FACTS Report calls for more Indigenous input in fight against family, community violence

An Indigenous-led study, commissioned by the federal government in 2017 and conducted by the Australian National University, also found programs helping young people to identify healthy relationships went some way to mitigating family violence.

Community members overwhelming viewed family and community violence as a byproduct of colonisation, and subsequent violence enacted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That included intergenerational trauma, driven by removal from country and family separations, with inadequate capacity to address it.

The FaCtS report, which analysed the responses of 1600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, showed people affected by violence were more likely to report it to community Elders than to police.

With respondents viewing strengthened community and culture as key to preventing violence, the report recommended Elders be incorporated in every level of decision-making, along with the employment of Indigenous staff.

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"Progress towards reducing family and community violence can only be achieved where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities lead change. It is also critical to take account of the role of the broader context and system in generating violence, and to expect that system to take responsibility for reducing [it]," it read.

The report called for non-Indigenous staff, including police officers, to be culturally competent and Indigenous liaison officers to be installed in local police services.

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said the government was "committed to finding solutions" to a scourge which disproportionately impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

"[We need] solutions that not only treat the impacts of violence with frontline services but go to the heart of the problem with prevention and early intervention services that address the structural drivers of violence," he said.

The report also found participants often developed an unhealthy view of relationships from an early age, and more effort was needed to curb family violence.

Study director Jill Guthrie said culturally-informed education programs were needed at an early stage. "Programs ... [should] engage with Aboriginal teenagers at a stage when destructive patterns in relationships may have started to happen or become normalised," she said.

The report specifically touted programs like Red Dust Healing, a family therapy program training participants to become facilitators, as a model. "If the problem lies in the community, so too does the answer. If you train up local people, who better than to be delivering this than those that come from there or are living there?" said founder Uncle Tom Powell.

Respondents also complained of a lack of accessible services, or awareness of their existence, and a fear of further violence hampering attempts to receive help.

While four-in-five respondents did not report experiencing physical, sexual, or emotional violence in the past year, more than 60 per cent had suffered at least one form in their lifetimes. Although violence affected all age groups and genders, women were more likely to suffer frequent violence or violence at the hands of a partner or family member.

Contrary to public perceptions, there was no excess violence in remote communities compared to cities.

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