Family violence occurs in all sections of our community, across all cultures and in all types of relationships (e.g., lesbian, gay, heterosexual). Being abused is NOT a normal part of family life.

Because family violence can occur in any culture, it is important that the definition of family violence recognises and reflects the perspectives and realities of all communities within Victoria, including Indigenous communities. The Victorian Indigenous Family Violence Taskforce has defined family violence as:

"An issue focused around a wide range of physical, emotional, sexual, social, spiritual, cultural, psychological and economic abuses that occur within families, intimate relationships, extended families, kinship networks and communities. It extends to one on one fighting, abuse of Indigenous community workers, as well as self harm, injury and suicide."
(Family Violence Taskforce)

Whilst it is difficult to define family violence due to the complexity of the issues, Elizabeth Hoffman House adopts the above stated definition and is also aligned with the United Nation's definition quoted below:

"The United Nations defines violence against women as any act of gender based violence that results or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life."
(United Nations 1996)

Family violence occurs when someone in an intimate or familial relationship attempts to gain and/or maintain power and control over another through a wide range of abusive behaviours:

• PHYSICAL - e.g. punching, pushing, being injured with objects/weapons.
• VERBAL - e.g. constant put-downs, name calling.
• SEXUAL - e.g. any forced or unwanted sexual contact/activity.
• SOCIAL - e.g. controlling where you go, who you see, what you wear.
• FINANCIAL - e.g. being refused/denied access to money.
• DAMAGE TO PROPERTY - e.g. kicking a hole in the wall, scratching your car.
• PSYCHOLOGICAL - e.g. Behaviour and/or comments to undermine your sense of self.
• HETEROSEXIST CONTROL - e.g. threatening to 'out' you to others where you have chosen to come out or feel it is unsafe to do so.

Aboriginal women are 45 times more likely to experience family violence and 10 times more likely to die as a result than the non Aboriginal population. Aboriginal communities have complex family and kinship networks and, while leaving family life is difficult and confusing for all women, the experience of Aboriginal women is even more so.

Aboriginal women are over represented as victims of violent crime. In comparison to a Victorian non-Indigenous woman, an Aboriginal woman is:

• Four times more likely to be murdered;
• More than twice as likely to be the victim of sexual assault, or sexual assault against children;
• Four times more likely to be the victim of assault; and
• Seven times more likely to be a victim of grievous bodily harm.

The Aboriginal community's understanding of family violence includes: 'one on one fighting, abuse involving the Aboriginal community workers, self harm, injury and suicide and is also inclusive of elder abuse and victims of family violence can include parents, uncles, aunties, (step) children, (step) siblings, cousins, grandparents, in laws and distant relatives.'

The Victorian Aboriginal Family Violence Taskforce attributes the high incidence and prevalence of family violence among Aboriginal people to a number of factors including:

• Dispossession of land and traditional culture
• Breakdown of community kinship systems and Aboriginal Law
• Racism and vilification
• Economic exclusion and entrenched poverty
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• The affects of institutionalisation and child removal policies
• Inherited grief and traumas and loss of traditional Aboriginal male roles and status

The experience of Aboriginal women and children occurs in the context of the colonisation, dispossession and oppression of Aboriginal Australians. This is demonstrated by the significant over-representation of Aboriginal people in institutions and by figures regarding health and mortality of the Aboriginal community.

The Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Inquiry, conducted in 1987, found that Aboriginal people die in custody at an unacceptable rate relevant to their proportion of the whole population and are grossly over-represented in prison populations. Since the Inquiry, the incarceration rate of Aboriginal women have increased by 256%.

Victoria has the highest number of Aboriginal children coming to the attention of child protection in Australia. This is of particular significance given that Victoria has one of the lowest Aboriginal populations. The trauma of living with family violence is but one of the multiple traumas frequently experienced by Aboriginal children. These multiple traumas include the witnessing of community violence, death of loved ones, dislocation from home and community, poor health and extreme poverty.

Aboriginal leader Lowitija O'Donoghue has said that: 'Many children are growing up in communities where violence has become normal and an ordinary part of life and this has resulted in a generation of young Aboriginal people who are engaging in high risk and illegal behaviours, misusing alcohol and other drugs, trying to function in spite of profound emotional and physical damage, trying to form loving relationships, even though they are confused about what love is and, most terrifying of all, harming themselves and killing themselves at unprecedented rates.'

There is considerable diversity in Aboriginal cultural practice and among communities which makes it impossible to generalise about the nature of violence or Aboriginal women and children's experience of it. The interconnected nature of Aboriginal communities can mean a woman's ability to maintain anonymity is compromised and this undermines her ability to establish a safe space for herself and her children away from violence.