Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wish to send a message of love and solidarity to First Nations women, girls, sister girls, brother boys and gender-diverse people who have been disappeared and murdered since the invasion of this country. It is a gross injustice that First Peoples keep having to say goodbye to our loved ones after they are taken by violence. This violence is felt the most by those in our communities who are black and brown and by our women, sister girls and brother boys. In the words of Dr Amy McQuire:

Violence is one of the key stories told of Aboriginal communities, and yet Aboriginal women are silenced in these conversations, seen as without agency or as bodies on which acts of violence are perpetrated. In this way, the active resistances of Aboriginal women throughout their lives, and the resistances of their families, their communities and their personhood, are disappeared. To speak is to speak an end to an unsafe space in which these violences are continually weaponised against whole communities …

I know firsthand that staying silent only lets violence and the status quo continue.

The racial and gendered violence against our women and girls today is the same colonial violence that began with the first invasion and the Frontier Wars. The root cause of disappeared and murdered First Nations people is the colonial system of white supremacy. This system is enforced by police, courts, predators and media. Together, they have created a culture where those in power get to decide whose life is worth protecting. It means that some people get to do what they like without any consequences while others live in fear.

The police do not protect us. The biggest risk factor for First Peoples being murdered or going missing is being policed. If we want to stop the Indigenous femicide in this country, we have to listen to black women and we have to address racism and white supremacy in this place and the way in which violence is inflicted differently on people of colour, women and gender-diverse people. As said by Professor Chelsea Watego:

Grieving families are not asking you to keep better count of our dead, or seeking commemorations and condolences for our losses … families want justice for racial and gendered violence against Indigenous women. These families want accountability and safety for our communities now.

Impacted First Nations women, girls and their families have always spoken out and will always speak out about this injustice and the silencing of black voices. They must be acknowledged as the experts they are. It is time to do the real work and be guided by First Peoples in finally taking action to end the disappearing and murdering and allow us to heal. We need to move beyond police, prisons and surveillance, which ignore the fact that the only way to make communities safe for everyone is to support community based restorative approaches that exist outside of the carceral system. Unless we address the underlying causes that contribute to the ongoing violence against First Nations women, girls and gender-diverse people, we will keep going around in circles while people continue dying. This means addressing social, economic, cultural, institutional and historical causes. It means holistic self-determined solutions that include housing, health care, education, legal services and other supports.

I want to finish by acknowledging that Darwin's queer and Tiwi communities are currently in mourning after the death of a sistergirl. May she rest in power. Crystal Love, an aunty and the matriarch of the Tiwi sistergirls, said:

We are living in a world that is all messed up … she was good person, a kind person.

She had a good life, she had family and friends who love her, our communities that love her, but it was just tragic, because … sometimes some people have bigger dreams, she had those.