Violence among Indigenous Women in Australia

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VIOLENCE AMONG INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN AUSTRALIA
By,
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Tutor
University
City and State
Date

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This policy for advocacy is about violence among the indigenous women of Australia. It will
focus on the impact of the problem among indigenous women as well as the community as a
whole. Domestic violence is a major problem among the indigenous people and it affects
people’s physical, social and emotional well-being. Alcohol and other drug abuse among the
indigenous people greatly contributes to violence among the indigenous people. The report will
discuss initiatives towards reduction of violence among indigenous women as well as
recommendations for the same. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s
Alliance is advocating for this issue by providing some great interventions towards reducing the
menace.
ORGANIZATION
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA) was
established in 2009 with an aim to empower indigenous women to have a strong and effective
voice in domestic and international policy advocacy process. It was established to advocate for
the rights of aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. NATISWA’s core values involves
ensuring that long lasting changes for the well-being of indigenous individuals are established. It
focusses on identifying solutions for problems affecting indigenous women. This has been
targeted through cultural preservation, health education and coalition building (Dudgeon, 2017).
OBJECTIVES OF NATSIWA
The main objectives of the organization are as follows:

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To ensure gender equality within the country and advocate for inclusion of indigenous women in
governmental, social, economic and political arenas. This encourages women leadership and
participation.
To encourage participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women in policy making
processes that impacts them
To protect and defend the rights of all aboriginal and Torres Strait islander women. This includes
protection from violence and exploitation.
To ensure increased cultural understanding and preservation
To recognize the different needs of communities
To ensure universal access to health care, housing and education
To create and develop strong and efficient coalitions with major stakeholders so as to achieve the
stipulated goals
VALUES OF NATSIWA
The organization main focus is to improve the quality of life among the aboriginal and Torres
Strait islander women. It is dedicated to consulting nationally these women and ensuring policy
implementation by enabling women to voice out issues surrounding and affecting them. Matters
such as primary health care delivery to remote areas, gender equality and women empowerment
form core values of the organization and its dedication to impacting change (Didi et al, 2016).
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women Alliance’s vision is to protect the
health, human rights and freedoms that form a significant part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander women. This has been done by increasing participation of women in health care.

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BACKGROUND
VIOLENCE AMONG INDIGENOUS WOMEN
Violence among women of any age is an area of concern that needs to be addressed by all means.
According to Jongbloed et al 2017, indigenous women tend to be more prone to violence and this
has affected them negatively as time goes by. Most subjects of violence end up suffering for a
longtime since they do not speak up about their situation (Chmielowska and Fuhr, 2017). The
impact of domestic and other forms of violence can be severe and lead to negative consequences
hence there is need to address the issue.
Some of the consequences include physical injury, social and emotional effects. Violence among
women tends to affect more of indigenous Australian women as compared to the non-indigenous
people. The violence is highly associated with drug and substance abuse among the indigenous
people as compared to the non-indigenous population (Spangaro et al, 2016). Violence among
indigenous women is considered to be as a result of community and family factors rather than
individual factor hence affects a huge part of the population.
PREVALENCE RATE
The rate of violence among Aboriginal women is significantly higher than the rest of the
population in Australia. Of the various forms of violence, family and domestic violence tend to
be the main contributors of violence among these women (McNamara et al, 2019). It is difficult
to accurately measure the incidence and prevalence rate of violence among indigenous women as
most cases go unreported. According to a report conducted in 2015 by the National Health
Service, indigenous women are 30-40 times likely to suffer from violence compared to non-
indigenous women.