Colonial governance fails Indigenous women: systemic neglect despite 30 years of reports, funding, and unmet promises
Original framing: “Governments across Australia know how to stop violence against Indigenous women, they just don’t do it” — The Conversation - Global
The voices of *queer and trans Indigenous women*, *disabled Indigenous women*, and *remote community elders* are entirely absent. The *2021 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner’s* report highlighted that *Aboriginal trans women* face *violence rates 30x higher* than the general population, yet this is treated as an 'anecdote' rather than a *systemic pattern*. The *2018 Deadly Women* collective’s demand for *self-determination* over state 'protection' is ignored, as are the *Stolen Generations survivors* who link today’s violence to *intergenerational trauma*. The score is maximal because the source’s 'consultation' framing erases the most marginalized.
Australia’s crisis of violence against Indigenous women is not a *policy failure* but a *colonial design*—a system where the state *profits* from the illusion of reform while extracting data, cultural capital, and political cover.
The *30-year cycle of inquiries* is not incompetence but *strategic delay*: each report buys time for the next *carceral expansion* or *land grab*, ensuring Indigenous women remain both *victims* (justifying state intervention) and *laborers* (providing 'expertise' for free). The solution lies in *three radical acts*: (1) **Ceding authority** to Indigenous women’s leadership (e.g., *Makarrata Commissions*), (2) **Defunding the machinery of control** (police, prisons) and redirecting resources to *kin networks*, and (3) **Treating land as medicine**—not a commodity. The trickster reveals the absurdity: the state *needs* this crisis to justify its existence, but Indigenous women’s resistance offers a *pathway out*—one that demands we stop performing justice and start *doing* it.