{"id":2690,"date":"2019-12-09T22:42:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T06:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/?p=2690"},"modified":"2019-12-09T22:42:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T06:42:43","slug":"missing-women-australian-indigenous-women-are-under-represented-in-missing-persons-statistics-lost-missing-and-or-murdered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stopthecrime.net\/wp\/2019\/12\/09\/missing-women-australian-indigenous-women-are-under-represented-in-missing-persons-statistics-lost-missing-and-or-murdered\/","title":{"rendered":"MISSING WOMEN Australian Indigenous women are “under” represented in missing persons statistics – Lost, Missing and\/or Murdered . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2019-12-08\/australian-indigenous-women-are-overrepresented-missing-persons\/11699974<\/a><\/p>\n

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Australian Indigenous women are overrepresented in missing persons statistics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)<\/h1>\n
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Lost, missing or murdered?<\/h1>\n

Some of the country\u2019s most vulnerable people are going missing, and many are never found. In Canada they\u2019re calling it a genocide, but in Australia some states aren\u2019t even keeping count.<\/p>\n

Exclusive by\u00a0Isabella Higgins<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sarah Collard<\/a><\/p>\n

Updated\u00a0

Published\u00a0

Sheena McBride could feel something was wrong. Her daughter Monique had not come home, she wasn\u2019t replying to messages and her calls were going straight to voicemail.<\/p>\n

Monique, 24, had left her sleepy hometown of Hervey Bay in regional Queensland on a Thursday for a weekend trip to Brisbane.<\/p>\n

For the first two days she kept in touch. On the Saturday she told her mum she\u2019d be back the next day.<\/p>\n

Then contact stopped.<\/p>\n

Sheena anxiously waited for her daughter to come home, or to call with an explanation about a broken phone.<\/p>\n

But it never came.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just know that there\u2019s something that\u2019s gone terribly wrong. You feel it in your stomach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re in a nightmare, but you\u2019re just sitting there awake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheena turned to police, and by Friday, her daughter, Monique Clubb, was officially a missing person.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just got more urgent as every day went by. I started to think this can\u2019t be happening,\u201d Monique\u2019s brother Mickey Clubb said.<\/p>\n

The painful days have continued and now more than six long years have passed.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s initial panic has transformed into never-ending grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start to realise, maybe she\u2019s not coming home,\u201d Mickey said.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Two\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0Monique Clubb was last seen at Beenleigh train station south of Brisbane.\u00a0(Supplied: The Clubb family)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>Police will often categorise a disappeared person, like Monique, as either \u201clost, missing or murdered\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lost will describe those who are temporarily disoriented.<\/p>\n

Missing is for those who willingly left, or were forced to leave. And then there\u2019s murdered.<\/p>\n

Monique\u2019s family don\u2019t know what category she\u2019s in.<\/p>\n

And they are not the only Indigenous family asking the same question: is she lost, missing or murdered?<\/p>\n

Australian authorities are yet to truly understand how many Aboriginal women are in these categories.<\/p>\n

But for the first time \u2014 through exclusive data provided to the ABC \u2014 an insight into the extent of the problem can be seen.<\/p>\n

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In Western Australia, Aboriginal people make up 17.5 per cent of unsolved missing persons cases, despite making up just 3 per cent of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The state does not provide a gender breakdown of missing persons statistics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Queensland and New South Wales police provided some data to the ABC that showed an over-representation of Indigenous missing persons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In Queensland, police estimate 6 per cent of open, unsolved missing persons cases are Indigenous people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In New South Wales, police provided data only to 2014. In that time Indigenous people made up 7 per cent of unsolved cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Also in NSW, 10 per cent of females not found since 2014 are Indigenous women, but they make up less than 3 per cent of the state\u2019s population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There is no national figure because many states are not counting the cases, or measuring the size of the problem, at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Where is Monique?<\/h2>\n

Monique\u2019s life before her disappearance was complicated.<\/p>\n

She attended the local Catholic school, was a good athlete and loved spending time with her friends.<\/p>\n

As the second-oldest of six children in a close-knit Indigenous family, she often acted like \u201ca second mum\u201d when \u201ctimes were tough,\u201d according to her sister Minnie Clubb.<\/p>\n

