'Sick' system ignores mothers who protect their children, DV workers say

A single mother had been changing addresses for years trying to escape an abuser, when her car broke down.

The distressed woman called Remi King's office that afternoon. She told Ms King, who works at a women's shelter, she didn't feel safe and had nowhere to go.

Ms King said the man found out where she lived and regularly broke in, trashed her belongings and assaulted her.

Fearing for their lives, the mother and child had been "couch surfing" with friends and family, sleeping in her car or on the street for years.

When Ms King called to check on the woman's overdue request for a housing transfer, she discovered the system "had lost her paperwork".

"I worked some magic with [housing] because they totally f----- up her case," she said. "They had forgotten about her for seven years."

In three months the woman was in safe, long-term accommodation. Ms King said it was the "quickest" anyone had been given secure housing in her experience.

Ms King, a specialist First Nations domestic violence support worker, said the victim-survivor had not heard from anyone - about a place to stay - for a very long time.

"She thought she wasn't important, that she didn't deserve help," she said.

Women cannot "jump through hoops" to find domestic violence services and support. Ms King said many victim-survivors are forced into homelessness just to be safe.

"I certainly didn't get out of homelessness on my own," she said. "When you're in that state of trauma, barely surviving ... life is a complete and utter mess."

She said in many cases clients were punished for leaving their abusers and said it was one of the most dangerous times for these women.

"When systems are coming in to hold the perpetrator accountable, he's looking at lashing out, making the victim accountable for the consequences he's experiencing because that's how the power dynamics work," Ms King said.

Ms King works with Angie Piubello at Beryl women's shelter, Canberra's oldest and only culturally appropriate, trauma-informed service.

Ms Piubello has been a support worker for 16 years and said they never forced clients to apply for a family violence order. She said many First Nations women were blamed for the violence they experienced.

National data shows partners abuse 1 in 3 Australian mothers between the birth of their first child and the child turning 10 years old.

With no new information about abuse against First Nations mothers, health data is often used to show that domestic violence hurts and kills First Nations women at an excessively disproportionate rate.

"They are 33 per cent more likely to be hospitalised," Ms King, who has a degree in medicine, quoted the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). This rate reportedly increases in rural and remote areas.

There was no record of domestic violence deaths where the victim or perpetrator was a First Nations person. "This is a known data limitation," an ACT review of 106 deaths over 22 years, said.

Growing up in Gumbaynggirr country (northern NSW), Ms King said she understood why many First Nations victim-survivors didn't go to police. Too often mothers were torn between reporting the abuser and not losing her children to protective services.

"She's fearful that her kids are going to be removed, that someone who doesn't have that lens might not understand," Ms King said.

Police usually arrested both the abuser and the victim because those who "fought back" or "resisted" abuse were seen as a threat.

"They're viewed as the angry, irrational, black woman," Ms King said.

In the ACT, First Nations women are 54 times more likely to be jailed than non-First Nations women and twice as more likely to be jailed than non-First Nations men, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Ms King said frontline workers and every police officer needed to undergo regular cultural education.

"It's not okay to just have one unit that is trained in domestic and family violence because they're not the ones making the house calls," Ms King said.

Excepting hospitalisation and incarceration data, the true extent of violence against First Nations women who are not in care or custody, is not known.

Data from a 2011 report quoted by the AIHW, states an estimated 90 per cent of violence against First Nations women is "undisclosed", as are most cases of sexual abuse against First Nations children.

It also lists 18 reasons for this estimate, including being blamed for abuse, being arrested, and fear of losing children and homes.

"I've seen the lengths that families will go to to avoid having their children removed, which for my family has meant cultural dispossession," Ms King said. "I've seen that happen for generations."

Detective Sergeant Sam Norman, head of the ACT Policing family violence unit said "police involvement in colonisation" resulted in trust issues.

He said their First Nations liaison officers could help improve relationships and also mentioned agencies outside the criminal space like Winnunga Nimmityjah.

Ms King said while services helped families and women where they could, justice systems were not built with an understanding of First Nations women and victim-survivors of domestic violence.

"Stop making everything a faith-based service... [it's] triggering for a lot of our women," she said.

Ms Piubello said the effects of colonisation were clear in the high rates of First Nations children in state care. She said these kids were more likely to experience abuse after being removed from their families.

First Nations children aged 17 and under made up 17 per cent of the out-of-home care population in 2022, but make up less than 2 per cent of ACT residents.

"We've got young girls growing up as parents and they have experienced trauma because of what their families have gone through," Ms Piubello, a specialist child and youth support worker, said.

"The levels of intergenerational trauma and the impacts of child removal ... has made me pretty much sick to my stomach."

She also said First Nations men were often blamed for most violence against the women, and said this was not true (AIHW states perpetrators have various backgrounds).

National Sorry Day on May 26 commemorated countless First Nations children whom the government forcibly took from their families up until 60 years ago.

Survivors, lawyers, and ministers have warned extreme rates of removing children repeats the intergenerational trauma of the Stolen Generations.

"Our history, white colonisation history, has hugely played into what goes on in Aboriginal communities," Ms Piubello said.

In 2021, young people in ACT state care were asked about their experiences with violence.

The first common sentiment was: "I can't tell anyone, because it will break up my family or make things worse". The last was: "I just want one worker with a warm heart."

The Minister for Children in the ACT Rachel Stephen-Smith previously acknowledged the rates of First Nations children in state care were unacceptably high and change was taking longer than expected.

She said all the recommendations from the Our Booris Our Way review - looking at the causes and consequences of high rates - were gradually being implemented.

Poor funding and 'insulting' wages

Beryl workers who support victim-survivors with complex trauma say they are probably operating at half capacity.

Without more staff, specialist workers like Ms King and Ms Piubello are at severe risk of burning out. They handle multiple cases while also being at risk of violence themselves.

Ms Piubello said they needed more qualified staff and at least a 40 per cent increase (estimated to be millions) in funding to help with housing and court support, therapeutic intervention and basic transport.

"We need you to do what Closing The Gap reports told you," Ms King said.

"Support women so they don't return to these relationships ... support their children so they don't become victims or perpetrators in the future.

"If I look at what they're paying us and what we're asking for, it's insulting."

Recommendations from the ACT Death Review, Our Booris Our Way, and the National Plan to end violence echo similar calls for funding.

The difference in life expectancy between First Nations people and the rest of the population is more than eight years.

The targets to close this gap include reducing children in care by 45 percent by 2031. The Productivity Commission reported this target was not on track and had worsened last year.

"We need to face the reality that women are fighting a war for survival in their homes," Ms King. "A war we call 'silent' is ... largely ignored and underfunded."