Advocacy for safety and empowerment: State of knowledge paper

Abstract

This paper analyses critical, policy, service and research literature on responses to Aboriginal women experiencing family and domestic violence in Australia; focusing on non-legal and non-clinical services and women’s specialist services in regional and remote settings.<br/ >It considers:<br/ ><br/ >critical writing, analysis and representation by Aboriginal women on family and domestic violence;<br/ >literature on the evolution of responses to Aboriginal women experiencing family and domestic violence; and<br/ >participatory research methods and how they can further open the ground for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women to debate ways of challenging violence and enable Aboriginal women to live violence-free.<br/ >As a critical review, the paper highlights problems in using ideas of “effectiveness” and “success” to drive objectives in service delivery; and seeks to re-centre aspirations for empowerment alongside those for safety.