Reflecting on 2025

As this historic and deeply emotional year draws to a close, I want to honour the strength, courage and resilience of Aboriginal women, our mothers, aunties, sisters, daughters and grandmothers.

Victoria has marked important milestones this year, including the commencement of the first statewide Treaty and a formal Apology from the Allan Government for the harm caused to our people. These moments matter – but words alone are not enough.

The reality is that Aboriginal women and children continue to be targeted and overlooked by systems that too often cause harm rather than prioritise our lives. Yet Aboriginal women continue to stand strong, leading the work and driving systemic change grounded in culture, strength and our collective power.

Djirra’s 2025 highlights, shared below, reflect Aboriginal women’s leadership in action. They embody Aboriginal women determining for ourselves the futures we and our children deserve, asserting our rights, demanding equality, and setting the terms on which our lives are valued.

Djirra’s Regional Expansion

This year, we launched our second expansion site in Mildura on Latji Latji, Ngintait and Nyeri Nyeri Country. Aboriginal women across the Mallee can now access Djirra’s full suite of legal and non-legal services, alongside early intervention and prevention programs.

We must not forget that this region returned the highest NO vote in the state, with more than 80 per cent of the population voting against our people having a say in our own lives. In this context, Djirra’s presence matters even more. The vote results in this region significantly undermined trust in services and has resulted in Aboriginal women being fearful of reporting to police and disclosing to mainstream services.

Djirra’s long-standing vision to expand our services across Victoria is grounded in a simple principle. Aboriginal women, no matter where they live, must have access to life-saving and life-changing services that put women’s and children’s safety first.

Coming together with community

Our women came together in extraordinary numbers throughout 2025. We celebrated our 500th Koori Women’s Place workshop, our 200th Sisters Day Out in Mildura with record attendance, alongside our second NAIDOC Family Day at Djirra in the West. Together, close to 1,000 Aboriginal women and community members attended these events, including 150 Aboriginal children at our Family Day alone.

We again stood strong during 16 Days of ACTIVEism® Against Gender Based Violence, starting with our ACTIVEism Walk in Canberra, in partnership with local Aboriginal organisation Sisters in Spirit. We got active in our ACTIVEism walking and talking with more than 100 people on Ngunnawal Country, including politicians from all major parties, community, decision-makers and other supporters, to call for safety, justice and visibility.

Djirra’s ACTIVEism Festival on Wurundjeri Country was bigger, brighter and louder this year. More than 400 community members came together to ACTIVATE their ACTIVEism, with Aboriginal women at the centre, alongside our partners, funders and supporters. United in collective strength, we sent a clear and unequivocal message that we will never accept men’s violence against women. Women deserve better.

Taking the Djirra message far and wide

This year, together with other Aboriginal women at Djirra, I spoke at 17 events locally and nationally. Together, we reached more than 10,000 people, elevating Aboriginal women’s voices, increasing visibility of our lived experiences, and calling for change.

Earlier in the year, I was honoured to speak at Aboriginal Family Legal Services WA in Boorloo/Perth, marking the 10th anniversary of their Ochre Ribbon Campaign. Alongside many others, we stood united in calling for an end to violence against Aboriginal women and for urgent systemic change.

Throughout the year, I also spoke at the Overcoming Indigenous Family Violence Forum in Queensland, and later at Respect Victoria’s Walk Against Violence here in Victoria. At every opportunity, we remained unwavering and unapologetic in our advocacy. We do not dilute our message, because Aboriginal women deserve better.

We also held an important donor and supporter event to launch my Churchill Fellowship report, which sets out a clear business model to guide Djirra’s expansion and long-term sustainability. My report directly informs Djirra’s 23-year vision to establish an Aboriginal Women’s Centre in Victoria.

Djirra’s Aboriginal Women’s Centre will be grounded in culture and belonging. It will be a place where Aboriginal women are celebrated, our lives are valued, and women can heal, connect and thrive.

We continue to deepen relationships with philanthropic partners and advocate to governments for the investment required to bring this vision to life. Every conversation we have and every meeting we attend takes us a step closer to realising our long-standing vision.

Truth telling, Justice and Advocating for Change

This year marked a turning point in truth-telling with the tabling of the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s Final Report. Djirra’s advocacy is reflected in key recommendations, including investment in Aboriginal Women’s Centres, long-term funding for Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, and support for the Child Protection Notification and Referral System.

For more than a decade, Djirra has been calling for investment in a Child Protection Notification and Referral System as our self-determined solution to change the narrative for Aboriginal women and their children. This long-overdue change will keep mums and children together by ensuring Aboriginal mums are referred immediately for specialist legal advice and representation when child protection becomes involved, or is likely to be involved. The evidence is clear. When Aboriginal mums have early access to a legal advocate alongside other critical supports, children are far more likely to remain safely in their care.

For more than 23 years, Djirra has been moving steadily toward realising our vision to establish an Aboriginal Women’s Centre in Victoria. The Yoorrook recommendation gives further weight to our ongoing advocacy for the investment required to deliver what Aboriginal women in Victoria rightly deserve.

We also witnessed the Victorian Government’s Apology to First Peoples for the profound harms caused by the State. This was a significant and historic moment. But apologies without action change nothing.

We are confronted by the stark contradiction between these milestones and the ongoing reality that the rights and safety of Aboriginal women and children continue to be sidelined by governments. Through our advocacy, Djirra has been unequivocal.

Real action requires ending punitive laws and harmful system responses, not creating new mechanisms that continue to cause harm to our people.

Throughout the year, we confronted the profound harm caused by punitive and racist systems. Djirra has been clear in our opposition to Adult Crime Adult Time laws, the criminalisation of coercive control that will disproportionately target Aboriginal women, the continued racial targeting of Aboriginal women as so-called primary aggressors, and the government’s significant bail reforms.

These laws and policies deepen injustice, criminalise Aboriginal women, and place both women and their children at even greater risk of harm.

Looking towards 2026

Through every challenge and every triumph, Djirra has remained unapologetic, uncompromising and fearless in our advocacy. As we have done for more than two decades, we will continue to walk with Aboriginal women, holding government to account and calling out systemic violence and racism.

Most of all, Djirra will continue to walk beside Aboriginal women, never judging and always respecting individual strength, decisions and lived experience. We will continue to call for sustained investment in Aboriginal women’s self-determination. Djirra is Aboriginal women’s self-determination in action.

I thank every Aboriginal woman who continues to place trust in Djirra. I also acknowledge our community partners and supporters who have stood with us over many years. You have contributed to the powerful force Djirra has become and to the legacy we are building for generations to come.

Djirra will be closed from 5pm on Wednesday 24 December 2025 and will reopen at 9am on Monday 5 January 2026.

Antoinette Braybrook AM
CEO, Djirra