Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 69 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be hospitalised with head injuries due to assaults.
But some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women don’t access health care and support services after head injuries from family violence. Our research, published this week, explored some of the reasons why – and how these barriers can be overcome.
We found fear of child removal, poverty, coercive control and low awareness of traumatic brain injury related to family violence can all impact on when and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women access health care and support services.
In the NT, where my work at RDH for 20 years took me, aboriginal women do not complain about family violence due to concerns about payback.
When you live on a ‘community’ 100 km from the nearest police station ‘payback’ is the only law.
The traditional people I worked with speak English as a second or third language and have very little understanding, if any, of western medicine. Doctors have told me that when they scope kids ears on the communities they only see bone as untreated ear infections have led to destroyed ear drums. So poor hearing is endemic.
To see women beaten around the head just go the Todd River and observe the local women there. Their healed injuries are grotesque.
We never get shown these pictures of reality down south alas.
Indigenous men are a major concern in remote Australia. And it is never reported.