WEBVTT - The frontline of Australia’s family violence crisis 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.640 Our average day could be anything. We could be locking 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:07.119 down our office because a man has gone and kidnaped 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:11.039 one of our women and they're driving around the city streets. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.960 Colleena Morgan Wyman is the CEO of Elizabeth Morgan House, 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.520 a refuge for First Nations women escaping violence. 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.919 We could be having three to four crisis situations which 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.240 we have to respond to, or we could be holding 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.640 a safe space for women to come over to our 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.200 Winna's hub. It's a four unit high secure refuge bill 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.800 fourteen years ago and we have one crisis accommodation property. 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.960 We could be fighting for children not to be removed 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:46.000 from their parents. We could be going into lockdown because 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.360 a lady has been placed into the hospital and her 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.120 man has found out that we're supporting them. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.200 Aboriginal on Tyro straightlder women are thirty three times more 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.760 likely to be victims of domestic violence and eight times 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.920 more likely to be killed by their partner. And these 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.920 sorry statistics don't seem like litting up anytime soon. Just 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.720 last week, a twenty four year old pregnant Aboriginal woman 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.640 was shot and killed by her ex partner in regional 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.480 New South Wales. Family violence and Aboriginal communities is a 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.200 national crisis, often made worse by the systems they seek 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.520 help from, and people within those systems that often misidentify 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:26.400 the victim as the perpetrator. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.760 Most of the time, what creates even more psychological trauma 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.639 and stress to the women is the fact that they 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.200 never ever know or informed about what is their journey 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.199 through these services, what they can expect, and also where 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.440 they can have the choice to have agency and make 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:45.520 their own choices. 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.320 Colleena's work is focused on changing that, on helping women 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.400 get their agency back as they navigate the most difficult 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.760 times in their lives. Her work is relentless and goes unheralded, 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.360 but without people like her, things would be so much 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:08.520 worse for women and families fleeing domestic violence. I'm Daniel James, 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:13.200 and you're listening to seven AM today CEO of Elizabeth 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.240 Morgan House Colleena Morgan Wyman on the issues confronting our 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.240 most vulnerable, the tenuous funding environment for services like hers, 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:26.040 and where the governments of all Persuasians are serious about 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:37.960 addressing the family violence epidemic. It's Monday, January twenty sixth Colleena, 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.880 thanks for speaking with me. By the time a woman 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.920 comes into contact with your organization, how would you describe 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:46.720 what they've been going through? 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.760 They're escaping, they're actually escaping family violence, and they're sitting 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.520 in parks or day long waiting for response to go 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.959 into motil crisis accommodation. They may not have any money, 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.840 they may not have phones. And we're the only statewide 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.240 aboriginal service that is funded to give crisis accommodation program. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.200 It is a pilot program which is funded from the 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:16.160 federal government. And Elizabeth Morgan House applied for this funding 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.520 and the pilot program because there was evidence and there 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.480 was women's experiences of further being damage going into the 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.079 motel crisis accommodation. 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.600 What as to the complexity of the cases of the 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.519 people that you've seen, in particular Colenda and Elizabeth Morgan, 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.360 Why are they deemed on the whole more complex. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.160 Because there's a whole range of issues that you have 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.520 to be able to address before you get to family violence. 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.840 Victim survivors are perpetrators, perpetrators are victim survivors, and family 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:52.320 violence is becoming very complex. We've got AOD, we've got 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:58.240 mental health, we've got homelessness. Any woman that has not 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:03.480 been able to find safety or security when she's been 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.760 in high levels of psychological distress are a lot harder 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.840 to work with. We get handbled, very hard cases for 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:16.840 women who may because when they're stressed, because when they're triggered, 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:21.240 may actually choose to act in violence themselves. They might 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.880 actually choose to damage property around them because they don't 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.000 know any other way how to regulate their nervous system. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.960 The more damaged done to a woman's nervous system, it 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:36.160 means the harder and more complex it is, because psychological 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.760 trauma is just devastating. 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.159 Why did you get into this type of work in 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.120 the first place, Cleana, It's a legacy. 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.920 Elizabeth Morgan is my grandmother. And what you'll find is, 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.120 if you know anything about the history in Victoria of 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:54.360 the establishment of our Aboriginal organizations, is it all come 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:59.119 from one place, the Aborigine Needs Advancement League. And that's 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.360 when it was recognize that we needed to create our 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:07.040 own services, to create cultural safe space for our people 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:10.800 to get taken care of. And so we walk in 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.640 the footsteps of giants. My nan Elizabeth Morgan was one 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:18.400 of the longest serving directors in the Aborigines Advancement League. 