Black lives keep being extinguished. It cannot be right because it isn’t

As it happens, I wrote a book called Coniston, about the last recorded massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia in 1928.

The killings took place north-west of Alice Springs. The victims (by my estimate, 100 to 200) were mainly Warlpiri people. The perpetrators of the massacre, which played out over months and included numerous mass shootings, were led by Mounted Constable George Murray of the Central Australia Police.

Shortly before the book’s launch in November 2019, Kumanjayi Walker was shot dead by Constable Zachary Rolfe of the Northern Territory Police. Walker was a Warlpiri man.