Family Violence From An Aboriginal Perspective: Implications For Working With Those Who Experience And Those Who Use Violence

Law and Culture are facts of life in the daily lives of the First Peoples of Western Australia. This presentation will describe an approach to understanding family violence (FV) through a Law and Culture lens, including the key drivers of FV in the context of colonial patriarchal violence, ongoing colonialism and intergenerational trauma, and the implications for working effectively with First Peoples who experience FV and those who use violence in their interpersonal relationships.

Dr Victoria Hovane (PhD) is an Aboriginal woman from Broome in the Kimberley region of WA. She belongs to the Ngarluma people of Roebourne in the Pilbara, and the Jaru and Gooniyandi peoples of the East and Central Kimberley regions.

Vickie is a registered psychologist and an experienced consultant and practitioner having worked in various legal, social welfare, justice, and research roles over the past 37 years. She is a Professorial Fellow at the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Indigenous Peoples and Community Justice, Law School at the University of Western Australia. She specialises in the areas of addressing the cultural needs of Aboriginal people in various settings including the child protection, legal, courts and correctional systems, with a particular emphasis on understanding intergenerational trauma including family violence and sexual assault, and its multiple impacts in Aboriginal communities.

Vickie was previously appointed to the roles of Professor and Study Director in the national Family and Community Safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (FaCtS) Study at The ANU. She was also recently the senior research consultant in an ANROWS project which investigated: The role of Law and Culture in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in responding to and preventing family violence; and Researcher in the ANROWS project Innovative models in addressing violence against Indigenous women.

Vickie spent six years as an Independent Director on the Board of Australia’s National Research Organisation on Women’s Safety (ANROWS). She is currently the Chair of the Board of the Aboriginal Family Law Service, Board member of the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing, a Member of the WA Minister for FV, Women and Communities’ Aboriginal Advisory Panel, and a Member of the High Risk Offenders Board. She was previously a long serving Member of the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Advisory Group, a Member of the Commonwealth Department of Health’s Adult Mental Health Centres Technical Advisory Group, a member of the Advisory Group for the Australian Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence project, a long serving Member of the Advisory Panel to the WA Ombudsman’s FDV and Child Fatality Review Committees, and a Member of the WA Mental Health Commission.

Registration for this seminar is essential. Please click here for tickets.