Image of grieving Indigenous elders improperly used in anti-Voice campaign

^{By Lulu Graham}

An image of two grieving Aboriginal men has been used out of context to support a campaign against the Voice to Parliament, despite indications that at least one of the men supports the Yes campaign.

The image was posted on a Facebook group which supports Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her anti-Voice campaign, alongside a message that reads, “we Australians have done enough for Aborigines” and “all the current Aboriginal programs, groups, organizations that are paid by taxpayer’s money” should be abolished. 

The message concludes: “Australians must stop rescuing Aboriginal problems, they can fix the problems they create by themselves, stop babysitting them. We say NO to the VOICE in our constitution”.

But the image, which does not identify the men, has been used entirely out of context. It is actually a screenshot taken from a video of Warlpiri elder Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves addressing the media outside the Northern Territory Supreme Court on March 11, 2022.

Mr Hargraves was speaking after NT police constable Zachary Rolfe had just been found not guilty of the murder Kumanjayi Walker at Yuendumu. Mr Walker, 19, died after being shot by Constable Rolfe while resisting arrest with scissors in the Central Australian community in November, 2019.

The verdict sparked the Justice for Walker campaign by Mr Walker's family and members of the Indigenous community of Yuendumu. The campaign calls for a ban on all guns, including police weapons, in remote Aboriginal communities.

In the video, Mr Hargraves expresses his grief and anger in front of the assembled media. Mr Walker’s uncle, senior Aboriginal community police officer Derek Japangardi Williams, stands behind him holding his wheelchair. Both men are surrounded by Walker family members and supporters wearing “Justice for Walker” T- shirts.

But the image taken from the video and used out of context on Facebook is a screenshot close-up that captures only Mr Hargraves’ angry expression and Mr Williams standing behind him. Supporters wearing the Justice for Walker T-shirts are cropped out of the picture.

The uncaptioned image gives the impression the two men are opposed to the Voice to Parliament.

The image was shared on a Facebook group called Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price - No Second Voice, which was created by an account called Brodders Blast - The Truthsayer Exposing Leftist Propaganda.

Eleder Son, who  posted the image and accompanying text, also shared it in another group which supports former prime minister Tony Abbott and opposes the Voice to Parliament. This group, called Tony Abbott’s Support Page, is followed by more than 53,000 Facebook users.

Not only was the image unrelated to the anti-Voice campaign, it inaccurately portrayed Mr Hargraves as affiliating with the No to the Voice campaign.

Mr Hargraves is on record as supporting the Voice to Parliament which aims to enshrine in the constitution a body to advise parliament on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association published an audio excerpt of Mr Hargraves in December 2022 commenting on the referendum.

“First of all, let’s us guys have a question,” he says. “Are we in the constitution? Because we’re not. We’re asking for a treaty. We’re asking for referendum…constitution should be we; we are the people that are gonna make it, not white people, ’cause we are gonna be in there.”.

The use of Mr Hargraves' image in a post supporting Senator Price is also controversial given their views have been at odds. The two clashed on Facebook in October 2022.

At the time, Senator Price posted an image on Facebook of her grandmother who had been attacked by another woman, describing the incident as how Yuendumu community life looks. “Her head was split open and she had to be transfered [sic] to hospital,” Senator Price said in the post. 

She went on to say that elders of the Yuendumu community “don’t call for an end to this violence” where “community lead violence is ignored and at times even encouraged”. 

Her post amassed 31,000 reactions and was shared by more than 7,600 people.

Mr Hargraves posted a response on his Facebook account directly addressing the senator: “I spend all day every day serving my community for free. That is my cultural duty. That is more than I can say for you Jacinta.”

Mr Hargraves accused Senator Price of conflating his calls for deaths at the hands of police to stop with an absence of care about community issues. “How dare you tell me that I’m not doing everything I can for my community,” Mr Hargraves wrote.

The image of Mr Hargraves and Mr Williams being used out of context on Facebook follows another incident recently involving Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe’s image being used in advertising for Conservative Political Action Conference Australia (CPAC). 

Chaired by leading No to the Voice campaigner Warren Mundine, CPAC issued two paid advertisements featuring images of Senator Thorpe. The first advertisement, on February 17 this year, questions how the Voice will “tackle problems in Indigenous communities”.  The second advertisement, issued on March 3, depicts the senator in traditional face paint and quotes her as saying “Indigenous people ‘deserve better’ than an advisory body”. 

Both advertisements have identical accompanying text which says the Voice to Parliament “is set to undermine Australia’s democratic process” and “will only lead to a racial divide in our nation”.  

At the time, Senator Thorpe told the Guardian she did not give CPAC consent or permission to use her images. “I don’t support their group and don’t want to be associated with people like that,” she told the Guardian.

According to Meta data, the advertisements have been seen by between 125,000 to 150,000 and 15,000 to 20,000 respectively. Both advertisements were launched on Facebook and Instagram.