Indigenous women are being murdered at a rate of up to seven times the national average, mostly at the hands of intimate partners.
Over more than three decades, 455 women were killed by men, with 11 per cent of homicides involving a female offender, a report by the Australian Institute of Criminology shows.
The startling statistics also reveal that of the 476 Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander women murdered between July 1989 and June 2023, almost three-quarters were killed by their current or former intimate partner.
The report used 34 years of homicide data, relating to cases legally defined as murder or manslaughter, to examine how, when and what factors contributed to the violent deaths.
"Since 2010/11, Indigenous women have experienced a homicide victimisation rate between two and seven times greater than the national homicide rate and between three and nine times greater than the adult female homicide rate," the report says.
"Just under a third of all Indigenous women homicide victims were killed in the Northern Territory and a quarter each in Western Australia and Queensland."
The remaining 20 per cent were killed in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, while there were no Indigenous women found to be murdered in Tasmania or the ACT.
Most women were subjected to horrific deaths with coroners declaring the cause of death in more than 80 per cent of cases as either a stabbing or beating.
The data showed 69 offenders were known to police, and at least two thirds of them had a known history of domestic and family violence offences.
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the statistics represent the terrible and tragic loss of mothers, sisters, daughters and other deeply loved relatives.
"It is not acceptable for losses of this scale to continue," Mr Dreyfus said.
A Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children tabled a report in August highlighting the need for accurate data.
Mr Dreyfus said this data would be used to track progress of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.
The government is aiming to reduce all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children by at least 50 per cent by 2031.
Labor is yet to accept the proposed recommendations from the Senate inquiry.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy told parliament at the time that the government needed more time to review the report before responding.
The Albanese government has committed $4.4 billion in new funding to address the scourge of gender-based violence, provide support for legal service and respond to a rapid review into prevention approaches, including investing in frontline services.
The criminology institute's report was released on the same day a woman was killed in the Northern Territory in what police described as a "domestic violence-related death".
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