Australia Needs To Address “National Crisis” Over Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women
Indigenous women are being murdered up to 12 times the national average, according to a 'Four Corners' investigation.
A new database has found that at least 315 First Nations women have gone missing, been murdered, or died under suspicious circumstances since 2000.
— Content Warning: This article discusses distressing topics, and contains names of Indigenous women who have died. —
First Nations women are being murdered at up to 12 times the national average, according to ABC Four Corners investigation ‘How Many More?’, making them one of the most victimised groups in the world.
“I see this issue of violence against Aboriginal women as one of the most serious human rights issues possibly facing our country today,” said Dr Hannah McGlade, a Noongar human rights lawyer interviewed in the coverage.
The episode on Monday has renewed calls for action and change in relation to Australian policy makers, justice systems, and law enforcement, to address the consistent oversight, dismissal, inaction, and neglect when it comes to the lives of these mothers, sisters, daughters, and people.
Next up on Four Corners – the national crisis of the murdered and missing First Nations women #howmanymore pic.twitter.com/dHkw6UEeXc
— Four Corners (@4corners) October 20, 2022
“In Australia, the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is yet to be acknowledged by the state and the broader community in the same way as in Canada and the US,” wrote the Deathscapes project in 2021.
“Families and communities continue to speak out about, and mobilise around the disappearances of their loved ones, but countless cases remain unsolved and invisible to the wider public.”
Covered in the ABC episode was the murder of Constance Watcho, a 36-year-old woman living in Brisbane who was only considered a “medium risk” by police when her disappearance was reported in 2018. Her body was found in a bag seven months later a mere 200 metres from where she was last seen alive, and to this date, no one has been charged over her death.
Blak women & children deserve so much more. What a devastating watch. My sisters, my people. I’m thinking of you all tonight. Especially, the 315 families of matriarchs, who have never seen justice for these abhorrent murders and avoidable/racist system failings. #fourcorners ?
— Caroline Kell (she/her) (@ohhhhhcarolina) October 24, 2022
“This Four Corners report is highly significant not just because it is led by black women, but because the [mainstream media] have constantly framed this as ‘black on black crime’ or ‘violence against Aboriginal women’ in ways that paint Aboriginal communities as the problem,” wrote Darumbal/South Sea academic Amy McQuire on Monday.
“The ‘problem’ is not Aboriginal communities: It is the ways police do not search, they do not care or protect Aboriginal women, they frame the resistance of Aboriginal women as violent, they make perpetrators absent and claim Aboriginal women are instead ‘criminal’.”
Some of the names of the known Indigenous women who have lost their lives or who have not been found in the last two decades include R Rubuntja, Roberta Curry, Allira Green, Donelle Newberry, Lynette Daley, Shirley Williams, Monique Clubb, Bonita Claudie, Jasmine Morris, Lateesha Nolan, Florrie Reuben, Elizabeth Barlow, Rebecca Hayward, and Beryl Collins.
The Four Corners episode ‘How Many More?’ can be watched here.
If this story has affected you, you can contact the following support lines:
- Emergency Services: 000
- 13YARN: 13 92 76
- 1800 Respect National Helpline: 1800 737 732
- Women’s Crisis Line: 1800 811 811
- Mensline: 1300 789 978
- Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
- Lifeline (24-hour crisis line): 131 114