Author(s): Stephanie Jarrett; Bess Nungarrayi Price (Foreword by)

Indigenous

There is a reluctance to scrutinise and address the fundamental cultural generators of Aboriginal violence. Where violence is seen as part of culture, too often it is defended as the culture's "right" to practice it. Above all, the separatist self-determination model maintains customs that are dangerous, particularly to women and young people. Hence, if we keep to a separatist, self-determination model, we will keep having to have crisis responses, major enquiries and interventions, and decades more of assaulted Aboriginal women and young people facing the terrible dilemma of abandoning their country, their community, to get some safety. Reducing Aboriginal violence entails fundamental cultural change. This book explores ways that, in a spirit of compassion and recognition of universal human rights, the nation can assist remote Aboriginal people live successfully within, or to have frequent, welcoming, positive interaction with, mainstream culture, so that acquisition of the mainstream's higher intolerance for violence can occur.