First Nations women are murdered about eight times more often than non-indigenous women, and First Nations children are murdered about three times more often than non-indigenous children. The number of missing First Nations women and children is also disproportionately high.

But the reality is probably even worse than these figures suggest. Experts and activists say the official data is often inaccurate for a variety of reasons, including that some killings are not documented and the statistics are out of date.

“There is no accurate data on the true number of First Nations women and children who have been killed or brutally disappeared in this country,” says Antoinette Braybrook, executive director of Djirra, a support organization for Aboriginal women who are victims of domestic violence.

She lamented the “outdated” data and questioned the willingness of authorities to care for vulnerable Aboriginal women and children.

“The data on the prevalence of violence against Aboriginal women and children in the national Closing the Gap report – which many politicians rely on to make decisions that directly affect the safety of our women and children – has not been updated for over six years,” she says.

“Would we be willing to accept this complete lack of accountability and such outdated data about the safety of other women and children?”

New Closing The Gap data on family violence rates have not been available since 2018 due to concerns about data collection, privacy risk and potential harm to participants. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is currently investigating how to collect data on First Nations people’s experiences of family, domestic and sexual violence in a culturally safe way.