Under the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Government’s Safe, Respect­ed, and Free from Vio­lence grants pro­gram, Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) received $150K to co-design, facil­i­tate, and devel­op its pri­ma­ry pre­ven­tion project to ​‘chal­lenge and change social and cul­tur­al atti­tudes, prac­tices and struc­tures that under­pin domes­tic, fam­i­ly, and sex­u­al vio­lence’ (DFSV).

Under DKA’s Social Well­be­ing Pro­gram, which includes Codes 4 Life (for men only), the work­shop-based DFSV Respect­ed Women Pro­gram is for women only, and aims to:

• Raise aware­ness about DFSV, its types, its dri­vers, and the tools we can use to pre­vent it;
• Edu­cate par­tic­i­pants on how to access help, and how to respond to vio­lence when needed;
• Cre­ate a safe place where par­tic­i­pants can ask ques­tions and share stories;
• Rein­state the author­i­ty of Elders using sto­ry­telling to teach women expe­ri­enc­ing DFSV about tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge and prac­tices for pre­vent­ing and respond­ing to vio­lence; and
• Break the bias that cul­ture jus­ti­fies violence.

As a col­lab­o­ra­tive pri­ma­ry pre­ven­tion project, DKA will be seek­ing strong part­ner­ships and involve­ment from Elders, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and rel­e­vant organisations.

DKA will hold the first of its 2023 Respect­ed Women work­shops in Kin­tore and Utju, each of which will be devel­oped on com­mu­ni­ty, and in three phases:

Report­ing to the Office of Domes­tic, Fam­i­ly and Sex­u­al Vio­lence Reduc­tion, Depart­ment of Ter­ri­to­ry Fam­i­lies, Hous­ing and Com­mu­ni­ties, DKA’s Respect­ed Women Pro­gram is guid­ed by the fol­low­ing prin­ci­ples of the North­ern Territory’s DFSV Reduc­tion Framework: 

• Women and children’s safe­ty and well­be­ing is at the centre
• Shared respon­si­bil­i­ty, part­ner­ships, and local responses
• Evi­dence and needs-based, and out­comes focused
• Focus on long-term social and cul­tur­al change
• Shared aware­ness and under­stand­ing of domes­tic, fam­i­ly, and sex­u­al violence