Comedian Alex ‘Shooter’ Williamson condemned for social media video about allegedly murdered NT girl

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story contains the image of a deceased person.

The Willunga Football Club, based in the city of the same name about 40 kilometers south of Adelaide, suspended the comedian over the comments, which cannot be repeated for legal reasons, before deregistering him.

“We want to be clear: the comments made are completely unacceptable and do not reflect the values ​​of our club,” the club said on social media and on its website.

“We recognize the pain and suffering this has caused, especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider community.”

“What Mr. Williamson posted was not comedy. It was not humor. It was not in service of a good cause,” Agius said in a statement this evening.

“It was cruelty disguised as a joke, used against a community that was already grieving.

“…reenacting a conversation with the man accused of the murder is not a punchline. It’s racism dressed up as comedy.

“It tells Aboriginal children and their families that their lives, their deaths and their sorrows are a sport for the entertainment of others.”

The proud man of Kaurna, Narungga, Ngadjuri and Ngarrindjeri said the comments did not belong in the public domain at any time and were “unconscionable” in the current context.

“I remain absolutely steadfast: there is no context, no comic framing, no claim of ‘just having a laugh’ that makes this in any way acceptable,” he said.

Both the club and Agius described the comments as “very offensive”.

The SANFL backed the club, saying that Williamson was not someone they wanted in the league.

Agius called for the broader political, legislative and systemic context of the five-year-old’s death to be fully investigated at the appropriate time.

“The death of Kumanjayi Little Baby did not occur in isolation,” he said.

“Her family lived with the realities faced by too many families in remote and regional Australia: overcrowded housing, limited services and the daily pressures of deep poverty and disadvantage.”

Indigenous advocate Karen Beasley said Williamson should apologize to the family.

“The way I look at it, no one in their right mind would have made that joke,” she said.

“…there was just no remorse about how he giggled towards the end and thought it was so funny.

Williamson has made no comment on the controversy, apart from reposting an article about the club dumping him.

“BAHAHAHAHA, this headline is a real spin-out,” he said on Instagram Stories.

“I feel closest to playing AFL.”

He was unresponsive when 9News went to his parents’ home today, where he lived.

Jefferson Lewis, 47, is accused of murdering the five-year-old girl near the outback town of Alice Springs.

He was expected to appear in Alice Springs Local Court via video link from custody in Darwin on Tuesday, but his appearance was excused. No bail was applied for and the case was adjourned to July 30.

The alleged murder horrified the close-knit community, which spent anxious days scouring riverbeds and bushland for the missing girl before her body was found in bushland outside the town five days after her disappearance.

Kumanjayi – the name used after her death in keeping with cultural tradition – disappeared from a house in a city camp, sparking a massive land and air search across central Australia.

Lewis was arrested at another town camp in Alice Springs after being beaten unconscious by locals.

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy told ABC’s 7:30 am It was important to remember that Kumanjayi was deeply loved by her family, who were in deep mourning and did not want her death to turn into a political battle.

She also backed National Children’s Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter, who said children cannot be safe in overcrowded or dilapidated homes and that governments still have “a lot of work” to do to keep Aboriginal children safe.

Candlelight vigils are planned for Kumanjayi on Thursday and mourners have been asked to wear pink, her favorite color, as the community gathers to mourn and remember her short life.

For 24/7 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis support, please contact 13YARN (13 92 76).

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