Yuin scholar and advocate Dr Marlene Longbottom has launched her new book centring the voices of Indigenous women survivors and families who have lost loved ones to violence.

'Defiant Resistance: Shattering the silence on violence against Indigenous women was' launched at the 2026 Overcoming Indigenous Family Violence Forum in Magandjin (Brisbane) on Wednesday, ahead of its worldwide release on June 1.

Published by Aboriginal Studies Press, the book brings together stories from Indigenous women survivors and families affected by violence, while rejecting deficit and victim-blaming narratives.

The launch formed part of the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service forum, held under the theme "Our Way, Our Changemakers," which focused on community-led responses, cultural healing, system reform and the leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in addressing domestic, family and sexual violence.

Dr Longbottom said the book had taken almost a decade to write.

"At the forum, I'm here to be present and hear the stories from communities, but also to launch this book that I've written," she said.

"It's a book that has taken the best part of 10 years to write.

"I've interviewed 17 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have survived violence and three families."

Dr Longbottom's personal and professional experiences shaped the work through her own experience of violence, what she had witnessed growing up, and her work as an Aboriginal health worker supporting families all informed the need to write the book.

The book also responds to how systems have recorded and interpreted violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women through coronial reports, court reports and other official records.

Dr Longbottom said those records often failed to reflect the women and families she knew.

"What I could see in the research through the archives, such as coronial reports and court reports, was things the system wasn't quite picking up," Dr Longbottom said.

"It was writing about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in a way that I didn't know them.

"I needed to make sure that our women's voices were present and that their voices were front and centre."

Defiant Resistance examines what Dr Longbottom describes as the infrastructure of violence, including the interconnected colonial, legal, institutional and social systems which allow harm to continue while deflecting accountability.

The book's release comes as Indigenous-led advocates continue to call for responses grounded in self-determination, cultural authority and community leadership.

Those themes were also reflected throughout the forum, where speakers and participants discussed lived experience, policy, legal reform, healing and the need to shift away from incident-based responses.

Dr Longbottom said the forum showed the importance of changing how violence in communities is discussed and understood.

"What I'm starting to see is threads of narrative coming through," she said.

"We've had lived experience. We've had the policy environment.

"This actually tells us that it's much more than just an incident-based response that's needed."

Dr Longbottom said the book was written for survivors, families, service providers, policymakers and communities.

It aims to give readers language to understand violence, support others and push for change.

She said she wanted readers to know there was life beyond violence.

"Even though you experience violence or a family member might experience violence, there is always someone there that's willing to help and hear your story," Dr Longbottom said.

"I've written this book in a way that anyone can just pick up and read it, see themselves in it, but also be motivated to know how to mobilise.

"This is a book that is going to be confronting. Some people will be ready to hear the message, some people won't be. But the book will always be there for when you are ready."

Goenpul woman and Emeritus Professor from the University of Queensland and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, described the book as an important contribution to the growing body of work on Indigenous women and violence.

"This important, accessible landmark study and research prioritises the voices of Indigenous women in speaking about violence," Professor Moreton-Robinson said.

"Relationality, reflection, conflict and choice are integral to their stories of enduring resistance as are laughter, humour, grief and sadness.

"Impassioned and provocative, this book is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on Indigenous women and violence."

'Defiant Resistance: Shattering the silence on violence against Indigenous women' is now available via the AIATSIS website.