Amplifying Unheard Voices: Commemorating Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Don’t miss out - Get your tickets early!

Join a stellar panel of experts in this WEBINAR presented by CEVAW

TOPIC: Amplifying Unheard Voices: Commemorating Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

In Canada, the United States of America, and increasingly around the world, the 5 May is recognised as the International Day of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a day of mourning. In Australia, Indigenous women are seven times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be killed by a violent partner. Indigenous women face disproportionately high rates of violence, with recent data revealing they are up to 35 times more likely to be hospitalized due to family violence-related assaults compared to non-Indigenous women. Australian Indigenous women, and their families, have been subjected to alarming rates of violence since the Australian Frontier Wars.  This webinar considers why Australia should commemorate the International Day of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, the lessons to be learnt from international experiences, and the difference a day of commemoration will make to the lives of those affected by this violence.

This webinar is being held in the aftermath of the Australian national election, on the first year anniversary of the convened National Cabinet on gender-based violence and National Crisis Talks on violence against women. The discussion amongst the panellists will focus not only on the importance of commemoration, but also the commitments that governments need to make to eliminate violence against women, especially Indigenous women and their families.  

EVENT DETAILS

• DATE: Thursday 8 May 2025
• TIME: 10:00am (AEST) start, finishing at 11:30am
• DURATION: 90 minutes (incl Q&A)
• LOCATION: Online - a link will be emailed to you with the viewing details

PANELLISTS

Professor Kyllie Cripps, Chief Investigator, CEVAW

Kyllie is a Palawa woman, a criminologist, and Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. She is also the Director of Monash’s Indigenous Studies Centre. Prof Cripps is one of Australia’s leading researchers on Indigenous family violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Leading major grants she has contributed to the field through interdisciplinary empirical studies that have defined violence on Indigenous terms, identified factors contributing to violence, and examined the access and availability of services in the aftermath of violence. Her work has been critical in identifying gaps and opportunities to create sustainable solutions to support policy and practice change. She is widely published in this area. She holds a PhD and Distinguished Alumni Award from Monash University.

Gwendolyn Packard, US National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

Gwendolyn (Ihanktonwan Dakota) is Director for STTARS Indigenous Safe Housing Center, a project of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, has worked for many years in Indian country, both at the national and tribal level.  She has served as editor for six national Indian publications.  In 1990 she was instrumental in founding the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS). She served as Executive Director for Morning Star House, an advocacy program that works with off reservation Indian women and children who are victims of domestic and sexual violence.  She also served as Executive Director of the NM Suicide Prevention Coalition, and is founder and Co-Chair of Rain Cloud, the off reservation behavioral health collaborative in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  She is a survivor of domestic violence, a writer, a grass roots organizer and community activist.  She has made a commitment to social change in working to address social and economic justice issues that affect the health and well-being of Indian people as documented in her work experience.

Dr Marlene Longbottom, Associate Professor, Indigenous Education & Research Centre, James Cook University

Marlene is a Yuin woman from the Roseby Park mission (Jerrinja) located on the South Coast of NSW. She is an Associate Professor at the Indigenous Education & Research Centre at James Cook University. With nearly 30 years of experience, Marlene has worked across New South Wales, the Torres Strait, and Far North Queensland in both human services and academia. Marlene’s research spans over 15 years, during which she has collaboratively implemented community-based research and evaluation projects that are driven by the needs and priorities of Indigenous communities, including both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups across urban, regional, and remote areas in New South Wales and Queensland. She specializes in researching service systems and the provision of services to Indigenous communities, with a focus in the past decade on trauma and violence within these communities.

Nardia Green

Nardia is a Dhunghutti woman, with extensive work experience in the domestic and family violence sector. Nardia is a beautiful Aboriginal elder who sadly lost her daughter, Allira, and grandson, Jai, to domestic violence in 2012. Nardia brings a unique perspective having worked as a Police Liaison Officer both before and after the death of her daughter and grandson to improve responses to MMIW. She is an amazing, inspiring, determined granny who speaks with heart!

MODERATOR 

Professor Sara Davies is Deputy Director (Indo-Pacific Research, CEVAW. She also leads the Context Pillar and a workstream research program on Shocks and Violence Against Women, which investigates scalable protection strategies for at-risk populations.

ABOUT CEVAW

The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) is the world's first Centre to address the full range of forms of violence against women in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.

Headquartered at Monash University, the CEVAW network comprises 13 Chief Investigators from six Australian universities, and 45 Australian and international partner organisations.

With a $35M investment from the ARC (Australian Research Council), CEVAW is poised to make significant global impact by examining the structural drivers that cause and compound violence against women, and pioneering new, evidence-based approaches to radically improve policy and practice across Australia and the Indo-Pacific.

The Centre mobilises survivor-centric and Indigenous approaches, interdisciplinary collaborations, and Indo-Pacific partnerships to deliver scalable approaches to eliminate violence against women across the legal, security, economic, health, and political systems of Australia and the region.

This Centre is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council.