Breaking the Ladder: How Safe & Together Aligns with the Aboriginal Worldview
By Jackie Wruck, Asia Pacific Regional Manager, Safe & Together Institute
Traditional family violence responses often operate like a ladder—hierarchical, punitive, focused on separation through arrest and incarceration—while the Aboriginal worldview operates like a circle—interconnected, healing-focused, emphasising relationship and connection. This fundamental difference explains why the Safe & Together Model succeeds with Aboriginal communities where other approaches fail. “Safe & Together is better for First Nations people because we don't write our men off. You white people do that,” shared one Aboriginal colleague. This powerful statement captures the Model’s revolutionary approach to family violence in Aboriginal contexts.
Understanding What Aboriginal Women Actually Want
Safe & Together practitioners consistently observe that Aboriginal survivors want safety, but they also want their children to maintain relationships with their fathers safely. They want healing, not just punishment. They understand fathers play crucial roles in children’s cultural identity and connection to extended kinship systems. Traditional approaches that rely on systems that are historically harmful to Aboriginal communities often ignore these realities.
Circle Thinking in Practice
The Safe & Together Model’s three principles naturally align with Aboriginal values. Keeping children safe while maintaining family connections honors kinship systems central to Aboriginal culture. Partnering with survivors through yarning—respectful knowledge sharing practiced for thousands of years—replaces judgmental questioning with cultural communication practices. Intervening with perpetrators as fathers engages community accountability, involving elders and respected community members rather than relying solely on incarceration.
Cultural Safety as Foundation
Aboriginal participants describe feeling heard when their voices are valued and cultural protocols respected. Programs led by Aboriginal people create immediate trust because they operate from shared understanding rather than imposed solutions. As one participant shared: "This is a space where I actually felt like my voice was being heard and that whatever I contributed was valuable."
Real Outcomes
When practitioners embrace this alignment, transformation happens. Survivors become active partners rather than passive recipients. Men engage with accountability processes that connect to their cultural obligations as fathers and community members. Children maintain cultural identity while gaining safety.
The Power of Connection
Safe & Together has the power to succeed because it recognizes what Aboriginal communities have always known healing happens in relationship, accountability involves community, and true safety includes cultural connection. When we embrace the circle instead of the ladder, we create space for both safety and healing.
Additional Resources
Blog: Understanding First Nations Perspectives on Family Violence
Safe & Together Institute’s domestic abuse–informed trainings
Safe & Together Institute’s upcoming events
David Mandel’s book Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to Transform the Way We Keep Children Safe from Domestic Violence
