Latest news with #Indigenouswomen
ABC News
29-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
NT government responds to landmark domestic violence inquest into killings of four Indigenous women
The Northern Territory government says more than two-thirds of recommendations from a landmark domestic violence inquest "are already in place" in the territory, with a minister saying the report has failed "dismally to hit the mark". WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names of Indigenous people who have died, used with the permission of their families. The Country Liberal Party handed down its response to NT Coroner Elisabeth Armitage's report in NT parliament on Tuesday, more than eight months after it was handed down. Judge Armitage made 35 recommendations, after spending more than a year investigating the domestic violence killings of four Aboriginal women — Kumarn Rubuntja, Kumanjayi Haywood, Ngeygo Ragurrk and Miss Yunupiŋu. They were among more than 80 Indigenous women killed in domestic violence attacks in the NT since the year 2000. The coroner's recommendations included calls for increased funding for frontline emergency service responses, women's shelters and men's behavioural change programs. In NT parliament on Tuesday, Prevention of Domestic Violence Minister Robyn Cahill said the government would support 21 of the recommendations in full and accept 11 in principle. The government did not support three of the recommendations: In handing down the government's response, Ms Cahill said "overall" the recommendations from the coroner were "uninspiring" and the report "failed so dismally to hit the mark". She said only a "small proportion" of the recommendations made would lead to the "implementation of a new and innovative approach". She also criticised Judge Armitage's approach to the inquest, calling it "protracted" and resulting in "lengthy reports delivered in a manner seeming to lack the humility one might expect from an officer of the court". "More focused on the reveal rather than the result," she said of Judge Armitage. When handing down her recommendations, Judge Armitage said she did not believe the 35 recommendations were "radical", saying the DFSV sector had been calling for them for many years. In a statement, Ms Cahill said "extensive consultation with government, non-government agencies, advocacy groups and experts found that 24 of the 35 recommendations related to programs or processes already in place". "Some of these measures have been in place for years without delivering the results we need," she said. Ms Cahill said the government was developing a DFSV roadmap to address domestic violence in the territory, which would set "strategic priorities" for the government's $36 million a year funding for the sector. In response to Ms Cahill's comments, opposition MLA Chansey Paech said it was "absolutely appalling" for the minister to "take aim at the Northern Territory coroner". "It was a long inquest, absolutely," he said. "It was four families, four unique circumstances that absolutely deserved the right to be comprehensively reviewed." Mr Paech said all 35 recommendations could "absolutely be accepted", despite government concerns over funding limitations. "The coroner designed all of these in a way that they could absolutely be supported," he said. In a joint statement, a coalition of NT DSFV services said the government's response was "underwhelming in the face of the Northern Territory's biggest criminal issue". "This is about more than programs. It's about a system that is currently failing women and children, and the urgent need to redesign it alongside the people who know what works," the statement said. "The government's ongoing lack of genuine consultation with the specialist DFSV sector is creating missed opportunities, poor coordination and unsafe outcomes." The NT has the highest rates of family and domestic violence in Australia, with a rate of intimate partner homicide seven times the national average. Recommendation 3: Amend the DFSV workforce plan to better engage Aboriginal workers, communities and universities. Recommendation 5: Create and implement an evidence-based strategy to reduce alcohol availability. Recommendation 6: Increase investment in specialist alcohol and other drugs rehabilitation services. Recommendation 7: Implement the police and children and families department co-responder model — which has been trialled in Alice Springs — on a permanent basis NT-wide. Recommendation 8: NT police to review protocols and improve officer training on information sharing. Recommendation 9: Consider establishing a multi-agency protection service to formalise partnership between police and government departments. Recommendation 10: NT police to embed interpreters and/or Aboriginal liaison officers in the emergency call centre. Recommendation 11: Provide PARt training to all current police officers, auxiliaries and new recruits, including emergency call centre workers. Recommendation 12: NT police to expand the DFSV command in Alice Springs and Darwin. Recommendation 13: Expand NT police's family harm coordination daily auditing program. Recommendation 14: Children and families department to audit and continue its commitment to the Safe and Together framework. Recommendation 15: Fund and implement "timely and intensive" early interventions for young people engaged in violence. Recommendation 16: Extra funding for community-based approaches to child welfare. Recommendation 17: Replicate the specialist DFSV court in Alice Springs in other regions. Recommendation 23: Increase funding for men's prison-based behaviour programs and