Shirleen Campbell placed a flower at the Alice Springs courthouse for all of the women she will never forget.

Aboriginal women living in town camps around Alice Springs marched through the Todd Mall on Tuesday morning, asking the Australian public to pay attention to the assaults and murders of women in their communities.

"Enough is enough. We're not statistics, we're not numbers, we're human beings. We're mums and aunties and grandmothers," Ms Campbell says.

Several of Ms Campbell's relatives have been killed or assaulted by their partners — two of her aunts were killed within three months of each other in recent years.

"Being a young mum, I don't want my kids growing up in violence," she says.

"I've experienced it myself and witnessed it, and seen a lot of our female members losing their young lives. Kids are wondering what happened to their mums."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 7 minutes 29 seconds 7 m Hundreds of Aboriginal women have marched through the streets of Alice Springs

'From that day I spoke up'

Five days before Christmas in 2014, Ms Campbell was jolted awake by a bang on the door. It was her brother with the news her aunt was dead.

They were similar in age and were raising their families together on the same street.

The house where where Kwementyaye Murphy was killed in the Charles Creek Camp. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

Ms Campbell's aunt, Kwementyaye Murphy, had been terrorised by her violent partner for a decade before she was murdered.

"From that day I spoke up. I spoke in language and said, 'You mob gotta stop drinking, and stop the violence, because we're losing a lot of our family members'."

She hoped national newspapers would pay tribute to her aunt, a 36-year-old mother-of-two. She hoped for stories about her "bright and bubbly" personality, her love of family gatherings and the care she gave relatives who came in from the bush to stay with her.

The neighbouring Hobby's Camp and Charles Creek Camp. ( ABC News: Michael Nudl )

But such a story never came.

"She was a dedicated mum, she's had wonderful kids, she's had nieces and nephews. Those people looked up to her.

"It just makes me wild how the news mob put it, they just put it plain and simple. They should have a good story about the person who passed away, you know?"

Educating women about domestic violence

The Tangentyere Women's Safety Group meets to discuss violence in their town camps. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

Two years ago, several town camp women formed the Tangentyere Women's Safety Group.

Lorraine Pepperill is a member of the Tangentyere Women's Safety Group. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

They meet regularly to discuss violence in their camps and they've been instrumental in educating young women about domestic violence.

The women pushed for anti-violence signs to be installed in the camps, and in Hoppy's Camp, on the north side of Alice Springs, there is now an emergency phone.

"When there's family violence going on between us women from other people, we get together and support each other," says Marlene Hayes, a long-time town camp resident.

Grandmother Lorraine Pepperill joined the group to fight for her family's future.

She lives at Trucking Yards Camp, one of the 18 town camps on the fringes of Alice Springs which are home to about 2,500 Aboriginal people.

An anti-violence sign at a town camp. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

"I got a lot of grandchildren, especially teenagers, there at Trucking Yards. They get into mischief now and then so I tell them to behave themselves.

Walter Shaw says men need support to change their attitudes to domestic violence. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

"Some of the grandchildren of mine hasn't got parents."

Walter Shaw, chief executive of the Tangentyere Council which services the town camps, says the women's safety group is "re-empowering" people to speak out about the "social ills" which have plagued the town camps for 40 years.

"They're now talking about a lot of issues within community that have historically been very culturally sensitive."

But unless more men undergo behaviour change and cultural leadership programs, Mr Shaw says nothing will change.

"The only place that men have got a place to go is 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs, which is the Alice Springs jail.

"Men have to be supported back in the community. Men have a key and pivotal role back in the community, within the family unit."

'The injuries are horrific'

Thousands of women seek refuge at the Alice Springs Women's Shelter. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

Dianne Gipey sees thousands of Aboriginal women who seek refuge at Alice Springs Women's Shelter each year.

She calls it a "homicide-prevention service". When you hear about the condition women arrive in, it's not hard to understand why.

"Broken ribs, broken bones, broken legs, broken arms. We've had women who've had to have spleens removed from being kicked in the spleen and splitting them, the injuries are horrible," Ms Gipey says.

Dianne Gipey says the injures she sees at her women's shelter are what you expect "in a war zone". ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

"It's what you expect to see in a war zone when you come down to the shelter because the injuries are horrific.

"We see women who are fearful of their life."

About 98 per cent of the women and children who arrive at the shelter are Aboriginal.

Ms Gipey keeps files of each woman who comes here, even after some of them have been murdered.

The voices of these women live on in the files; their hopes and aspirations for their futures are written down, and notes by caseworkers are kept on file permanently.

"They are real-life people. Every time there's a death for a woman we know, that's a real-life person."

While Australia has engaged in a national conversation about domestic and family violence, Ms Gipey says the conversation has predominantly been focused on non-Aboriginal women.

None of the Indigenous women being killed in Central Australia are household names, Ms Gipey says.

"They certainly haven't gone mainstream. There isn't equality when it comes to the death of a non-Indigenous woman and the death of an Indigenous woman through domestic violence."