SUBMISSION

Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee: Response to the Inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children

This submission responds to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s request for submissions in response to the Inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children (the Inquiry). ANROWS’s submission focuses on the systemic causes of family violence against First Nations women and children and identifies potential areas for improvement and innovation. 

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’s Inquiry focuses on missing and murdered First Nations women and children and “all forms of violence” perpetrated against them. ANROWS’s submission responds to the Inquiry with an emphasis on family violence perpetrated against First Nations women and children, with the understanding that all forms of family and domestic violence are embedded with a risk of lethality.

Drawing upon ANROWS research and additional rigorous peer-reviewed evidence, this submission addresses:

• the rates of family violence perpetrated against First Nations women and children
• the systemic causes of this violence and barriers to help-seeking, including colonisation and dispossession, systemic distrust of the legal system, the incarceration of First Nations men and women, victims’ and survivors’ connections to Country and community, and barriers to accessing services
• the potential areas for improvement and innovation, including a need for increased access to culturally safe, strengths-based and community-led responses to family violence and actions to address systemic issues in relation to the legal system, housing, help-seeking and access to services.

Suggested citation

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2022). Response to the Inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children [Submission]. ANROWS.