New First Nations-led organisation to target hidden ‘scourge’ of family violence

Peak body will work with community-controlled organisations to address rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A new national body to reduce rates of family and sexual violence towards Aboriginal women and children will launch in Canberra on Wednesday, after years of campaigning by Indigenous women’s safety advocates. First Nations women are seven times more likely to be killed and 27 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous women, and reducing rates of violence is a Closing the Gap target. But advocates say the issue is often under-reported and funding for programs to prevent violence and support victims is ad hoc and siloed. A new organisation, Our Ways Strong Together, will sit at the centre of a stand-alone First Nations plan and is designed to ensure the strategy does not “sit on the shelf”, but transforms policies across policing, courts, housing, child protection and frontline services, advocates said. Our Ways Strong Together’s inaugural director Aunty Muriel Bamblett said the body would bring together