Additional Comments from Senator Lidia Thorpe: Indigenous Femicide in so-called Australia
1.1I acknowledge the unceded Sovereignty of First Peoples across this continent, and honour the lives, stories, and loved ones of the First Nations women, girls and gender-diverse people who have been disappeared and murdered since the invasion of this country.
1.2I would like to begin by acknowledging that 'Aboriginal women don't just go missing; someone makes them disappear'.[1]Indeed, ‘what is missing are the white male perpetrators of this violence, whether they be strangers on the street or agents of the state'.[2]
'Disappearing' is a framework that understands that Aboriginal women experience multiple forms of interlapping violence not just in the home or in public spaces but state sanctioned violence—the violence of jails, the child jails, the child protection system and the health system. 'Disappearing' incorporates the Aboriginal women who are the fastest-growing incarcerated population in the world, who are being locked up as victims of family violence, and the Aboriginal women who are killed in custody…Aframework of 'disappearance' allows us to understand how Aboriginal women are specifically targeted for violence in a settler colony, which has, at its very heart, the need to disappear Aboriginal peoples from Aboriginal lands.[3]
I want to echo concerns raised by a palawa woman, Maggie Blanden, who takes issue with the word 'missing' because our women continue to be violently and forcibly disappeared. The passive language of 'missing' only further compounds that level of indifference to our people.[4]
1.3The racial and gendered violence that is perpetrated against our women and girls today is the same systemic and colonial violence perpetrated as it has been since the first invasion and the Frontier Wars, and ‘like other forms of colonial violence, it has been rendered invisible by the very agencies that perpetuate it’.[5]
There is a pervasive history of sexual violence against Aboriginal women. There was mass sexual abuse of Aboriginal women…Rape and murder were very common on the frontier, and the police were often complicit in that. Many of our people were also killed by the brutal conditions of slavery in Australia…[T]he colonists enslaved and trafficked our people.[6]
Violence is one of the key stories told of Aboriginal communities, and yet Aboriginal women are silenced in these conversations, seen as without agency or as bodies on which acts of violence are perpetrated. In this way, the active resistances of Aboriginal women throughout their lives, and the resistances of their families, their communities and their personhood, aredisappeared. To speak is to speak an end to an unsafe space in which these violences are continually weaponised against whole communities, leading to unsafe policy outcomes like more police, more jailing and draconian racist policy responses, like the NT intervention, which only reproduce the violence, leading to further pain, wounding and harm.[7]
1.4I also would like to acknowledge that this committee, through its inquiry, is engaging with expertise and stories that are habitually denied effort and attention in politics, media and investigations. Independent, black media should be funded to report on First Nations matters. As said by Dr Amy McQuire:
…that's the only way that we can actually speak about these issues the way they deserve to be spoken about.[8]
1.5I want to thank and acknowledge the good and important work that went into this inquiry from all involved, including the committee members who dedicated their time and energy to this process.
1.6It must however be noted that aspects of this inquiry itself, unfortunately, served as a continuation of the colonial legacy of violence, and created an environment that led many women and families to opt out, fearing further trauma or believing their voices would not be genuinely heard. This non‑participation reflects widespread mistrust in processes seen as unsafe and reinforcing colonial power dynamics rather than addressing the root causes of violence. Further:
This inquiry has participated in the silencing of racial and gendered violence against Indigenous women...The lack of communications and media about the inquiry process compounds the idea that the disappearance of Indigenous women is unremarkable, unimportant and resistant to legal redress.[9]
1.7These concerns were raised by Dr McQuire, Professor Chelsea Watego and her colleagues from the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Deb Kilroy of Sisters Inside and other First Nations women who have extensive expertise and decades of work with the families of those who have lost loved ones, and whose submissions, and appearances at the committee hearings should be the first point of reference for those engaging with this topic.[10]
1.8The committee at times demonstrated a failure in understanding and disrupting the functions of silencing and erasure discussed by Dr McQuire in her submission to this inquiry, and did not proactively address coloniality, white supremacy and the role of gendered and racialised violence as relevant to undertaking the inquiry or as being critical to ensuring the safety of potential participants. Indeed, the committee at times demonstrated an unfortunate dismissal of the expertise of key community members and advocates, and a derogation of their duty to build respectful relationships with grieving families.
...there was little attempt from the inquiry to build meaningful, respectful relationships with grieving families who are resisting this violence or to provide support for their testimony to this committee. Indeed, the inquiry contacted us as advocates to ask for grieving families' contact details, yet also refused to include our expertise where it could've contributed to shaping this process towards justice for them.[11]
1.9Although this committee borrowed much of the terms of reference from the widely known and praised Canadian Inquiry, it fell short of undertaking the same grounded and community-led approach to inform its processes, which ultimately impacted the quality and sufficiency of some of the recommendations produced.
