For Antoinette Braybrook, all she does, and all she will ever do, will be for Aboriginal women.
The Kuku Yalanji woman has stood at the helm of Djirra, Victoria’s Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service, for twenty-years, and was the 2022 Victorian recipient of the Australian Awards for Excellence in Women’s Leadership.
"It's not a personal recognition, it's more about the women,” she told NITV.
"This award is for all of the women that have reached out to Djirra over the years.”
Young Antoinette
For Ms Braybrook, her connection to Djirra began when she was young.
“My family was the only Aboriginal family in our small town, we experienced severe racism,” she said.
“We were denied rentals, refused entry to shops, and experienced racism at school from kids, teachers and parents. It was awful, but no more awful than the racism that other Aboriginal kids experienced.”
The most prominent threat for Ms Braybrook and her siblings, was being taken from their Mum.
A young Antoinette alongside her siblings. Source: Supplied
"I remember being in primary school, around grade one, I saw my Mum in the laneway at school watching me. I was playing on the monkey bars and saw my Mum in the bushes and thought ‘what is she doing?’” she said.
“Only a few years later, did I realise she was constantly threatened by white authority, by police and welfare that she was going to get her kids taken away. It was her way of protecting us, making sure we were safe.
“It was a fear that didn't go away for many many years.”
The narratives that surrounded Ms Braybrook about who she was, stayed with her.
"Those things stayed with me for a long time, I thought it was normal. It made me feel less,” she said.
"I had to get away from school, I couldn't bear it. I loved school, school wasn't hard - the racism was hard. I left at 15. I struggled with finding employment, I struggled with racism in the workforce. I tried different places, I tried different jobs.”
Eventually she found work at Preston TAFE, in the Koorie Services Unit.
After years of feeling isolated in her Aboriginality, Ms Braybrook found a community that understood her and a sense of belonging.
"Racism is always there, this was just the start of me working out that I didn't have to believe the things that were said about me, about my Aboriginality. I was stronger and better than that,” she said.
“I wasn’t alone there, I was valued and I was invested in.”
The love for law
As she found her stride and strength, an old love crept in - law.
"I grew up watching all of those legal shows on television and loved them. But I thought I’d missed the boat to study, particularly because I had left school at 15,” she said.
But at 30-years-old, Ms Braybrook enrolled in a Bachelor of Law at Deakin University, and in 2000 she graduated in the presence of her Mum, Dad, brother and grandfather.
She quickly secured a role within the Victorian Department of Justice, working on the launch of the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement.
"It was there that I got it in my head I wanted to be a criminal law barrister . . . through the work that I was involved in I saw increasingly high incarceration rates of our people in the criminal justice system - I wanted to be a criminal law barrister to keep our people out of prison,” she said.
"What I had in my mind while working on the agreement, was that it was men in the criminal justice system who were getting the most attention and women were barely visible.”
And then there was Djirra
Ms Braybrook was one of a few voluntary members that advocated to establish an inaugural Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service in Victoria.
In 2002, Djirra became a reality, and Ms Braybrook was appointed the CEO.
Within months of working in the service, she had a ‘reality check’. Her old ways of thinking which focused on the impact of criminalisation of men, were challenged every day at Djirra.
“I thought 'oh my god was I part of the problem?’ I was a policy officer. But if I was thinking that way, an Aboriginal woman, how were others thinking? - all of those much higher decision-makers than me?” she said.
"At the time, I was on a few different Boards and I resigned from them all. I remember the moment as one of the defining moments of my life.
“I said no. I wasn’t going to be involved in anything else, it will be only about Aboriginal women. My focus and my priority is Aboriginal women and it has remained that way since."
Twenty years of strength
In October, the organisation will celebrate two decades of service.
"I never expected for us to be as big as we are ... We're strength-based, we don't look through the deficit lens. Djirra has grown from Aboriginal women's experiences, it's true to them,” she said.
"When I see the word Djirra, when I'm in the office, I feel empowered because I know that we are on the right track, we are doing what our women want us to do."
Ms Braybrook, whilst being the CEO of Djirra, is also the Co-Chair of Change the Record and Co-Chair of the National Family Violence Prevention and Legal Services Forum.
Antoinette Braybrook has led Djirra since its inception. Source: Supplied
She says this work is in her blood, and it was always what she was meant to do.
"I really think that this is who I am. Not because I'm special or unique, but this is what we as Aboriginal people do,” she said.
"The work, my priority and focus is Aboriginal women, this is personal for me. I have women in my life, family and friends and others that I fight for.
“And I fight for my nieces, so that they don’t have to be talking about the devastation, they can talk about the success and the strength."
