Women for Wik, a group of prominent Australian women, has been reignited to independently monitor the implementation of the Federal Government’s intervention in Aboriginal communities.

Women for Wik was formed in 1997 and was endorsed by 130 women’s organisations, representing hundreds of thousands of Australian women. Its original members included Ruth Cracknell, Jane Campion and Justice Elizabeth Evatt. It received overwhelming mainstream support.

The group was inspired by a speech by Lady Deane, the wife of the then Governor-General, Sir William Deane, who said women had to take the lead on the issue of reconciliation. This week Lady Deane reaffirmed this view stating “It is up to the women of Australia to get our country back on the path of reconciliation.”

Women for Wik intends to independently monitor the implementation of the Federal Government plan, both now and in the future.

A co-founder of the original group, writer Rosie Scott, said “10 years ago we raised issues that had been effectively hidden, and helped to disprove the fear campaign that Indigenous people would take over our backyards. We now intend to go through the same process with the Federal Government intervention in the Northern Territory. We intend to provide a voice for the women of the Northern Territory whose lives are being directly affected.”

Lowitja O’Donoghue, a member of the original group and former Chairperson of ATSIC stated “The Northern Territory intervention is patronising and unworkable. We need policies that will take us forward, not backwards.”

Christine Olsen, writer-producer of the film Rabbit-Proof Fence, said “The answer to the problem is the support of Aboriginal culture. Not the destruction of it.”