Grieving families are not asking you to keep better count of our dead, or seeking commemorations and condolences for our losses, as the terms of reference seem to imply. These families want justice for racial and gendered violence against Indigenous women. These families want accountability and safety for our communities now.[12]
What is missing in the Terms of Reference is any explicit reference to the unique form of racialized and gendered violence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are subject to in a settler colonial context. This is ironic given the influence of the Canadian inquiry, the report of which explicitly names Indigenous femicide as a form of racial and colonial genocide.[13]
1.10There were some good recommendations that have come out of this inquiry, however, the overall failure to name and address within the actual recommendations the role of colonisation, white supremacy, and the ongoing genocide falls short of truth-telling, justice, healing, and does a disservice to those who participated in this inquiry.
The only way we can understand rates of victimisation of Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people is by examining the structure of violence created by colonisation. Colonisation continues to be an extremely violent experience for Indigenous peoples, and police and state agencies are on the frontline of that violence.[14]
The cause of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people is ultimately the colonial structure of white supremacy, where a supremacist ideology valorising a white humanitas is operationalised by police, courts, individual predators and media. This structure creates a culture of impunity for some and terror for others.[15]
1.11Within this context, and despite overwhelming evidence, the committee failed to properly hold accountable and identify the perpetrators of violence towards First Nations women – including individuals, police, courts, media and state agencies.
The Canadian Inquiry found that these state behaviours create a culture within which people can perpetrate violence against Indigenous women and know that they are safe from consequences.[16]
1.12As pointed out by Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman, Dr McQuire, the practice of mainstream media of reiterating, without question, the information provided by police, in turn compromises both outcomes and the quality of the investigations and outcomes.[17] The result is the dehumanisation of victims of violence and erasure of their stories, and allows perpetrators to feel empowered to continue their actions without consequence. This impunity is a key factor driving the high rates of violence experienced.
There are many violent, racist, hate filled men in our nation who rely upon this national apathy, shocking police practices and the landscape of gendered violence to commit femicide against First Nations women and children.[18]
1.13Despite acknowledging that passive terms like 'missing' are a misnomer and serve to hide the violence of the perpetrators in Chapter 1 of the majority report, the committee then continues to use the same language in Chapter 7, being its conclusions and recommendations, when referring to the system of state sanctioned child removal system:
First Nations children and young people in out-of-home care are often not reported absent or missing from residential care, the implication being that they are getting lost in care and protection systems.[19]
'Lost' is a person who essentially has control over their own actions and is temporarily disoriented. 'Missing' is either voluntary or involuntarily missing and then, of course, missing-murdered.[20]
…the challenge with this terminology is that it puts the onus completely on the child—that the child has gone missing; the child is absent. It's as if these actions of going missing and absent are somehow the decisions that are made by a child in their full capacity with no other trauma that they're experiencing or no other life problems that they're dealing with…I see a lot of shaping of language, of service delivery, that makes it easier for the organisation or the department, whoever is providing the service, to blame the child or blame the person who is completely vulnerable, who's in the worst possible situation of their life.[21]
1.14The implication is that these children are 'getting lost' is a disrespect to the First Peoples who participated in this inquiry, the thousands of families and friends who are still mourning their loved ones. Moreover, it is an active erasure of the role of state institutions as perpetrators, who systemically disappear First Nations children, in what has been described as ongoing genocide. The ongoing violation of First Nations continued to be raised in both the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report and the 1997 Bringing Them Home report which called the removal of children as genocidal.
The Australian practice of Indigenous child removal involved both systematic racial discrimination and genocide as defined by international law. Yet it continued to be practised as official policy long after being clearly prohibited by treaties to which Australia had voluntarily subscribed.[22]
1.15In addition, the committee fell short of naming the police as perpetrators of violence, and to properly hold them accountable for their criminalisation of First Peoples, and failure to investigate instances of a loved-one’s disappearance or murder.
The first and most prevalent risk factor for an Aboriginal woman or child being murdered or going missing, is having been over policed and criminalised.[23]
1.16It must be noted there was no admission of accountability from the police or carceral institutions themselves, as concluded by the committee at paragraph7.19 where it is stated that ‘Police forces, prosecutors and coroners rejected that their responses distinguished between First Nations and non‑Indigenous people, and argued that everyone is treated equally'.[24]
Despite turning to the police for assistance, families frequently encounter indifference or outright neglect rooted in the racial and gendered violence entrenched within the policing system…The reliance on police to investigate these disappearances and murders is frequently flawed, when these same police forces have historically failed even to search for disappeared Aboriginal women adequately.[25]
I can say that the coronial process is often used as a means to exonerate the state. It's not about finding justice for the family or finding out what happened to their loved ones.[26]
1.17Recommendation 1 and Recommendation 2 of the majority report emphasise reform within policing and carceral institutions, which often means more funding to enact this change.