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\"Two\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0Monique was last seen in June 2013.\u00a0(Supplied: The Clubb family)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>When Monique graduated, she got a job at the local tavern and was generous with her new-found income, often shouting her siblings meals.<\/p>\n

But in the lead up to her disappearance, her family had concerns about the crowd she was spending time with \u2014 a crowd that was often getting in trouble with the law.<\/p>\n

Monique began to accumulate a criminal record for thefts and court violations that eventually led to a short stint in jail.<\/p>\n

In June 2013, she told her family about a trip to Brisbane with her new friends.<\/p>\n

While they worried about her going away with this new group, they never imagined it would be the last time they saw her.<\/p>\n

Now, she is a statistic \u2014 one of the 6 per cent of unsolved missing persons cases Queensland police guess involve Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Across Australia, about 40,000 people are reported missing in Australia each year, and 99 per cent will be brought home, usually within hours.<\/p>\n

But like Monique, many aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Of those unsolved cases, some get more prominence than others \u2014 by the media, the public and police.<\/p>\n

And Monique\u2019s family can\u2019t help but feel her past run-ins with the law and her Aboriginal heritage stifled her chance at justice.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey weren\u2019t really serious about finding her, not at all, I don\u2019t reckon,\u201d Sheena said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been six years and we haven\u2019t got answers from them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt should be justice for anyone, no matter their skin colour.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A Queensland Police spokesperson insisted the case was \u201cthoroughly investigated across several police districts\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the days following her disappearance, detectives re-traced Monique\u2019s journey from Hervey Bay to Brisbane, uncovering CCTV vision of her exiting a train station at Beenleigh.<\/p>\n

The police would not share this vision with the ABC.<\/p>\n

Since the day she exited the train station, her bank accounts and phone have not been touched.<\/p>\n

Queensland Police said the case remained open.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re invisible\u2019<\/h2>\n

After years on the frontline of social services, Dorinda Cox, a former police officer-turned women\u2019s advocate, is sounding the alarm.<\/p>\n

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\"Two\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0Dorinda Cox, a\u00a0Noongar woman,\u00a0worked for WA police before becoming a women’s advocate.\u00a0(ABC News)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>Australia is one of the safest countries in the world, but Dorinda says Aboriginal women live in danger.<\/p>\n

She says the country has failed to protect them \u2014 and it\u2019s cost potentially thousands of Indigenous women and girls their life.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe need to stop this senseless violence against Aboriginal women,\u201d Dorinda said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIndigenous women in this country \u2014 we\u2019re invisible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Indigenous women who are reported missing are less likely to be found.<\/p>\n

Many are presumed dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like Amelia Hausia.<\/p>\n

It was 1992 when Amelia was last seen at a Canberra shopping centre. She was 17 years old.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And like Rebecca Hayward.<\/p>\n

It was New Years Day in 2017 when Rebecca\u2019s family last saw her. She was 35 years old.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Veronica Lockyer and her baby daughter Adell have been missing for more than 21 years.<\/p>\n

Only one known photograph of mother and baby, then seven months old, remains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Where are Veronica and Adell?<\/h2>\n

Donna Lockyer is Veronica\u2019s other daughter, but they were separated when Donna was two years old.<\/p>\n

Now 24, she has spent 20 years wondering about her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when I\u2019ve broken down because I want nothing more than my mother and I don\u2019t have that,\u201d Donna said.<\/p>\n

When we spoke to Donna, she was living in Perth, 280 kilometres from Merredin, the small town where her mother was last seen.<\/p>\n

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\"Portrait\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0Donna’s mother and sister have been missing for 20 years.\u00a0(Supplied: Donna Partridge)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>For two decades, there was confusion about where Veronica was living.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother\u2019s family thought she ran away with my father,\u201d Donna said.<\/p>\n

After trying to find Veronica, Donna realised she had not been seen and reported the disappearance.<\/p>\n

Veronica and her baby became official missing persons in 2018.<\/p>\n

Detectives said there was no evidence of the mother and baby existing beyond 1998.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen her in person until the detective on my case gave me the photo \u2026 and I just burst out in tears,\u201d Donna said.<\/p>\n

