Warrior Way: Grounded Healing, Recovery and Relational Accountability for Stronger, Safer Families and Connected Communities
Tracks
Ballroom 1: In-Person & Online
| Wednesday, November 25, 2026 |
| 9:20 AM - 9:40 AM |
| Ballroom 1 |
Overview
Shiree Talbot, Bunmabunmarra Services Australia Ltd
Three Key Learnings
1. Accountability can be strengthened through culturally grounded healing, not separated from it.
Delegates will be invited to consider how Warrior Way positions accountability as an active, relational and ongoing practice. Rather than relying only on compliance, attendance or individual behaviour correction, the program supports participants to reflect on the impact of their choices, recognise unhealthy relationship patterns, and build responsibility through cultural safety, trust, connection and guided reflection.
2. Relational behaviour change requires integrated responses to trauma, risk and structural vulnerability.
Delegates will gain insight into how unhealthy or harmful behaviours in relationships are shaped by intersecting experiences including grief, shame, adverse childhood experiences, substance use, mental health, justice involvement, homelessness and disconnection from culture, family and community. The learning is that healing and recovery work must remain risk-aware and safety-centred, while still responding to the whole person and the systems around them.
3. Restorative practice and reciprocity offer practical pathways for responsibility, repair and safer relationships.
Delegates will be invited to explore how restorative practice can be applied carefully in healing and recovery work without minimising harm or shifting responsibility to victim-survivors. Warrior Way uses reciprocity to move beyond receiving support, encouraging participants to give back through changed conduct, respectful relationships, contribution to family and community, and a deeper understanding of responsibility to others.
Speaker
Ms Shiree Talbot
Operations Manager
Bunmabunmarra Services Australia Ltd
Warrior Way: Grounded Healing, Recovery and Relational Accountability for Stronger, Safer Families and Connected Communities
Presentation Overview
The Warrior Way is an Aboriginal-led healing and recovery program developed by Bunmabunmarra Services to support men to strengthen identity, responsibility, connection and safer relationships. The program responds to a critical practice gap in regional and rural communities: the need for culturally safe, relational and trauma-informed approaches that support participants to recognise and change unhealthy patterns of behaviour, while remaining attentive to risk, safety and accountability.
Rather than positioning behaviour change as a standalone intervention, Warrior Way understands recovery as a relational process shaped by culture, lived experience, structural vulnerability, grief, shame, substance use, mental health, justice involvement, housing instability and disconnection from family and community. The program creates a culturally grounded space where participants can reflect on the impacts of their choices, strengthen emotional regulation, build healthier communication, and develop more respectful ways of relating to partners, children, family and community.
This presentation will share emerging insights from the implementation of Warrior Way, with particular attention to restorative practice and reciprocity. Restorative practice is approached carefully, not as a process that requires reconciliation or places responsibility on victim-survivors, but as a framework for reflection, responsibility, repair and change. Reciprocity is understood as central to healing: participants are encouraged to consider not only what support they receive, but how they contribute back through respect, accountability, cultural responsibility and safer relationships.
Drawing on program observations, early evaluation findings and a practice-based case study, the paper will explore what culturally grounded relational accountability looks like in practice. Warrior Way offers early lessons for strengthening integrated, risk-aware and Aboriginal-led approaches that support men’s healing and recovery while keeping the safety and wellbeing of women, children, families and communities at the centre.
Rather than positioning behaviour change as a standalone intervention, Warrior Way understands recovery as a relational process shaped by culture, lived experience, structural vulnerability, grief, shame, substance use, mental health, justice involvement, housing instability and disconnection from family and community. The program creates a culturally grounded space where participants can reflect on the impacts of their choices, strengthen emotional regulation, build healthier communication, and develop more respectful ways of relating to partners, children, family and community.
This presentation will share emerging insights from the implementation of Warrior Way, with particular attention to restorative practice and reciprocity. Restorative practice is approached carefully, not as a process that requires reconciliation or places responsibility on victim-survivors, but as a framework for reflection, responsibility, repair and change. Reciprocity is understood as central to healing: participants are encouraged to consider not only what support they receive, but how they contribute back through respect, accountability, cultural responsibility and safer relationships.
Drawing on program observations, early evaluation findings and a practice-based case study, the paper will explore what culturally grounded relational accountability looks like in practice. Warrior Way offers early lessons for strengthening integrated, risk-aware and Aboriginal-led approaches that support men’s healing and recovery while keeping the safety and wellbeing of women, children, families and communities at the centre.
Biography
With strong connections to the Wellington and Cudgegong Valleys, Shiree Talbot brings extensive experience across community services, including justice, child and family support, homelessness, domestic and family violence, and Aboriginal community-controlled service delivery. As Operations Manager at Bunmabunmarra Services, Shiree applies a practical systems, governance and decolonising lens to culturally safe, community-led evaluation and practice. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Sociology and postgraduate qualifications in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Griffith University, an Advanced Diploma in Community Services Management and Leadership, and is a Research Fellow with UNSW.
