Lateral Violence in First Nation Communities - Understanding the Interface With Family Violence
Tracks
Ballroom 1
| Tuesday, November 28, 2023 |
| 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM |
Overview
Michelle Rogers, Aboriginal Community Housing Industry Association (ACHIA) NSW
Speaker
Ms Michelle Rogers
Manager Policy & Partnership
ACHIA
Lateral Violence in First Nation Communities - Understanding the Interface With Family Violence
Abstract
Michelle Rogers has been a professional presenter and First Nations advocate working with families and jarjum in the human service sector for over 25 years. Michelle currently works for Aboriginal Community Housing Industry Association NSW (ACHIA) are an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) established as the peak Aboriginal Housing advocate in NSW for Aboriginal Community Housing Providers (ACHP’s).
More than words – Empowerment and self-determination can be implemented in practice in their truth, despite the impact of systemic intervention. Systems oppress – oppression causes hopelessness - hopelessness creates dependency - dependency disempowers and disempowered people have more systems imposed on them. That’s how the cycle perpetuates itself. When oppressed people are not able to battle a ‘system’ they instead turn on one another, known as lateral violence. This form of violence is crippling First Nations communities at National, State, Language group and community levels, and now it is also reflected within households, labelled as family and domestic violence.
Our families and communities have ways of knowing, being and doing that have been time tested for 10s of 1000s of years – ways that genuinely empower and allows full self-determination. The ‘what’ needs to be done can be clearly identified, but ‘how’ to do the work is ours to reflect upon (as individual practitioners / services / agencies and researchers). This presentation will prompt you to think through your own ways of working, your own values, identify where you might play a role in perpetuating the oppression cycle and challenge your thinking about First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing as an untapped resource in your day to day work.
The ‘what’ needs to be done can be clearly seen, but ‘how’ to do the work is ours to reflect upon (as individual practitioners / services / agencies and researchers), this presentation will prompt you to think through your own ways of working, your own values, identify where you might play a role in perpetuating the oppression cycle and challenge your thinking about First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing as an untapped resource in your day to day work.
More than words – Empowerment and self-determination can be implemented in practice in their truth, despite the impact of systemic intervention. Systems oppress – oppression causes hopelessness - hopelessness creates dependency - dependency disempowers and disempowered people have more systems imposed on them. That’s how the cycle perpetuates itself. When oppressed people are not able to battle a ‘system’ they instead turn on one another, known as lateral violence. This form of violence is crippling First Nations communities at National, State, Language group and community levels, and now it is also reflected within households, labelled as family and domestic violence.
Our families and communities have ways of knowing, being and doing that have been time tested for 10s of 1000s of years – ways that genuinely empower and allows full self-determination. The ‘what’ needs to be done can be clearly identified, but ‘how’ to do the work is ours to reflect upon (as individual practitioners / services / agencies and researchers). This presentation will prompt you to think through your own ways of working, your own values, identify where you might play a role in perpetuating the oppression cycle and challenge your thinking about First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing as an untapped resource in your day to day work.
The ‘what’ needs to be done can be clearly seen, but ‘how’ to do the work is ours to reflect upon (as individual practitioners / services / agencies and researchers), this presentation will prompt you to think through your own ways of working, your own values, identify where you might play a role in perpetuating the oppression cycle and challenge your thinking about First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing as an untapped resource in your day to day work.
Biography
Wiradjuri and Gomeroi woman, Dabee descent, visiting on Bundjalung Country over half of my life, with a long-standing professional background in Housing Services, Child Protection, Out of Home Care, Cultural planning for children and Specialist in Practice & Permanency. Using culturally embedded practice will support children to live at home safely with family. I enjoy purposeful relationships across sectors, to enable sound advocacy and sector priority shift. My experience is both lived and academic, enabling a unique and balanced lens on issues affecting our Aboriginal communities. As an advocate for systemic change, I strive to ensure that self-determination and empowerment are more than words, I challenge Government processes to shift to understand cultural ways of knowing, being and doing. Working with ACHIA NSW, in the not for profit, Aboriginal Community Controlled sector as Partnerships and Policy Manager, focused on adequate, affordable, secure and sustainable housing for Aboriginal families.
