Deathscapes

Targeting of Indigenous Women 2j - The Targeting of Indigenous Girls: disappeared

Deathscapes

Disappeared — No answers

Emerging from a crowd of people is a sign held on a stick. The sign reads 'Justice for Evelyn Greenup: taken at 4 years old. We need answers. Help us in our fight for justice'. There are two photos of a young child on the placard, along with flowers in the bottom left corner and a trail of pink butterflies that fly towards the top.

[imagecaption] 2016. Photo: Rachel Evans. [/imagecaption]

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Likewise there has been no justice or resolution to questions about the disappearances and suspected deaths of Indigenous girls in Australia, including Evelyn Greenup (4 years old) and Colleen Walker (16 years old) from Bowraville, an infamous case in which justice continues to evade families for the deaths of three children, including Clinton Speedy-Duroux. Despite repeated efforts by their families since 1990 the murders remain unresolved. Their ongoing struggle for justice over more than 25 years underscores how the lives of these Aboriginal children are considered disposable.

In 1990, Karen Williams (16 years old) disappeared from Coober Pedy. The last person to see her was Nikola Novakovich who had offered her a lift home from a disco at the local hotel. In 2016 he was acquitted of her murder. Her remains still have not been located and no one has been held accountable for her death. Karen’s father passed away without knowing what happened to his daughter and there are fears that other family members will suffer the same fate.


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This research was primarily supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme from 2016-2020.

Partial funding was received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Partnership Development Grants scheme in 2016-2017.

The views expressed herein are those of the named authors and are not necessarily those of the funders.

All content © artists and deathscapes.org, 2017.

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