CA SE STUDY The Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group Not just numbers: voice and visibility We are not just numbers. We’re living, breathing human beings. Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunties, great grandmothers.” Shirleen Campbell, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council member Aboriginal women with links to the 16 Town Camps in Mparntwe/Alice Springs are doing ground breaking work to tackle violence against women, with the aim of achieving systemic solutions to the issues behind family and domestic violence. The Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group is delivering a strong, grassroots, place-based primary prevention program for their own communities, while also advocating across the Northern Territory and nationally on racism, sexism, power and other structural issues that lead to gender inequality and violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. “We’ve been rocking the boat and making noises. Now, we want to sail the ship to high seas, making new and longer-lasting waves for our future generations,” says the group’s co-coordinator Shirleen Campbell in a recent documentary about their work, titled Not Just Numbers.25 Shirleen is a Warlpiri and Arrernte woman and third-generation resident of Alice Springs Town Camp, Lhenpe Artnwe or Hoppy's Camp. Nearly every woman she knows has been impacted in some way by family and domestic violence, either witnessing or surviving it, or mourning those who have died. 32 Yet too often, she says, their experiences and losses are invisible to the media and politicians or counted only as statistics. The film showcases the women’s strength, knowledge, passion and undaunted hope for change as they lead a march, 300 strong, through the streets of Mparntwe/Alice Springs, after a violent attack on an Aboriginal woman at the Todd River. Their powerful advocacy saw Shirleen appointed last year to the 13-member Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council to inform the Australian Government’s National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022–2032 and support the Closing the Gap family violence target 13.26 Carmel Simpson, the group’s nonIndigenous co-coordinator, says the women are looking to change attitudes on gender and violence in their own communities. The Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group is part of the wholeof-community Tangentyere Family Violence Prevention Program, which includes the Tangentyere Men’s Family Violence Prevention Program (Marra’ka Mbarintja – Talking straight to make change), the Domestic Violence Specialist Children’s Service and the Strong Parents, Strong Kids, Strong Communities program. Together they have launched community and social media campaigns to challenge gender stereotypes, promote healthy emotions and relationships, and counter racist stereotypes of Aboriginal men that were compounded by the Northern Territory Intervention. Carmel explains that the Mums Can, Dads Can project challenged rigid stereotypical beliefs and attitudes about the roles of women and men, especially about parenting, with messages like “Dads can be gentle and Mums can be strong”, and “Dads So when we're looking at why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are more likely to experience violence at a much higher rate than non-Indigenous women, we know that it's not only gender, and it's not only racism that contributes. It’s the combination of the two.” Carmel Simpson, Co-coordinator, Tangentyere Women’s Family Safety Group Transforming Power: Voices for Generational Change