In February 2017, Megan Davis helped chair a meeting of leaders from across the Kimberley and Pilbara regions. They had gathered in Broome to discuss self-determination and a pitch to the federal government for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to be acknowledged in the Constitution.

Instead, the meeting turned into an extended airing of trauma, mistreatment and dispossession. For hours, participants vented about the failure of policies designed to tackle disadvantage. Then things got worse.