A ‘pollies in the pub’ event featuring Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was cancelled in Kempsey on Wednesday after local Aboriginal people were excluded from the hotel.
The event was advertised on social media by the National Party as a “great opportunity to come and have a chat” to Senator Nampijinpa Price and Cowper MP Pat Conaghan.
But when a group of Aboriginal people arrived, including Dunghutti woman Leetona Dungay, they say they were told it was a private function and turned away from the West Kempsey Hotel.
Ms Dungay, whose son David died in custody after calling out ‘I can’t breathe’ while being restrained by prison guards, told NITV it was a wasted opportunity for the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians to hear directly from community members about important issues.
“I would have asked her why are you there, and how are you going to help us, and what are you going to do?” she said.
“It’s not right [that we weren’t allowed in] … I think it’s racism.”
Clarry Hoskins from the Dunghutti Elders Council said when a prominent First Nations person visited their Country on official business it was usual practice to contact their organisation but that Senator Nampijinpa Price had not done that.
“It’s protocol,” he said.
“I was very disappointed.
“And I’ve already spoken to a number of Elders who were disappointed in it as well.”
Activist Paul Silva, one of Leetona Dungay’s grandchildren who was in Sydney, spoke to his grandmother and posted about the event on social media – and was racially attacked and trolled.
“For [Senator Nampijinpa Price] to come and speak on our issues, like she has recently in regards to the high rate of what she calls ‘Blak on Blak’ violence, well that’s one of the prime examples of why we didn’t want her in our community to degrade us and put us down,” he said.
“Because when non-Indigenous people see a Blak person degrading Blak people, they think that it’s okay to continue that degrading within society – and especially a politician at that.”
Mr Hoskins said that Aboriginal people being excluded from a hotel in Kempsey was particularly jarring at this time, as only a few weeks ago the community celebrated 60 years since the Freedom Ride visited the town and shone a light on discrimination.
“We’ve been fighting for these rights for a long, long time, and then for this to happen yesterday, it was just a kick in the teeth again,” he said.
“Because we have the same privileges as everybody else.”
Mr Hoskins said he had reached out to Mr Conaghan to discuss the matter and also to the local state MP for Oxley Michael Kemp.
“Not all Aboriginal communities are the same and the Dunghutti people, yes, we do have our different factions, but when it comes to helping each other and understanding each other, we all pull together,” he said.
“And to me, Jacinta is divide and conquer, and that’s the way it comes to across to us.”
Senator Nampijinpa Price’s office did not respond to NITV’s questions but the local Kempsey media organisation that broke the story, , reported that she said the event was cancelled due to threats and that there was no need to consult the local Indigenous community ahead of the meeting.
“Any assertion that local Elders should be notified and permission sought before a Senator or Member of the Australian Parliament holds a private event in their area is completely baseless,” she said.
Senator Nampijinpa Price told News of the Area that she will “continue to speak out about issues that demand urgent attention such as the rampant domestic and family violence and sexual abuse that occurs within Indigenous communities”.
