ABSTRACT
A study by the World Health Organization indicates that violence against women impacts one in three women globally and that it is a prominent cause of death and disability for women. In examining Australian women’s literary representations of women’s relationship to violence, Rethinking the Victim aims to renovate the category of victim. At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995, the following declaration was made: In all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse that cuts across lines of income, class and culture. Indigenous women’s literature is impacted by a history of colonial violence and racialised terror, which permeates social and political life in Australia. The theft of Indigenous lands and culture is a reality reflected by Indigenous women’s literature that implicitly invites non-Indigenous people to consider the fact of their standing on Aboriginal lands.
