The family of Kumanjayi Walker have started a Go Fund Me page in an attempt to raise $400,000 to pay for lawyers and for expenses for his family and Yuendumu community members to attend the coronial inquest into his death in Alice Springs.

Samara Fernandez, Mr Walker’s cousin, said she created the fund because she said it was important for many reason that his family and the Yuendumu community be at the inquest, which begins on September 5, and is scheduled to last for three months.

“First, being present ensures we are being heard and speaking for Kumanjayi, who can no longer speak for himself,” she wrote.

“Being in attendance means that we understand all the circumstances that lead to Kumanjayi’s death to ensure no other family needs to endure what we have.

Former Territory Response Group member Carey Joy, who led the Immediate Response Team before Constable Rolfe was a member, wrote in an opinion piece for the NT Independent and said that from what was already publicly known – through disclosures in testimony from senior officers during the murder trial – it appeared the entire deployment of the IRT members to Yuendumu was approved with nothing more than an email requesting extra members be sent to assist in arresting Mr Walker.

“This confirms that at no time was an actual risk assessment performed,” he said.

“The NTPOL executive management is and has worked extremely hard to keep their fundamental errors hidden from the public and from the Walker family, who so far are only holding Constable Rolfe responsible, which is troubling and unfair.

“We have all been manipulated into targeting our attention at a young NT Police officer and a young Indigenous man whose fates tragically collided, which is a misguided plan to divert us from the truth: that senior NT Police figures stuffed this up and said whatever they could to keep their jobs.”

An ICAC investigation is currently underway into the four days leading up to Constable Rolfe being charged and a coronial inquest is scheduled for September into the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker that will include reviews of police procedures and policies.

Constable Rolfe was acquitted of murder and two alternative charges for the death of Mr Walker on March 11, after a unanimous not guilty verdict in the Supreme Court.

The Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker and former chief minister Michael Gunner have repeatedly rejected allegations of political interference in the laying of the charges, pointing to the coronial inquest as being the proper body to investigate the allegations of political interference.

However, the coroner’s report would not include any illegal activity that transpired, which under legislation requires the coroner to raise that with the Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions – the two bodies that played key roles in the decision to charge.

Mr Chalker has repeatedly alluded to, in cryptic speeches and printed statements, truths that had not come out in the murder trial, that would come out in the coronial that would show the “media commentary” about him to be untrue. He has never been specific about what information that would come out in the coronial that would exonerate the him and the police force.

Ms Fernandez provided a breakdown of the estimated costs which included hiring ten lawyers, because she said they wanted to be transparent about how the money would be spent.

They have a goal of $400,000 which includes accommodation and expenses for 18 community and family members for three months.