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\"Two\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0These are the only known images of Veronica and her baby Adell.\u00a0(Supplied: WA Police)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>As an advocate who sees the devastation these unsolved cases bring, Dorinda Cox believes the first step is calculating the number of lives lost across generations.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We need] to investigate why they\u2019ve gone missing and where are they now,\u201d Dorinda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are these unanswered questions, it just leaves tensions and anxiety in communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help her find answers, Dorinda looked overseas.<\/p>\n

What she found was another country dealing with its own multi-generational crisis of lost Indigenous women.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Indigenous \u2018genocide\u2019<\/h2>\n

For Lori Whiteman, the story of Veronica and Adell hits close to home.<\/p>\n

She too has spent decades wondering if her mother is lost, missing or murdered.<\/p>\n

Lori lives in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada\u2019s rural south and campaigns for Native Women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Delores \u2018Lolly\u2019 Whiteman, has been missing since 1987, and still there is no trace of what happened to her.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Black\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0Lori Whiteman still has no answers to her mother’s disappearance.\u00a0(Supplied: Lori Whiteman\/Facebook)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>\u201cOver many years, I went through obsessive cycles of searching, always thinking there has to be someone who knows something,\u201d Lori said.<\/p>\n

She said few in Canada\u2019s Indigenous community have been unaffected by the staggering rates of violence targeting their women and girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also lost many other relatives from my reserve \u2014 Standing Buffalo,\u201d Lori said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo many lost, too soon, too young. So much violence and sadness.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

After years of campaigning from Native American communities, the Canadian Government listened.<\/p>\n

An almost-three-year inquiry investigated the rates of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and found the problem was extensive and devastating.<\/p>\n

The inquiry\u2019s final 1,300-page report, handed down this year, made 230 recommendations to address a crisis \u201ccenturies in the making\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report labelled the rate of\u00a0missing and murdered Indigenous women as a \u201cgenocide\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other parts of the world are also starting to investigate the levels of violence faced by their Indigenous women.<\/p>\n

In the United States, Donald Trump recently signed an executive order creating a White House taskforce on missing and murdered Indigenous women.<\/p>\n

He said it was \u201csobering and heartbreaking\u201d to hear of violence faced by Native American women.<\/p>\n

Australian advocates believe the time has come for the nation to face the situation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is the unresolved grief, the oppression, the continued racism that is dividing this country, we need to take hold of that,\u201d Dorinda said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

After meeting with the woman who drove the Canadian inquiry, she is calling on the Australian Government to launch an urgent probe into the rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women in this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have very, very similar systemic issues [to Canada],\u201d Dorinda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have an inquiry, we can actually start to interrogate this on a much more rigorous basis. We can actually find the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the families who are still mourning the women they lost, an inquiry may come too late.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Two\u00a0<\/a>Infographic:<\/strong>\u00a0Monique’s family haven’t had closure since her disappearance.\u00a0(ABC News)<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>Monique Clubb\u2019s family have reached their own grim conclusion: she was murdered.<\/p>\n

Queensland Police said the case had been referred to the coroner, who could rule that Monique was legally dead.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe hardest part is not being able to bury your daughter,\u201d her mother Sheena said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cNot being able to bring her home and have the closure and the truth come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donna Lockyer said there was \u201cno help for Aboriginal women who go missing\u201d and supported calls for a national inquiry.<\/p>\n

She too has a theory about what happened to her mother and sister and next year the West Australian coroner will investigate the case.<\/p>\n

While these families pray for closure, advocates like Dorinda say another family\u2019s heartbreak can be prevented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough an inquiry we can actually find a dedicated strategy and dedicate resources to make sure we tackle this problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe oppression, the voiceless violence that is experienced by our women is a real travesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

If nothing changes, Aboriginal communities will continue to be torn apart by grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lives matter to our children, to our families, to our communities to our society overall,\u201d Dorinda said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can fully prevent the missing circumstances of those women and their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as [Aboriginal women] need to become visible and start talking about why our lives matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credits:<\/h2>\n