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Acknowledgement

While working at the Aborigine’s Advancement League, Elizabeth Morgan Hoffman (Aunty Elizabeth) identified the need to provide Aboriginal women and children with a safe place to escape family violence. She, Aunty Joyce Johnson and other Aboriginal women would take women and children escaping family violence into their own homes.

Aunty Elizabeth’s vision was to provide Aboriginal women and their children with a safe place where they could escape family violence, and where they could get their lives back together while accessing the help and support they needed.

After visiting women’s refuges and talking with community, Aunty Elizabeth strongly believed that Aboriginal women and children needed their own refuge, where they could be with their own people.

AUNTIE ELIZABETH HOFFMAN

Aunty Elizabeth Hoffman - Interview (1999)
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Aunty Elizabeth and a number of other Aboriginal women co-founded Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Women’s Service in the early 1970s. Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Women’s Service became Australia’s first Aboriginal women’s refuge.

Aunty Elizabeth and other Aboriginal women battled for many years to convince governments to provide funding for rent and wages at the refuge. She made many trips to Canberra to lobby politicians and public services including the Auditor General.

In 1984, Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Women’s Service became incorporated and independent of the Aborigine’s Advancement League.

In 2006, Elizabeth Morgan Hoffman was acknowledged with a NAIDOC National Lifetime Achievement Award, for her co-founding of Elizabeth Hoffman House and her commitment to stopping violence against women and children.

Today, Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Women’s Service is a strong Aboriginal community controlled organisation providing crisis accommodation for Aboriginal women and children through the refuge, as well as outreach services which empower educate and support women to realise their rights.

"When I needed to use it [the refuge], I was proud there was such a place in our community."
* Elizabeth Hoffman House Aboriginal Women’s Service client