State of knowledge report on existing knowledge, practice and responses to violence against women in Australian Indigenous communities

Despite the high numbers of Indigenous women experiencing violence, support needs for Indigenous women and their families cannot always be met through mainstream approaches and service models. Consequently, Indigenous women have called for services that are community owned and driven, address the needs of the whole family, and that account for cultural and place-based contexts in which the violence occurs.

This conceptual report provides a comprehensive overview of the existing state of knowledge on Australian Indigenous experiences, understandings and responses to violence against women. The report focuses on Indigenous perspectives to family and domestic violence as well as reviewing the available evidence-base for programmatic responses to violence against Indigenous women.

Particular attention is paid to published accounts of Indigenous approaches to ‘what works’ (including specific programs or approaches and/or key features of such approaches), what is needed across the continuum from prevention to intervention, and Indigenous perspectives on what constitutes success and innovation in the context of violence against women. While Indigenous communities have embarked on a variety of innovative community driven responses to violence against women, the report finds little evaluative evidence for the impact and effectiveness of these programs and authors call for funding and expertise to fill this gap.

The report informs a number of ANROWS priority topics that both directly or indirectly address Indigenous experiences of violence against women.