Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the names and images of people who have died. This story contains some confronting details.
There's an unimaginable horror that too many First Nations families of missing and murdered women and children face, and Michelle Jarrett has lived this nightmare for decades now.
Her four-year-old niece Evelyn Greenup disappeared from her grandmother's home in Bowraville in 1990 after being tucked into bed for the night.
The remains of the little girl were found six months later in nearby bushland.
"I was 21 when this started and I'm 55 now, so that's how long we've been fighting for justice for Evelyn," she told the ABC on Friday.
Following multiple judicial proceedings, a man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was acquitted over her murder in 2006.
Evelyn was among three First Nations children who went missing from the Bowraville area over a five-month period between 1990 and 1991. Sixteen-year-old Clinton Speedy-Duroux's body was also found in bushland, while the body of Colleen Walker, also 16, has never been found.
Michelle Jarrett's family was one of a number who made submissions to the Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children that handed down its landmark report on Thursday.
In it, she said police at the time didn't take their concerns about Evelyn's disappearance seriously. Instead, they suggested she had gone "walkabout".
"When we reported Evelyn's disappearance to the police, they kept asking us where she was. They thought we had sent her up to Queensland. They just wouldn't listen to us when we said she had disappeared … They never listened to us," she wrote.
For Ms Jarrett, it's important the committee heard her family's story because "we need to make sure it doesn't happen again," she said.
Senate inquiry reignites heartache for family
The Senate inquiry made 10 recommendations, including for the attorney-general to task the Police Ministers Council to implement best practice policing nationally for interactions with First Nations people.
Ms Jarrett told the ABC that reading over the report "brings back the trauma" and the "heartache of it all".
"It always takes me back to that day we couldn't find Evelyn," she said.
"I didn't get justice for her … and it reminds me that the justice system didn't care about [the case]."
Ms Jarrett isn't optimistic real change will come out of this inquiry, saying Evelyn was never entitled to the same treatment as every other Australian.
"I have very little faith in government and their recommendations," she said.
"We have to scrape and fight and protest to get anything, and then you're seen as a whingeing Blak fella wanting more. And all we want is what we should be entitled to, like everybody else is in the community."
Liberal senator Paul Scarr, who chaired the inquiry, told the ABC's Indigenous Affairs Team the Bowraville case had a "profound" impact on the members of the committee.
The case of the Bowraville children is mentioned repeatedly within the report.
"The fact that the families have fought for justice for their loved ones for so long is absolutely inspiring.
"But at the same time, it evidences the trauma which continues again across decades, and intergenerational trauma which has suffered as a result of these issues," Senator Scarr said.
He said ensuring the implementation of best practice policing across the country is crucial.
"From the point in time when an incident, a concern, a threat is raised with police, all the way through to subsequent investigations, keeping the family up to date through the whole gambit of police standards and policies and procedures, there needs to be detailed analysis," he said.
Among its 10 recommendations the report called for a culturally appropriate and "nationally significant" way to recognise the women and children who have been murdered or disappeared.
Something that Ms Jarrett said she strongly supports.
"There are so many of them and they have not been recognised," she said.
"They're just forgotten, and years later, you might get a coroner's inquest about it.
"We're not on the front page of the news … if you compare the disappearance of a lot of our Indigenous women and children and compare it to non-Indigenous, their stories are always first."
This lack of urgency in media reporting of First Nations missing and murdered cases was highlighted by many who gave evidence before the committee, who said the media often "victim-blamed", dehumanised, or framed the victims through "deficient narratives".
The inquiry recommended the Australian Press Council consider additional standard or advisory guidelines to address communities' concerns around reporting.
Acting on missing and murdered 'should not be a political issue'
A federal government spokesperson said in a statement that it would consider the recommendations and thanked the witnesses who came forward to share their experiences.
"They are the families and loved ones who have and continue to endure tragedy and loss, and we thank them for sharing their experiences with the Committee," it said.
"These are significant recommendations and the Government will work through them carefully."
Senator Scarr remains "positive" there will be action on their recommendations from the federal government.
"This should not be a political issue," he said.
"This is something which should be above politics, because the stories which we heard, the tragic case studies we heard, the pain we heard, cannot be allowed to continue."
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