Aboriginal women and violence

Abstract

A number of writers have commented on the level of violence in Aboriginal communities and on the use of physical force, both for punishing wrongdoers and as a means of resolving disputes. For instance Hiatt (1965) and Williams (1987) have both analysed conflict resolution in communities in the Northern Territory and although physical force was certainly not the only means of settling disputes, it was prominent in each analysis. Other writers (Burbank 1980, Bell 1983, McKnight 1986) have noted the involvement of women in physical disputes, not only in fighting back when attacked but also in initiating aggression or acting as helpers or partners when fights develop. At Numbulwar over a period of eighteen months during 1977-8 Burbank recorded 101 fights involving 104 initial combatants, representing about half of the adult population. Of these combatants 51 were women and 53 were men, suggesting that women were involved in fighting almost as often as men and 47 per cent of all fights were between husband and wife. This might suggest female victimisation but Burbank found that in the 37 fights between women and men where she was able to identify the aggressor, 20 were initiated by men and 17 by women (Burbank 1980, 129-36). However, two further points in Burbank's analysis are worth noting. One is that whereas a woman was more likely to initiate a fight only by threatening behaviour such as picking up a weapon, destroying an object or throwing something at her opponent, a man would often launch an immediate physical attack on a woman (1980, 131). The second point is that no matter who initiated a fight between a woman and a man, the woman was more likely to be injured or to suffer greater injury than the man (1980, 146).