counselling. Recommendation 24: Improve access to men's prison programs. Recommendation 25: Develop and implement a prison program for men who are 'deniers' of their violence. Recommendation 26: Establish reintegration programs for men leaving prison and returning to community. Recommendation 29: Boost funding for community-based behavioural change and prevention programs. Recommendation 33: Full implementation of the DFSV Action Plan 2, which will require $180 million funding over five years. Recommendation 34: Increase baseline funding for frontline DFSV crisis services by about 10 per cent. Recommendation 1: Establish a permanent, whole-of-government unit to lead DFSV policy and practice. Recommendation 4: Boost funding for Aboriginal interpreter services. Recommendation 18: Fund culturally-appropriate, trauma-informed, mediation/peacekeeping for family and community violence. Recommendation 19: Regulate and fund mediation and peacemaker groups as recognised alternative dispute resolution providers. Recommendation 20: Develop and fund alternatives to custody for DFSV perpetrators. Recommendation 21: Make the NT victims register an opt-out system, and consider how victims can be notified of the release of inmates. Recommendation 22: Embed the charter of victims' rights in NT law. Recommendation 27: NT Health to improve its DFSV screening and assessment of patients. Recommendation 28: Better support for Aboriginal liaison officers in hospitals and clinics. Recommendation 30: Invest in culturally-appropriate prevention and education programs in schools and on social media. Recommendation 31: Fund DFSV awareness training for clubs and pubs. Recommendation 2: Establish an NT peak body to represent the sector on a national level. Recommendation 32: Mandatory 12-month trial of banned drinker register scanners in licensed venues. Recommendation 35: Ensure funding agreements for frontline DFSV services include indexation increases.
CBC
13-06-2025
- General
- CBC
New Indigenous-led women's shelter aims to provide 'an auntie's love'
Social Sharing A domestic violence survivor is preparing to open the first Indigenous-led women's shelter in Edmonton. Nichole Brown, who is Cree and Saulteaux from Louis Bull Tribe, has been planning to open the second stage shelter since 2022 and is now in the process of looking for a location for Helen Hazel House. Helen Hazel House will be a non-profit offering transitional housing for women and their children who need a medium-term place to stay while they recover from domestic violence. All the leadership roles, including the board of directors, will be held by Indigenous women, Brown said, "because of the numbers of Indigenous women that are impacted by intimate partner violence or even gender-based violence." She said the need for Indigenous-centred projects in the city is significant. Edmonton has the second-largest Indigenous population of any urban centre in the country and according to an annual report from the Wings of Providence, one of only two second stage shelters in Edmonton, over 28 per cent of all people they served were Indigenous — the largest of any demographic group. Cat Champagne, executive director of the Alberta Council of Women Shelters, estimated at least 60 per cent of women in shelters across the province are Indigenous. "Having these specific spaces that are really safe, that are culturally relevant, that have the proper cultural support is huge," she said. But having more shelter spaces overall is also important, said Champagne. "Right now our biggest barrier for everyone is the lack of safe and affordable housing, so we're seeing women stay in shelter obviously way longer than we ever have before," she said. This means there's an increased need for second stage shelters in the province since survivors cannot afford to move out of the shelters and into permanent housing, she said. An auntie's love Helen Hazel House is named after Brown's aunt, who often provided a place of refuge when Brown was growing up. "She was a very great role model [and] very helpful to my mother being a domestic violence survivor," she said. "She always gave us a safe home, that love, that place we needed to go when you were in Edmonton." Brown said she debated giving the shelter an Indigenous name but instead settled on naming it after her late aunt. "I thought about if I was going to contribute anything… the kind of love that I want to offer these women is an auntie's love." In addition to honouring her aunt's legacy, Brown said her personal experience with shelters in the city led her to this path. Like many survivors, she became homeless after escaping multiple violent relationships. Eventually, she went to a second stage shelter but struggled there. "I ended up getting kicked out while my abuser was at large," she said. She said greater understanding of the intergenerational trauma she was dealing with as a descendant of residential school survivors would have helped. "These shelters have been doing a really good job keeping women safe," Brown said. "It's just that when you go into there, it's not by Indigenous women and I think to myself, do they understand me?" While Helen Hazel House will be Indigenous-led, Brown said it will serve all women and adjust to whatever circumstances arise.
CBC
16-05-2025
- CBC
Why a moose hide pin is a sign of solidarity with Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people
Qalipu First Nation member Keith Cormier explains why a simple lapel pin made of moose hide is another way to show a commitment to end violence against Indigenous women and girls. The CBC's Amy Feehan learned more at an event in Corner Brook.
