RESEARCH SUMMARY Understanding the role of Law and Culture in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in responding to and preventing family violence: Key findings and future directions
This is an edited summary of key findings from ANROWS research Understanding the role of Law and Culture in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in responding to and preventing family violence.
Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have advocated for community-led approaches to family violence that are culturally safe and involve Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander justice models. This project explored the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Law and Culture plays in prevention, intervention and healing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family violence, and how this can be supported.
IN BRIEF
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Law and Culture are features of everyday life in many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, although the mainstream legal system and forms of governance undermine their practice.
- Responses to family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities should move away from the mainstream legal system and be grounded in Law and Culture, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dispute resolution processes.
- Healing (including addressing trauma and restoring wellbeing) is fundamental to addressing family violence.
- Participants recommended interventions that worked at the family, rather than individual, level.
Key recommendations
- A greater focus on prevention, healing and diversion from the criminal legal system is needed.
- Men and women both need to be involved in the design and implementation of local family violence strategies.
- Policy and service responses are most effective when they acknowledge the link between violence and issues that stem from colonisation such as alcohol misuse and intergenerational trauma, rather than focusing solely on gender inequality and male power.
- An improved understanding within mainstream systems and services of the nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family obligations and interconnections is needed.
Publication details
ANROWS Research to policy and practice papers are concise papers that summarise key findings of research on violence against women and their children, including research produced under ANROWS’s research program, and provide advice on the implications for policy and practice.
Suggested citation
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2020). Understanding the role of Law and Culture in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in responding to and preventing family violence: Key findings and future directions (Research to policy and practice, 19/2020). Sydney: ANROWS.