Attendees heard from guest speakers including ABC national Indigenous reporter Bridget Brennan and Grampians Dhelk Dja Action Group co-chairwoman Joanne Clarke.

Ms Clarke talked about the work of the action group, which aimed to create communities free of family violence.

Dhelk Dja means ‘safe our way’ and she said using the term was “very much targeted at our people”. 

“We need to break the shame around family violence because it doesn’t discriminate. Family violence is not a part of our culture,” she said.

Ms Brennan talked about racism in the health system and in the media. 

“One of the most significant things that affects Indigenous people is getting on the organ donation waiting list,” she said.

She said after she had reported the story of a woman in Arnhem land in a way that had humanised the issue, the government launched an inquiry into the health system. 

Ms Brennan said racism existed within the health system and it was vital that Indigenous people spoke up.

She said that was often difficult due to the way they were often represented or ignored by the media.

She said one example of this was the story of a community in Todd River, near Alice Springs. 

Ms Brennan said the community had the country’s highest rate of family violence, yet it was a march including 300 people that  finally prompted media attention.

Sissy Austin was master of ceremonies and talked about her own work around the NAIDOC week project ‘Because of her, we can.’

The project increased the visibility of Indigenous women in the Ballarat community with an installation project.