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:23.200 The formation of Elizabeth Morgan House wasn't just under ego 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.560 we have an obligation to care for our women. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.039 Does the work ever let up clean? I mean, is 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.039 it tough for you personally and a team personally to 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.520 deal with that kind of trauma day in day out? 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:38.039 It is really really hard. But what we do have 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.560 to work a lot towards is being able to separate 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.360 what is our personal trauma that we bring because every 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:49.359 single Aboriginal woman has intergenerational trauma. We stand behind the 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.600 work that we do. I think every other single organization 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:57.720 in Victoria and Australia does. Who is a specialist Aboriginal 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:03.080 women's family violence service? I think the most frustrating, traumatizing 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.080 element of it that occurs with our workforce is the 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.320 fact that when we identify that our states and our 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.520 systems are the one letting our women down and they're failing. 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:23.200 Us coming up the disconnect between announcements and outcomes. 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.599 Violence against women is indeed a national crisis. We know 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.359 that when on average, once every four days, a woman 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.240 is murdered by someone they know, by an intimate partner 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.680 or format partner, that is a national crisis. 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.040 It's a scourgeon, it's a stain clina. We've seen successive 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.279 governments try to address this issue, but at least fifty 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.039 two women were violently killed last year according to the 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.760 Counting Dead Women Australia Register. So what is going wrong? 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.280 What is the government failing to do and what are 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.039 we failing to do as a community to address this scourge. 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.960 I think we have to look at the broader social 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.560 issues that are occurring and really start calling things out. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.720 I know that there's a lot of focus on extremism 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:21.559 these days and the government is very quick to jump 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:25.160 to that, but what they're not comfortable doing is being 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:29.200 able to identify and say straight out the extremeism of 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:36.400 misogyny and gendered violence. Society value of women or Aboriginal 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:38.120 women is very live. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.000 Well, it's a beautiful morning here on Gary's Eastern Beach, 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.680 but it's a day marked by real grief and tragedy 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.160 for the small, tight knit community here on the islands, 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:48.280 but also. 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.840 Most recently, the young lady who died on Gary Island 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:53.080 yesterday afternoon. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.760 A floral tribute had been placed by loved ones of 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.760 Piper on a sand dune overlooking the Struture Beach where 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:02.040 her body was found. 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.360 Around Do you know what was in all the comments? 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:08.920 The comments were all about it's Fraser Island. It's Fraser Island. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:16.040 I believe where Australia is desensitized to the fact that children, families, 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:22.080 communities have lost a woman and our society does not 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.400 see it as a crisis. How are we addressing that? 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.040 How are we addressing the value of lives of women? 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.040 Where's the government falling short? Do you think they're fully 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.880 committed to changing attitudes and ending the violence? 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:40.040 I don't believe that government is one thousand percent committed 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:44.319 to ending violence. The amount of ministers that have churned 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:49.520 through the portfolio of family violence, they could last six months, 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.240 they can last one year, they can last two years. 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.880 We might meet them and we might brief them and 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.800 they might come across what they have to do as 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.680 a minister to address family violence. There is no one 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:08.080 minister that has the ability to really commit themselves to 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:12.720 what ending family violence is. That is the biggest problem. Furthermore, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.640 states aren't getting down and doing the dirty work. We 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.160 recently found out that Victoria put in a bit to 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.400 host what they call the Women Deliver Conference. Women Deliver 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:30.400 is an international brand, it's an international organization in America. 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:35.040 Whatever country is hosting that conference will make an announcement 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:39.760 about their investment into gender equity. Yet Victoria does not 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.319 have a plan for gender equity and justice for Aboriginal women. 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.200 We can spare millions and millions of dollars on the 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.040 treaty process, We can spare millions of dollars on hosting 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.240 a Women Deliver conference, Yet Victoria or Australia has not 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.400 come to any Aboriginal group women's to say this is 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.400 the announcement that we're going to make at the Women 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.440 Deliver Conference. This is the investment that we're going to 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:11.679 make for grassroots gender equity. But it's about time that 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:17.680 the state starts naming and defining state violence and systems violence, 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:21.400 because that is the biggest impact to our women and communities. 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.480 Can you elaborate on that a little bit cleaner? 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.600 For example, what we can say is they've recently rolled 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.760 back the bar law reforms in Victoria. They were first 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:37.200 made as Pockham's Law and our women felt safe with 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.080 these laws. It's moved by the Victorian government is an 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.360 explicit decision to criminalize and. