Law, Culture and Decolonisation: The Perspectives of Aboriginal Elders on Family Violence in Australia
| Author | Thomas Worrigal,Harry Blagg,Donella Raye,Suzie May,Victoria Hovane,Tamara Tulich |
| Published date | 01 August 2022 |
| Date | 01 August 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/09646639211046134 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Law, Culture and
Decolonisation: The
Perspectives of Aboriginal
Elders on Family Violence
in Australia
Harry Blagg , Victoria Hovane, Tamara Tulich ,
Donella Raye, Suzie May, and Thomas Worrigal
University of Western Australia, Australia
Abstract
Family violence within Aboriginal communities continues to attract considerable
scholarly, governmental and public attention in Australia. While rates of victimization
are significantly higher than non-Aboriginal rates, Aboriginal women remain suspicious
of the ‘carceral feminism’remedy, arguing that family violence is a legacy of colonialism,
systemic racism, and the intergenerational impacts of trauma, requiring its own distinct-
ive suite of responses, ‘uncoupled’from the dominant feminist narrative of gender
inequality, coercive control and patriarchy. We conclude that achieving meaningful
reductions in family violence hinges on a decolonising process that shifts power from
settler to Aboriginal structures. Aboriginal peoples are increasingly advocating for
strengths-based and community-led solutions that are culturally safe, involve
Aboriginal justice models, and recognises the salience of Aboriginal Law and Culture.
This paper is based on qualitative research in six locations in northern Australia
where traditional patterns of Aboriginal Law and Culture are robust. Employing a deco-
lonising methodology, we explore the views of Elders in these communities regarding
the existing role of Law and Culture, their criticisms of settler law, and their ambitions
for a greater degree of partnership between mainstream and Aboriginal law. The paper
advances a number of ideas, based on these discussions, that might facilitate a paradigm
shift in theory and practice regarding intervention in family violence.
Corresponding author:
Harry Blagg, Law School, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Western Australia, Australia.
Email: harry.blagg@uwa.edu.au
Article
Social & Legal Studies
2022, Vol. 31(4) 535–558
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/09646639211046134
journals.sagepub.com/home/sls
Keywords
Family Violence, Law and Culture, settler colonialism, decolonisation, Eld ers
Introduction
Family violence within Aboriginal communities has attracted considerable scholarly,
governmental and public attention in Australia in recent years. It is widely accepted
that rates of victimization are significantly higher than non-Aboriginal rates, and
that Aboriginal women are amongst the most victimized groups in Australian
society (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), 2018; Blagg, 2002;
Blagg et al., 2015, 2018; Cheers et al., 2006; Cripps and Davis, 2012; State of
Victoria, 2016). In sharp contrast to demands for a tougher response to violence
against women, symbolized by ‘carceral feminism’(Kim, 2018) and the Duluth
Model (or Domestic Abuse Intervention Project) (Pence and Paymar, 1993), many
commentators, including Aboriginal women, argue that family violence needs to be
understood within an historical framework traversed by colonialism, systemic disad-
vantage, cultural dislocation, forced removal of children and the intergenerational
impacts of trauma (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Taskforce on
Violence, 2000; Atkinson, 1990a, 1990b, 1996, 2002; Australian Bureau of
Statistics, 2016; Behrendt, 2002; Blagg et al., 2015; Cheers et al., 2006; Cripps and
McGlade, 2008; Dodson, 2003; Gordon et al., 2002; Kelly, 2002; McGlade, 2012;
Nancarrow, 2003, 2010, 2019; National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health
Organisation, 2006). It is also increasingly argued that family violence in
Aboriginal communities requires its own distinctive suite of responses, ‘uncoupled’
from the dominant feminist discourse that situates violence against women in terms
of gender inequality, coercive control and patriarchy (Blagg et al., 2020;
Nancarrow, 2006; State of Victoria, 2016; Wall, 2014; Yodanis, 2004), and situated
within a fresh paradigm that enables Aboriginal peoples to develop their own solutions
to family violence in their communities (see e.g. Atkinson, 1990a; Law Reform
Commission of Western Australia, 2006; Northern Territory Law Committee, 2019;
Wright, 2004; Memmott, Stacey, Chambers Commission & Keys, 2001; Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, 2006).
In this article, we present findings from recently completed research exploring the
considerable contribution Aboriginal Law and Culture can and, indeed, already does,
play in minimising family violence. Aboriginal communities, particularly Aboriginal
women’s organisations working from within local cultural frameworks, have been
energetic innovators, developing holistic, trauma informed programs that offer cultur-
ally and physically safe environments for victims (Blagg et al., 2018). However, these
are often invisible to the colonial gaze, which only recognises certain accredited prac-
tices as constituting an adequate response to family violence. These tend to be those
that fall within the dominant domestic violence paradigm which favours an expanded
role for the police, courts and prisons, and women’s refuges as exit points from violent
relationships, and leveraging men into behaviour change programs through the threat
of criminal sanctions.
536 Social & Legal Studies 31(4)
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