In the early hours of Boxing Day, a single Aboriginal mother told her 20-year-old son to flee the family home with her two-year-old daughter as her ex-partner approached the property in another violent outburst.

"I told my eldest son to run and get my younger daughter — who is blind — into the car and drive away," Sally, whose name has been changed to protect her safety, told National Indigenous Times.

"It was then he threw a brick at my son's car as he was driving away."

Sally speaks of the incident quietly — a tone shaped not by its lack of seriousness, but by years of repeated abuse.

Since leaving her former partner several years ago, she has reflected on the insidious manipulation which once led her lying to hospital staff after a severe assault.

"I was a bit stupid, because I told the hospital a door had fallen on my head," she said.

"I had to have two stents put in my head."

Her former partner — who she shares children with — has been jailed three times for domestic violence incidents perpetrated against her over the last five years.

Sally said he has weaponised her fear of death to gain control over her.

"I've had a lot of loss in my family," she said.

"He knew my first partner — who I had three children with — had died, and how much that impacted me."

She describes an episode where he attempted to self-harm in front of the children and later sent her AI-generated images suggesting he was about to end his own life.

Relocating to a new State housing property would prevent further attacks, according to Sally, as her former partner would not know her address.

"If I had somewhere he didn't know where I lived, we could probably not be on edge every day," she said.

Her current State housing property in Perth is not secure, she said, with the family living in constant fear of another attack.

"He's ripped the security off the back doors and smashed our glass doors," she said.

Sally has been on the State's priority housing transfer list since July 2023, following a successful appeal based on her youngest child's complex medical needs.

Her advocates at Daydawn Advocacy Centre have since sent multiple letters to housing authorities and elected representatives, warning the violence could be fatal and urging the State to urgently rehouse the family.

In a response, the Western Australia Department of Housing and Works (DOHW) said it was "sympathetic to Sally's complex situation" while acknowledging all applicants on the priority waiting list had demonstrated urgent need.

The DOHW said Sally had previously been transferred to a new address due to domestic violence concerns, however cited limited availability of five-bedroom properties in the area she is seeking to move to.

Proud Bibbulmun Noongar woman and United Nations human rights lawyer, Dr Hannah McGlade, said safe housing for Aboriginal women experiencing domestic violence, such as Sally, can mean the difference between life and death.

"We know some women have been murdered because they did not have access to safe housing, and as a result of neglect by housing authorities and the State Government," Dr McGlade told National Indigenous Times.

Across Australia, Aboriginal women are 34 times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to experience domestic and family violence, and to be hospitalised or killed as a result.

Dr McGlade also criticised the State Government for failing to place the safety of Aboriginal women and children at the centre of its response.

"Aboriginal women's safety has not been treated with the urgency it demands, and that is why we continue to see such shockingly high rates of violence and death," she said.

"Governments remain beholden to powerful interests, while the human rights of Aboriginal women and children are too often denied the priority and investment they require."

Sally said she remains strong for her youngest daughter.

"Every time I look down at her I think I have to keep surviving," she said.

Her grandmother, however, says the domestic violence situation has left her fearing her granddaughter may not survive.