Twen­ty-five women gath­ered at the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct yes­ter­day to dis­cuss and devel­op pre­ven­tion prac­tices against domes­tic, fam­i­ly and sex­u­al vio­lence (DFSV).

The first Codes 4 Life: Women work­shop was deliv­ered by a ded­i­cat­ed team includ­ing Facil­i­ta­tors Jessie Bartlett, Sharon Burns and Maris­sa Gib­son; and Elders Mau­reen Abbott, Alice Nel­son and Kath­leen Wal­lace. The work­shop host­ed 14 par­tic­i­pants and four guest speak­ers, and was sup­port­ed by DKA Pro­gram Man­ag­er Nina Kold­er and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer Tra­cy Jones.

Codes 4 Life: Women is a pilot pro­gram by DKA, fund­ed under Ter­ri­to­ry Fam­i­lies’ ​‘Safe, Respect­ed and Free from Vio­lence’ Pre­ven­tion Grant. The co-designed pro­gram mod­el builds on the frame­work and strong cul­tur­al focus of DKA’s exist­ing flag­ship project, Codes 4 Life. It seeks to address the high rates of DFSV in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, and devel­op pre­ven­tion prac­tices includ­ing build­ing aware­ness and self-determination.

The inau­gur­al work­shop drew on themes relat­ing to Abo­rig­i­nal cul­ture and iden­ti­ty: land, lan­guage, peo­ple, cer­e­mo­ny, and law; and invit­ed par­tic­i­pants to engage in inter­ac­tive work­shop activ­i­ties includ­ing map­ping the dif­fer­ent ele­ments of cul­ture and identity.

The work­shop pro­vid­ed a space for women of all ages to share their knowl­edge and under­stand­ing about fac­tors sur­round­ing DFSV. It cov­ered top­ics relat­ing to the dif­fer­ent types of abuse, con­trol, use of alco­hol and oth­er sub­stances in com­mu­ni­ties, loss of cul­ture, sex­u­al­i­sa­tion of women, and peer pres­sure. A sig­nif­i­cant theme from the work­shop, par­tic­u­lar­ly among younger par­tic­i­pants, high­light­ed the use and impli­ca­tions of social media in school-aged children.

Guest speak­ers from Wom­en’s Safe­ty Ser­vices of Cen­tral Aus­tralia (WoSS­CA) and the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police talked about the ser­vices avail­able to women who feel unsafe, or have expe­ri­enced or wit­nessed DFSV.

Remote Team Leader Max­ine Bal­lard pre­sent­ed an overview of WoSS­CA ser­vices and pro­tec­tive mea­sures avail­able to women who feel threat­ened. Bal­lard also detailed a range of help avail­able from like­mind­ed part­ner organisations.

The North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police’s Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion Branch oper­a­tions and DFSV response were detailed by Detec­tive Act­ing Senior Sergeant Car­men Butch­er, Senior Abo­rig­i­nal Com­mu­ni­ty Police Offi­cer Francine ​“Frankie” Else­good, and Abo­rig­i­nal Liai­son Offi­cer Chris­tine Woods. They dis­cussed lan­guage ser­vices, con­fi­den­tial­i­ty, con­sent, manda­to­ry report­ing, cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate sys­tems, and pro­tect­ing one­self from online crimes includ­ing catfishing.

Response to the work­shop was col­lec­tive­ly pos­i­tive, with par­tic­i­pants active­ly engag­ing with pre­sen­ta­tions and activ­i­ties through­out its dura­tion. Feed­back high­light­ed an increased knowl­edge about cul­ture, iden­ti­ty and DFSV ser­vices, as well as an increased like­li­hood to report or seek help for DFSV-relat­ed incidents.