2026-01-22
Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Children
By Dr Hannah McGlade, Blak Greens
On the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, the Blak Greens reflected on the ongoing human rights issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and children in Australia.
Since July 1989, nearly 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, girls, and gender diverse people including sistergirls, have been victims of homicide and many more have simply disappeared. Disturbing as that number is, a lack of consistent data means it actually understates the magnitude of the crisis. Exact numbers remain unknown, many cases remain unsolved, and many men who have killed First Nations women have escaped punishment.
First Nations women are more likely to be killed by a current or former partner than non-Indigenous women, more likely to be hospitalised by violence, less likely to access support to leave violent relationships, and too often ignored or experience discrimination when they report violence.
This epidemic of violence is a human rights issue.
In 2022, the Senate began an inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Children (MMIWC). The inquiry heard months of evidence of First Nations women who approached police for support and were ignored or humiliated or even misidentified as the perpetrators of violence. Families whose pleas for help were dismissed.
For Irene Davey, who dropped her 21-year-old daughter Sara-Lee off in Broome in 1997 and never saw her again, the careless attitude of police made the pain of losing her daughter far worse. But this has been the reality for too many First Nations families. Many years later, it was revealed that the Australian navy sailor involved confessed to killing three women, all Indigenous women, making him a serial killer of Indigenous women.
The Senate Committee ultimately recommended that Police Ministers work on best police practices so that interactions with First Nations people “are consistent and of a high standard, including standards of cultural awareness and safety.” Recommended further actions include increasing the First Nations workforce of first responders, respecting requests to re-open investigations, and co-designed training programs.
Shortly after the Senate inquiry report was released, National Cabinet committed to:
“Maintaining a central focus on missing and murdered First Nations women and children and agreed that all government commitments on gender based violence must explicitly consider the needs and experiences of First Nations people and be delivered in genuine partnership with First Nations communities.”
However, little has come from this announcement.
Earlier this year, a standalone First Nations-led plan, Our Ways, Strong Ways, Our Voices, was released, and a dedicated peak body established to oversee its implementation. This is a significant step towards what First Nations women have long called for: a real say in the solutions to violence in their communities and reform of systems that discriminate and perpetrate violence to women and children.
Unfortunately, like so many inquiries before it, recommendations from the MMIWC inquiry remain unimplemented, with countless instances of police and courts interactions failing Indigenous women experiencing violence. First Nations women continue to experience high levels of violence, and murder, are punished and victimised if they seek help, and report discrimination in the justice system.
In June 2026, at request from myself as a Kurin Minang woman leading the Seven Sisters project, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Katie Kiss, and Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin, convened a MMIWC roundtable with the Governor-General to highlight these issues.
Roundtable participants again called for violence and human rights abuses against First Nations women to be treated as a national priority, and for urgent, coordinated action to progress earlier recommendations. This includes stronger data collection to accurately track rates of violence, investigations and outcomes in missing persons cases, and contact with government systems prior to deaths or disappearances. We also consider that Indigenous affairs must adopt a gender lens to urgently combat MMIWC.
Under the Seven Sisters project, several cases concerning Aboriginal women who had been misidentified and wrongfully incarcerated as well as murdered, were brought before the UN Committee on the Convention on Ending Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The UN CEDAW refused to hear the cases, shutting the door on the Aboriginal women and failing to recognise the systems failure and lack of justice in Australia.
Australia’s next review before the UN CEDAW is scheduled for October 2027. It now falls to us all to create pressure for justice and recognition. We call on the government to urgently implement the national plan, the MMIWC inquiry and roundtable.
As a progressive political party, the Australian Greens should also increase support for Aboriginal women’s work to end violence and Indigenous femicide - which was fundamental to Australia’s history and dispossession of Indigenous people.