Family violence: An Australian Indigenous community tells its story.

This article focuses on a study to understand family violence among the Indigenous communities of Australia. The author explains that analyzing the social issues experienced by indigenous Australians from the perspective of colonization, oppression and dispossession has long been known to be fundamental to sound social policy. The study was commissioned in 2001 by Weena Mooga Gu Gudba Inc., an Indigenous women's organization in Ceduna, South Australia. The aim of the study was to understand family violence in the Aboriginal community. Ceduna is a remote town in western South Australia with a population in 2001 of around 3500 people, 24 percent of whom are Aboriginal. This article informs that at least two of the research team, including at least one Aborigine, conducted each interview and focus group. Most interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, with detailed notes being taken of the others, the workshop and the forums. Participants experienced family violence as incorporating and embedded in many forms of violence. The study also found that forms of violence include physical, emotional and material violence towards women and children.