PUSH FOR MORE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY WORKERS

Courtesy Charles Darwin University

The Northern Territory has the highest rates of domestic, family and sexual violence in Australia, with Aboriginal women and children disproportionately bearing the brunt of this violence, according to Charles Darwin University.

The University has appointed one of its first ever Aboriginal woman Vocational Education and Training lecturers to its Alice Springs campus to teach Cert III and IV in community services.

Kirrae Whurrong woman Tanya McDonald says she wants to improve the rates of First Nations students working in the community services sector in Alice Springs to help reduce family violence.

“That’s the field I love,” she said. “I’ve done previous work in the family violence space before and because I am a survivor from family violence myself I have a real passion in that area as well.”