Co-chairman of Reconciliation Australia believes anger over past wrongs is at least partly to blame for violence in Indigenous communities.

Addressing an international conference on the Gold Coast on domestic violence and sexual assault, Jackie Huggins said the problem is far more prevalent among Indigenous people than the rest of the community Ms Huggins says the problem partly stems from the colonisation issue.

"It's about symbolic issues to do with grievances that have not been fully addressed and it's also to do with what we have here in contemporary times in terms of how violence is played out," she said.

"I think there's a whole amount of post-traumatic stress that is associated with it and we must never forget that, because it's so symbolic of the symptoms that we have to address, the healing component that has to occur within the Indigenous people and their communities"