The Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse is hosting the first IJC Forum for the year on Indigenous women and the criminal justice system: The criminalisation of women. This online forum features experts from around Australia and includes time for questions and discussion.

If you would like to attend please book your ticket by visit the booking page.

SPEAKERS
Dr Marlene Longbottom, James Cook University
Professor Kyllie Cripps, Monash University
Professor Hilde Tubex, University of Western Australia
Associate Professor Hannah McGlade, Curtin University
Associate Professor Stella Tarrant, University of Western Australia

The entrenchment of entrapment: Does the law hear indigenous women and their untold stories of family and domestic violence?

Speaker: Marlene Longbottom and Kyllie Cripps
Presentation Time: 2:30pm-3:00pm

Abstract:

The law often fails to properly hear Indigenous women who kill abusive partners, leading to their criminalisation. Misunderstanding arises from inadequate self-defence arguments and the misapplication of Bugmy principles. Our research advocates for expert testimony in such cases to highlight the social and cultural nuances. Hearing the untold stories of Indigenous women affected by domestic violence is crucial to addressing these systemic issues.

About The Speakers:

Dr Marlene Longbottom is a Yuin woman from Roseby Park mission (Jerrinja) on the South Coast of New South Wales and is an Associate Professor with the Indigenous Education & Research Centre at James Cook University. Marlene has lived and worked in New South Wales, the Torres Strait and Far North Queensland for almost 30 years, working in the human service and university sectors. Her research experience spans over a decade where she has collaboratively designed and implemented community-based research and evaluation projects of benefit to and driven by both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in urban, regional and remote New South Wales and Queensland. She has research expertise in service systems and service provision to Indigenous communities. In the past 10 years her research has focused on trauma and violence in Indigenous communities.

Professor Kyllie Cripps is a Palawa woman and Director of Monash University’s Indigenous Studies Centre. She is one of Australia’s leading researchers on Indigenous family violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Leading major grants, she has contributed to the field through empirical studies that have defined violence on Indigenous terms, identified factors contributing to violence, and examined the access and availability of services in the aftermath of violence. Her work has been critical in identifying gaps and opportunities to create sustainable solutions to support policy and practice change.

Indigenous women and the criminal justice system: The criminalisation of women

Speaker: Hilde Tubex
Presentation time: 3:00pm-3:30pm

Abstract:

In this presentation I reflect on insights collected over several research projects documenting the experiences of Indigenous women, both in prison and after release. This research is based on yarning and other conversations with people with lived experience and their relatives in metropolitan and regional areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Our methodology privileges their stories and attempts to report on these ‘Stories that matter’ in a respectful way. Through this research, I try to build a better understanding of why the experiences of Indigenous women with the criminal justice system are different from those of non-Indigenous women and those of Indigenous men. This understanding is, in my view, a cornerstone of constructive dialogue and collaboration.

About The Speaker:

Professor Hilde Tubex is the Director of Criminology at the Law School of the University of Western Australia.  Her areas of expertise are comparative criminology and penal policy, Indigenous peoples and the criminal justice system, criminalised women, reintegration and parole. Since joining the University of Western Australia in 2011, she has been involved in several research projects in this field. Current projects are:

• Stories that matter: Indigenous people’s experiences with the criminal justice system, funded by the Indigenous Justice Research Program;
• Women in Prison Survey, funded by the WA Criminal Justice Research Grant Fund; and
• The use of violence by Indigenous women, funded by the Criminology Research Advisory Council.

Aboriginal women’s incarceration, and wrongful incarceration for self-defence

Speakers: Hannah McGlade and Stella Tarrant
Presentation time: 3:30pm-4:00pm

Abstract:

This presentation looks at Aboriginal women’s incarceration in Australia today. It will firstly outline the work being done in a project led by Hannah McGlade to take Aboriginal women’s complaints to the United Nations, under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. Secondly, the presentation will examine issues arising in relation to self-defence. Aboriginal women are being wrongfully incarcerated because of failures to recognise the forms of racialised and gender-based violence they were subjected to. Thirdly, it will discuss the increased support required for Aboriginal women experiencing criminalisation, including through the impacts of coercive control legislation.

About The Speakers:

Associate Professor Hannah McGlade is an Indigenous human rights legal academic whose career has focused on justice for Aboriginal people. She has published on race discrimination law and practice, Aboriginal women and children, family violence and sexual assault. Her PhD thesis received the Stanner Award for Excellence in Aboriginal research and was published by Aboriginal Studies Press in 2012: Our greatest challenge: Aboriginal children and human rights. 

An experienced tribunal member, Dr McGlade has been appointed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the State Administrative Tribunal and the Mental Health Tribunal. In 2016, she was appointed the Senior Indigenous Fellow at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and in 2020 as an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Associate Professor Stella Tarrant teaches criminal law, evidence and gender and the law at the University of Western Australia. For 30 years she has published widely in the areas of crime and the impact of law on women. Her research focuses on the ‘ways of thinking’ that underpin the law and contribute to how we understand the status of women and gender roles more generally. With co-authors Professor Julia Tolmie and George Giudice, her report Transforming legal understandings of intimate partner violence won an inaugural Council of Australian Law Deans Research Award in 2020. She currently works with Dr Hannah McGlade and Carol Bahemia as an academic expert in the preparation of public interest human rights cases relating to violence against Indigenous women and their use of force in self-defence.