The Northern Territory Police Minister has rejected accusations the force does not take violence against First Nations women seriously enough, despite urgent calls for "deep listening" from women who see violence playing out around them every day.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the images and names of people who have died and information that may cause distress.
A recent Four Corners investigation into the deaths of 315 Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander women has revealed flaws in the way police deal with Australia's most victimised cohort.
Seventy of those women were murdered in Central Australia, prompting the documentary makers to label the region Australia's "homicide capital".
Kate Worden, the Territory's Minister for Police – and the Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence – hit back at the accusations, saying "the majority of police do a really good job all the time, day in and day out" and are "highly trained".
But Ms Worden's assessment is at odds with the experiences of First Nations women who have first-hand experiences of violence and are working every day to support those experiencing violence.
Warlpiri-Arrernte woman Shirleen Campbell said the program's findings came as no surprise and that she frequently saw frontline police behave in "racist" and "discriminatory ways".
As the head of Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group Ms Campbell works directly with women in town camps in Alice Springs.
"Just the other day a woman in my town camp was verbally abused by police officers for being home with her kids while her husband was," she said.
"I'd like to see Australia coming together, working together to a learning, deep listening."
Fear of calling for help
Arrernte woman Cherisse Buzzacott, a trained midwife who now works for Alice Springs not-for-profit Children's Ground, says watching the Four Corners program gave her hope.
"Seeing it on that platform now is like, 'OK now [politicians] have to have a response,'" she said.
Ms Buzzacott has called the police multiple times in her life and seen police arrest women who were looking for help, not take calls for help seriously and blame victims of domestic violence.
"Those are things that I've seen growing up — things that family and friends have experienced," she said.
Ms Buzzacott said like many First Nations women she was reluctant to call the police unless the situation was extremely serious because she felt "there's a risk that they might take offence to something that you say and then you end up getting locked up".
"[Police] don't seem to understand the cycle of violence," she said.
A 2017 study in Queensland found almost half of First Nations women who were killed by a partner had previously been wrongly identified as the aggressor by police.
'Complicated and challenging'
Police and domestic violence advocates do not see eye to eye on the issue.
Ms Worden strongly rejected the claims that police do not take domestic violence seriously.
She said domestic violence accounted for 60 per cent of police call-outs.
Domestic violence accounts for up to 80 per cent of the Territory's assaults.
"[Police] are responding to some of the worst incidences of anybody," Ms Worden said.
"I don't think it's as simple as saying 'under-policing' — we can't have the police second-guessing those decisions that they make, and we're talking about three-o'clock-in-the-morning, five-o'clock- in-the-morning decisions."
Ms Worden said police could not solve the domestic violence problem alone.
"There are some systemic issues we need to get to," she said.
"Police are, every day, at the pointy end of these situations and they are highly trained — it's complicated and challenging work."
Ms Worden said police were often arriving in the middle of a crisis, long after situations escalated.
"I'm not saying they don't need to do more," she said.
"What I am saying is we can all do better."
'We get treated poorly'
Ms Campbell says she "loves working" with Ms Worden but adds that this is a vital moment that offers an opportunity for "two-way learning and deep listening".
Where they can agree is that specialist frontline services urgently need better funding and that families should be supported long before toxic relationships escalate.
But Ms Campbell rejected the idea that there were not urgent interventions police could be making sooner.
Speaking from her personal experience and as a leader in her community, Ms Campbell said one fact was undeniable:
"We get treated poorly because we're Aboriginal people," she said.
It is a sentiment echoed by Ms Buzzacott and subjects interviewed by Four Corners.
Officers receive one week of internal training on domestic violence in addition to one hour of specialised training from the sector as new recruits.
Ms Campbell said she welcomed the Australian-first training for NT Police and health professionals, which would include sessions about how trauma affected the brain, coercive control and vicarious trauma.
She said the training was "pivotal" and would help police and First Nations communities work together to "learn new things, nuances and ideas and solutions".
NT Police have been contacted for comment.
