to keep the focus on working together. We can only do this work together.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Paddy Gibson talking now about the Intervention. 'The UN found that it was a racist policy. We didn't need to go to the UN to find that out. [...] Central to the demands coming out of Yuendumu, fifteen years on, is to end this racist policy.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Gibson: '[Under the Intervention] NT Police got extraordinary powers to enter homes without a warrant. We can see directly that that policing culture play out in Yuendumu. [...] The police still have that funding and that culture.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Gibson: 'They were walking around with militarised police in the wake of the shooting in Yuendumu. They must be disarmed.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Gibson: 'The forty year leases were signed under duress in the Intervention. Community housing is now run by the housing authority [who don't care about quality and fly in outside contractors], community need control of their housing again.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Gibson: 'This has always been designed to push people out of their lands. There's a big fight ahead to say [if Labor end compulsory income management]: properly paid jobs, local self-determination and local control.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Gibson: 'Even though Stronger Futures ends [with sunset clauses later this month], the fight now comes to take funding from the police and the prison system, and fund the communities.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves is now addressing the room. 'I want to say thank you very much for listening to what has been happening to us. What has been happening to us has been very sad for our people back home.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: '#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri, and that is the truth. We do not want guns in our remote community. It terrifies us. Our kids in our own community walk around in fear. We walk around in fear. That is not what we want. We want our life back.' #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'We want police to put down our weapons. These are not their lands. You want to walk around with guns, you go walk around with guns in your own community.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'Where this shooting started was with the Coniston Massacre. 1928. Where did he come from? He came, he was a soldier, not to make peace — to kill, to shoot our innocent people.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'All these troubles didn't come from yapa, it was kardiya. Right from the beginning.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'Now with this generation, he was a solider, he was a policeman. He shot a young man. No shame whatsoever. We cannot let this happen. We cannot let police in our community walk around with guns.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'If you sit outside & listen to the wind, what does the wind say to you? You're not listening. Yapa right across Central Australia, we want no guns. We want the police to come in peace. Put down your weapons, come clean.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'The Intervention has torn us apart, ripped us apart. For our people and for our children, I'm here because I want to tell you. We want you to stand with us and tell these kardiya that enough is enough.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett now takes the floor with a minute silence for Kumanjayi Walker and for all other families who have lost loved ones in custody. #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett: 'Uncle says his community is in fear — that is also the fear of all black people here tonight. When I see police on the street, I am terrified. What happens when they come armed in our homes, close the doors, & kill our children.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett: 'Then families sit through inquests getting nothing, but heartbreak. [...] Where we are in Sydney, let's look at what happened to Stanley Russell. That family now has to sit, just like Uncle here and say 'what do we do now?'.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett: 'Kumanjayi to me is my son, touch one touch all. All that community is asking for is no guns, defund the police. They come to community with assault rifles. That is prisoners of war shit.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett: 'Are we here just to listen and walk away? If so, please leave now. What we need to do is take home tonight what needs to happen from here. Not just a tshirt.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett: 'Don't get fooled thinking Albanese is gonna make it easy, we have to fight. Let's give Uncle what he deserves. On Saturday 18 June, we're gonna have a rally. Bring everyone. Make sure you're present. This is your chance.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Lizzie Jarrett: 'Don't get fooled thinking Albanese is gonna make it easy, we have to fight. Let's give Uncle what he deserves. On Saturday 18 June, we're gonna have a rally. Bring everyone. Make sure you're present. This is your chance.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'We gotta tell them: yapa is not the enemy. We are not your enemy. Stop! Stop destroying our life. Stop shooting our children's future.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'I lived with kardiya. I was put in a room with bread and water for five days. From then on, I cannot stand it. I cannot stand kardiya telling us that's the way we have to live.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Latoya Rule is speaking now, acknowledging their mother who is in the room and speaking about their brother Wayne Fella Morrison. 'I want to bring a little bit of hope towards getting guns out. This is achievable. We can carry that together.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Latoya Rule: 'A spithood ban, the first in the world, was achieved after my brother's death. We must force them to do it. We have to force them ourselves. Two times, they didn't move this ban of spit hoods.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Latoya Rule: 'As part of that, a lawyer left our inquest to go represent Rolfe. They're used to silencing us and putting fear in our communities, so we feel empty and as if it's not going to happen — as if our goals are too big, too decolonial.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Latoya Rule: 'We bind together. I know this is achievable. One of the things that binds us together is the spirit and heart of the movement we share [as blackfullas]. You're so powerful and we're so grateful for your spirit in this place.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves: 'I am not going to stop. I will not stop even if they put a bullet in my head.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Paddy Gibson: 'The inquest doesn't bring any justice at all. It's a formal process where the state can wash their hands of what's happened. We had a full blown [Don Dale] Royal Commission. What's the result? Very nice findings. It's worse now.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Paddy Gibson: 'There are opportunities to demand change on the militarisation and the racism of police. What does the community want to change? Disarm the police! Will this system feel the pressure of that? That's up to us.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Pauline Clague: 'The community have given their sixteen demands. It's up to us to make sure that those sixteen demands are met.' #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Nadeena Dixon: 'Australia is a country that allows the murder of Aboriginal people. We're talking about genocide, an act of war. We need to move them into this paradigm: it's not okay to kill fellow Australians that have black skin.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

Gibson: 'For fifteen years, you've had police taking all the powers. It's gotten worse. Not for a second will we let them blame Aboriginal communities. They have inflicted this. We need to be ready for that racist rhetoric.'
#KarrinjarlaMuwajarri #CeaseFire

As the discussion draws to a close, we're reminded to show up at the National Day of Action on Saturday 18 June. For the list of #KarrinjarlaMuwajarri demands, and for more information on how to get behind the campaign, visit: karrinjarlamuwajarri.org
#CeaseFire