1 Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank all the women who gave their valuable time and energy to tell me and my team their stories to inform this Report. Even when the stories have highlighted the strength and resilience of our people, these stories are also often harrowing and heartbreaking. They can be traumatic to re-tell, and I acknowledge that. I acknowledge, too, that these matters are often particularly exhausting to talk about because much of the time they are ongoing and far from settled business. Additionally, each woman who contributed to this Report through a survey, submission or interview, knew that I was not offering them help in their native title case – they knew that I could not do that as Social Justice Commissioner. They did it to have the stories heard and to try and change the system. In the native title space, like many other areas of engagement around First Nations peoples’ rights and interests, so much free labour is expected of so many of us. My team and I are acutely aware that in coming to women to tell their stories, we were asking for another such contribution. I am so grateful that the women interviewed wanted to combine efforts with me to produce this unique lens on the native title system. This work is as much theirs as it is mine, and like me, I know that they hope that this Report will help to encourage reform towards genuine land justice and self‑determination for our peoples. 6 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024