Kirby Bentley’s aunt and Courtney Ugle’s mother were both killed by their partners. As the inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women reports, they demand to be heard
Kirby Bentley, left, and Courtney Ugle gave evidence at a hearing in Melbourne of the inquiry into missing and murdered women.Kirby Bentley, left, and Courtney Ugle gave evidence at a hearing in Melbourne of the inquiry into missing and murdered women.
The Melbourne hearing is the last in a series to hear evidence about the devastating reality of violence against Indigenous women and children, with the inquiry’s report due to be released on Thursday. Nationally, Indigenous women are 33 times more likely to be admitted to hospital as a result of family violence, and eight times more likely to die due to violent assault than non-Indigenous women.
In 2016, when Ugle was 19, she got a call from her big brother, the former Collingwood footballer Kirk Ugle, telling her to get to her mother’s apartment in Perth. She found paramedics attending to her mother in the courtyard of the apartment building. Websdale had been strangled by her former partner, Damien Couzens. Couzens was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
“She did her best with what she had. It wasn’t enough at times and we knew that and she knew that, but the love that mum had for us was never in question,” she says. “I would choose my mum to be my mum in any and every lifetime.” Instead, she feels her mother was dismissed by those in authority as “another one, this just happens, nothing to be done”.
“I think what I’d like people to understand and take away from the inquiry is that Aboriginal women’s lives matter,” Bentley says. “I would like to see changes made that are prioritising the lives of our women. If there is a phone call, if there is a disturbance, if somebody’s made a complaint, it needs to be investigated.”
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