“Everywhere you go, you’re going to see someone who’s a victim of violence or someone who’s a perpetrator,” says Di Gipey, chief executive of the Alice Springs Women’s Shelter.
“That’s every person’s life here who works within that space … It does make it very difficult but it’s something we don’t talk about much, that if you go to the bank you’re going to run into somebody.”
After more than 20 years it’s hard for Gipey to separate work from everyday life, a side effect of running the only crisis accommodation in a small town with a big violence problem.
“We have very personal relationships with our clients because you do know them, it’s very difficult.”
Alice Springs is home to just over 25,000 people. About 18% are Indigenous but it also services the sprawling region’s remote Aboriginal communities.
In 2015-16 there were 3,324.9 domestic violence related assaults per 100,000 people, more than double the Northern Territory’s rate. Seventy-three per cent of victims were Indigenous women. In the past four years seven of the NT’s 17 domestic violence-related deaths occurred in Alice Springs.
The central desert town is also extremely isolated and underresourced, and the shelter is overrun. In March alone more than 160 women and children had to be turned away. A recently announced $6m will go to upgrading the conditions, but operationally it is only funded to July next year.
About 96% of the women who access the crisis accommodation are Indigenous and most have serious physical assault injuries but Gipey says they still see non-Indigenous women in devastating numbers.
The types of abuse vary, including men keeping their partners from using phones and internet, and several cases this year of women held captive in their houses, escaping only with the assistance of family.
“Along the continuum we have constant broken bones, stabbings, machetes – the really insidious high volume of physical assaults. Then down the other end we have high levels of control through other forms,” she says.
Gipey took over as chief executive of the women’s shelter a year ago after about 20 years in the sector. She says what drew her into the domestic violence response field was what draws many – personal experience.
“I had an incredibly traumatic childhood, and then had a very traumatic first 17 years of marriage which was domestic violence. I had to go into a shelter and stay for six months to leave [him],” she says.
“They were brilliant because clearly I didn’t know I needed help for a really long time. When you’ve been abused as a child and then as a teen and then as an adult, you have no idea what’s normal. That becomes your normality.”
“But there certainly wasn’t the support back then that’s available now.”
The shelter provides two main arms of service – 30-bed crisis accommodation for women and children, and an outreach and casework program which assisted 1,300 women last financial year. It also provides counselling, court support services, and secret phones.
“We want to move to the preventative space as well as supporting women to make that decision just like I did, to decide that enough is enough and I’m worth much more than this,” she says.
They also work with the Tangentyere council’s men’s behaviour change program and other grassroots organisations. Gipey believes perpetrator programs like Tangentyere’s are successful and should be mandated by courts.
“At the end of the day the men have to understand that it’s about gender inequality and power and control and they have to be accountable for what they’ve done.”
In September coroner Greg Cavanagh released his report on the deaths of two Alice Springs women who had been subjected to repeated acts of violence by their respective partners.
Gipey supported a number of Cavanagh’s recommendations but said her priority was on a specialist domestic violence court, which is expected to begin as a pilot program next year.
“[Currently] a woman goes to the Alice Springs courthouse and anyone who’s anyone can go in and watch her give evidence,” says Gipey. “They have to walk past everybody, even his family, so they’re often intimidated.”
She also called for a dedicated coronial investigator in the NT, with experience investigating domestic violence deaths given its high rates.
Gipey says government policy is “hit and miss” and it needs to talk more with frontline workers about policy and where to direct funding, and with Indigenous women working in their own communities.
“If we start listening to those women, and start taking on some of the things they’re doing, and supporting them effectively, I think that’s how we’ll see change,” she says.
“Because of the different model we’re using and the fact we’re seeing a significant amount of women accessing the service, that tells me there’s a lot of good community work happening out there and we just need to keep the momentum going.”
