WARNING: This article contains sensitive content
The trial for the murder of Miss Headland began at WA Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The family of the 26-year-old Aboriginal woman gathered outside of court to remember her.
Miss Headland's mother Janise Headland described her daughter as “bubbly, loving and always smiling and laughing”.
“She was my baby. She was respected by everybody that passed her in this world,” she said.
It's alleged Miss Headland was stabbed multiple times by her former partner 40-year-old Christopher Thomas Dimer while they were isolating in her Nollamara apartment on March 22.
Miss Headland was taken to Royal Perth Hospital in critical condition and underwent emergency surgery. She died hours later.
Mr Dimer was arrested at a nearby property and later charged with murder.
He was refused bail at Perth Magistrates Court on March 24 and appeared via video-link in WA Supreme Court this morning.
Janise Headland said her daughter was "robbed of her life" and is firm that the family left behind will fight for justice.
Miss Headland Source: Supplied
"I can never see her again. I can never get her back."
'We thought this would never happen to us'
Miss Headland’s grandmother, Veronica Headland told the media that their family would never be the same.
“Our family will never be the same, no amount of jail time that the accused gets will bring [her] back,” she said.
She called for more domestic violence education for communities and families.
“We need more to be done, we need the government to listen to us and to hear us because we will not remain silent,” she said.
“We need to start when they are young, if you have daughters and sons – talk to them.
“Sit around your dinner table as a family and talk about domestic violence and what impact it has on families like ours. We always thought that this would never happen to us.”
Noongar/Yamatji woman Senator Dorinda Cox supported the family in court.
Miss Headland's family with Senator Cox outside Perth's Supreme Court Source: Supplied
An anti-violence campaigner for over 20-years, Ms Cox said violence against women is at a crisis point.
“Our hearts are obviously breaking for the family, and we are concerned that this is a national crisis,” she told NITV News.
“It breaks my heart to have to stand here, as a Senator, beside another family that will have to go through the heartbreak and look for a just outcome in relation to another preventable death of a young Blak woman.”
Ms Cox said that there must be “political will at all levels” of government to make influential change.
“Investment is going into the wrong places. It has to go into communities, it has to go into family support and it has to go to these women who have to escape domestic violence situations,” she said.
“We need the system to be absolutely dismantled and put First Nations women at the centre of that. At the front of the queue.
“35 times more likely to experience violence in their lifetime is unacceptable. Being 10times more likely to be a victim of homicide is also unacceptable.”
Ms Cox, who alongside Senator Lidia Thorpe, helped kickstart a national inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations women has now secured commitments from both Liberal and Labor Parties to continue the inquiry work beyond the 2022 election.
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