Unsung Heroes – Closing the Gap by Leading the Way

This year’s NAIDOC week theme recognises ‘the many unsung Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have made huge contributions to Australian society’.

The ALRC would like to acknowledge the invaluable contribution that Indigenous Australians have made to our work in reforming and developing the law.

In celebrating NAIDOC week for 2010, we would particularly like to recognise and pay tribute to all the Indigenous Australians who have very generously given their time and supported us in our Inquiry into Family Violence, who have met and consulted with us, participated in our online forums, made formal submissions and given us the benefit of their experiences and incredible stories.

Indigenous Australians working in community legal services, in refuges, rape crisis centres, in children’s services, in the police and in government services, and in other community organisations, are amazing in the support they provide to their communities and the way they work to improve the lives of Indigenous families every day.

In particular we would like to recognise and thank the following organisations, amongst others:

• The North Australian Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Service;
• North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency
• Top End Women’s Legal Service;
• Dawn House;
• Darwin Aboriginal and Islander Women’s Shelter;
• Darwin Domestic Violence Legal Service
• Central Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Unit;
• Central Australian Women’s Legal Service;
• Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service;
• Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankuytjatjara Women’s Council;
• the National Indigenous Family Violence Prevention Forum;
• the Aboriginal Legal Service;
• Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre;
• Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention & Legal Service Victoria; and
• National Indigenous Family Violence Prevention Forum.

The ALRC also acknowledges and thanks the Aboriginal women’s legal services and family violence prevention legal centres across the country who participated in our online forum, including:

• the National Network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal Services;
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal and Advisory Service (Qld);
• the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal Service North Queensland;
• the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service (Victoria);
• Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre—Family Violence Project (WA);
• North Australian Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Service (NT); and
• the Yamatji Family Violence Protection Legal Service (WA).

The ALRC has also received significant support from a number of individuals and we thank them for their generosity and commitment to helping us in our task of reforming the law to achieve greater safety for women and children; Megan Davis, Hannah McGlade, Dorinda Cox, Victoria Hovane, Kylie Cripps, Louise Taylor, Antoinette Braybrook, Larissa Behrendt and many others.