Recommendations that simply reinforce or extend the powers of the existing systems of the racial and gendered violence of policing and incarceration will only result in more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women disappearing and being murdered, with their families left to bear the burden of seeking justice alone.[27]
1.18The propping up of carceral solutions was advised against by many submitters throughout the inquiry who argued that it perpetuates the very systems of oppression that contribute to violence against First Nations women. The reliance on punitive measures ignores the need for community-based, restorative approaches that exist outside of the carceral system, and address the social, economic, cultural, institutional and historical causes contributing to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of First Nations women, girls and gender-diverse people.
1.19Ms Andrea Kyle-Sailor, Community Development Worker and Cultural Adviser with the First Nations Women’s Legal Service Queensland, noted that housing, one factor that drives violence against First Nations women and children, is a critical issue.[28]
1.20Indeed, the one recommendation clearly proposed by many advocates, was a truly independent police watchdog, which the committee fell short of including as a stand-alone recommendation, though mentioned in paragraph 7.31 of its report.
There have been numerous inquiries that have highlighted—again, in a number of jurisdictions—that existing police oversight bodies are not effective.[29]
1.21I want to acknowledge and thank the committee for its work in this space. Iunderstand it had limited resources to undertake its work, and that parliamentary structures are by design difficult to give the space and time necessary to deal with complex spaces of trauma and intersectionality.
1.22In a similar context in Canada, the inquiry was community-initiated and led by First Nations women and families of missing First Nations women, girls and gender diverse people and well-resourced over several years, following comprehensive engagement with affected communities.
1.23Impacted First Nations women, girls, and their families have always, and will always speak out about this silence and injustice: they must be acknowledged as the experts they are. The knowledge holders and leaders in this space. It is time to do the real work and be guided by them in finally taking action to end the disappearing and murdering, and be able to heal.
Justice will only be achieved once self-determined criminal, legal and incarceration systems, along with self-determined family violence sectors, can be negotiated, developed and implemented through treaty negotiations or through other processes. We know this. There have been decades of calls. We've seen numerous inquiries. The things are not new. The solutions are not new. What is needed is the will to enact them.[30]
Senator Lidia Thorpe
Participating Member
Footnotes
[1]Professor Chelsea Watego, Director, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15May 2024, p. 7.
[2]Dr Amy McQuire, Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Submission 54, p.15.
[3]Dr McQuire, private capacity, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, pp. 2–3.
[4]Ms Nerita Waight, Chief Executive Officer, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), Committee Hansard, 18 June 2024, p. 33.
[5]Professor Watego, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 4.
[6]Ms Waight, VALS, Committee Hansard, 18 June 2024, p. 33.
[7]Dr McQuire, private capacity, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 2.
[8]Dr McQuire, private capacity, Committee Hansard, 22 February 2023, p. 16.
[9]Professor Watego, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 5.
[10]Professor Watego, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 4.
[11]Professor Watego, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 5.
[12]Professor Watego, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 5.
[13]Dr McQuire, Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Submission 54, p. 16.
[14]Dr McQuire, Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Submission 54, p. 8.
[15]Dr McQuire, Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Submission 54, p. 5.
[16]Dr McQuire, Sisters Inside and the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Submission 54, p. 5.
[17]Dr McQuire, private capacity, Committee Hansard, 22 February 2023, pp. 14–15.
[18]Mr Martin Hodgson, Senior Advocate, Foreign Prisoner Support Service, Committee Hansard, 18June 2024, p. 29.
[19]Majority report, paragraph 7.9, p. 172.
[20]Dr Samantha Bricknell, Researcher, Australian Institute of Criminology, Committee Hansard, 5October 2022, p. 25.
[21]Ms Meena Singh, Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, Commission for Children and Young People, Committee Hansard, 18 June 2024, p. 24.
[22]Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing them home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, 1997, p. 231. Also see:Change the Record and Djirra, Submission 85, p. 16.
[23]Mr Hodgson, Submission 60, p. [2].
[24]Majority report, paragraph 7.19, p. 174.
[25]Mrs Deborah Kilroy, Chief Executive Officer, Sisters Inside Inc, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p.3.
[26]Dr David Singh, Co-Director, Institute for Collaborative Race Research, Committee Hansard, 15May2024, p. 9.
[27]Mrs Kilroy, Sisters Inside Inc, Committee Hansard, 15 May 2024, p. 3.
[28]Ms Andrea Kyle-Sailor, Community Development Worker and Cultural Advisor, First Nations Women's Legal Service Queensland, Committee Hansard, 2 November 2023, p. 4.
[29]Ms Waight, VALS, Committee Hansard, 18 June 2024, p. 35.
[30]Ms Waight, VALS, Committee Hansard, 18 June 2024, p. 34.
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