Djirra’s Key Advocacy Priorities

Djirra’s expertise and self-determined solutions must be prioritised and invested in.

  1. Support and fund Djirra to establish Victoria’s first and only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Centre
  2. Invest in Djirra’s service delivery in regional areas, ensuring access to specialist, holistic, family violence support within 100kms.
  3. Resource and empower Djirra’s data sovereignty to ensure self-determination.
  4. Fund Djirra to provide specialist services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQA+ people experiencing family violence.

Ensure housing security

  1. Guarantee culturally appropriate, safe and affordable housing options for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women escaping family violence and exiting prison.

Acknowledge and prioritise the health impacts of family violence

  1. Implement standardised, culturally appropriate screening and support for Acquired Brain Injuries for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experiencing family and sexual violence.
  2. Ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in prison can choose to continue accessing support from their existing health professionals, including allied health.
  3. Ensure culturally safe support for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women with a disability to acces the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Keep Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with their mothers

  1. Invest in Djirra to ensure mothers are supported to escape violence and stay safe and together with their children.
  2. Establish and fund a mandatory Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protection notification and referral system, for all Aboriginal mothers or mothers to be in contact with child protection.
  3. Urgent legislative change to amend Victoria’s child protection permanency settings. Reunification must never be ruled out as a possibility.

Better justice responses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women

  1. Support Djirra’s work to end the misidentification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women as the primary aggressor
  2. Fully implement Poccum’s Law - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are never safe in prison. Our women belong with their families and in their communities.
  3. Raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14.
  4. Appoint a Victorian Aboriginal Justice Commissioner.
  5. Establish a community-based residential program to prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women from being imprisoned.
  6. Establish a Royal Commission into missing and murdered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children.
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Learn about Djirra's Advocacy Work