A recent Northern Territory government report found more than 60 per cent of assault cases across the Territory are associated with domestic violence.
(Transcript from World News Radio)
Many of the victims are Aboriginal women.
Despite the extent of the problem, some Aboriginal community representatives say not enough is being done to ensure that victims are able to gain access to support services.
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Northern Territory Minister for Women's Policy, Bess Price, is calling on Aboriginal people to break their silence about domestic violence.
Her appeal follows the death of her sister last month, in a stabbing at the Warlpiri town camp outside Katherine.
Police say a 32-year-old woman has since been charged with murder.
Minister Price has told the ABC Aboriginal people need to know there are support services for domestic violence victims.
"I want to make sure that people out there understand that they have the support, they have the help for them that's available, that they can go to; that they can go and get away from these terrible things that take a human being's life."
Rosie Baird is the acting manager at Darwin Aboriginal and Islander Women's Shelter.
She says a town camp can prove a hard environment for victims of domestic violence, as communications are often difficult.
"It could be in a sense that normally telephones don't work, people need to have their own mobile phones, and it's common that public phones don't work."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says Aboriginal women are overrepresented in the official statistics on domestic violence victims.
Yet he says domestic violence is an underreported issue in Indigenous communities.
"There's certainly a lot of shame involved with being beaten up by your partner or by someone in your family. We've got give our mob a way from that sense of shame, and make people accountable. I'm not necessarily talking about punishment of offenders and perpetrators, but we've got to make them accountable for what they've done. And sometimes that means people might be going to jail, but other times it might mean they just have to make restitutions and resolve the situation in their community to the satisfaction of the victim."
Mr Gooda says domestic violence is a national, cross cultural problem for which more services need to be created.
"I think I'd like to see more support for women, for children, for elders who are suffering abuse in our communities. It's not only affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities it's right across the board that we're seeing an epidemic of violence towards out women. And I think it's something that we've really go to take a hard stand on in this community."
Rosie Baird says existing shelters and organisations that support victims of domestic violence should also be more proactive in engaging with their communities.
She says the main triggers of domestic violence are jealousy and financial hardship.
She's calling on representatives of women's organisations to travel through the Territory to meet the communities they ought to protect, and let women know they're not alone.
"On our part, the shelters, we need to get out there to the town camps as well and let them know that we as a service exist, that we have services to provide them, that they're not alone and I don't think that we do enough of that as a service provider."
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