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:43.760 Cage Aboriginal people. 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.360 We are already the most incarcerated. 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.760 Now they've rolled them back and more women are sitting 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.160 in there with their bowl tests. We've got high rates 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:58.400 of misidentification. There's more women sitting in jail, and ninety 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:03.400 percent of them or victims to family violence. Misidentification happens 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:08.160 because police officers aren't able to differentiate between the perpetrator 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.840 or the victim survivor, and they apply this reasonable person's test, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.120 So police officers are trained for what would a colleague 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:24.319 in this situation do as a reasonable response. Any person 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:29.920 that is found to be emotionally unstable in hysterics are 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.040 often painted as the person who is the perpetrator, while 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.200 mostly the perpetrator is a narcissist and they have the 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:42.960 ability to manipulate and to psychologically present themselves in a 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.679 way where they're calm and they're a reasonable person. And 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.959 we have got so many case studies of women's lives 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.080 being torn apart because of misidentification. 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.640 And so much The funding for your program Cleaner is 0:11:56.800 --> 0:12:00.600 pilot funding. What happens to the women your supporting when 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.560 that pilot funding runs out? 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.560 Well, we have one pilot program that's through the federal government, 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.959 which was our pilot crisis accommodation program. When we get 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:16.079 to June thirty, we don't have the crisis Accommodation program anymore. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.360 We don't have our intake program anymore. The majority of 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:24.680 our ferals comes from the Aboriginal Housing entry point for homelessness, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.360 but those organizations that run that program do not have 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:33.160 any housing or crisis accommodation within their stock or assets. 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.679 We get all the phone calls from that housing entry point. 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.839 We are the first porter core. So we're holding up 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:47.000 the homelessness element of crisis accommodation in Victoria. So it's 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.000 going to end up that those organizations where the housing 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.920 point is, they will have no program or no crisis 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:57.280 accommodation to refer to. And they are at the times 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:01.839 when women are at their most crucial. Our women are homeless, 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.080 Our women have no homes to escape to. It's actually 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.280 at a point in having them leave and not return 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.839 to family violence, and it's the crucial parts of where 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:21.240 the most harm will be done. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.640 And finally, Klena, with all of that in mind, and 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.960 with the experience both of yourself and of your family 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.360 and the people that have been involved in Elizabeth Morgan 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:35.600 House throughout the generations. Are things getting better or worse? 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.000 They're actually getting worse. What we actually see is that 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:45.400 the increase of damage to our women's nervous system from 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:50.720 trauma makes it so much harder to recover and to 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.440 lead their whole life of journey. The state government has 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.920 not increased their funding or changed their policy model to 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:03.840 go isn't just about crisis funding. This is about getting 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.080 to recovery and then what does healing mean? And there's 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.199 a whole continuum that goes along that line. And being 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.880 funded for seventy one one on one canceling sessions in 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.520 a whole financial year for how many women we know 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:25.720 have intergenerational trauma, have trauma from violence, have trauma from parenting. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.640 How are we supposed to support our women to live 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.800 life to the fullest, to live life free from violence 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.720 if state governments and federal governments aren't going to invest 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.240 in recovery and in healing. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:49.080 Glena, thank you so much for your time. If this 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.160 has raised issues for you or someone you know, please 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.960 call the National Sexual Assault, Family and Domestic Violence Counseling 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.800 Line on one eight hundred seven three seven seven three 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:12.480 who also in the news. Greg Moriarty will be the 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:17.240 next Ambassador to the United States, replacing outgoing Ambassador Kevin Rudd. 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.080 Moriarty has served as Defense Secretary for nearly a decade, 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.400 was chief of staff to Malcolm Turbul when he was 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.480 Prime Minister, and has served as ambassador to Indonesia and Iran. 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.720 He is the first non political appointee in more than 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:36.520 fifteen years. An immigration and Customs enforcement agents have shot 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.000 and killed a thirty seven year old intensive care nurse 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.720 in Minneapolis, sparking a further round of protests in the city. 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.920 Federal agents have attempted to betray the man they killed 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.040 as a domestic terrorist who wanted to kill law enforcement, 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.280 but the man, Alex Jeffrey Pretty, was described by the 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:56.240 Minneapolis police chief as a US citizen with no criminal record. 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.240 The New York Times has reviewed videos of the arrest 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.360 that show he was at armed, despite claims from Ice 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.680 that he pulled a weapon on them. We're planning a 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.440 full report on the situation in Minneapolis and the broader 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.920 Ice cracked down for later this week. I'm Daniel James. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.200 This is seven AM. Thanks for listening.