The reality is that Aboriginal women and children make choices about which services they wish to access on the basis of safety, accessibility and the guarantee of confidentiality. If an Aboriginal woman’s abusive partner or his family work at a particular Aboriginal organisation, for instance, she may feel that her safety may be compromised by attending the service. Equally, an Aboriginal woman may feel “shamed up” by the violence she has experienced and may not want anybody in her family or community knowing.37 Healing models and recovery services focused on First Nations culture are required to prevent violence Victim-survivors, know this truth firsthand. We have been and are still living with it. It is our lived experiences and your lived experiences, that hold the solutions. We have the answers to confront what is wrong and to create what is right. Women and girls of all ages and backgrounds spoke directly, very fiercely, throughout the Wiyi Yani U Thangani engagements in 2018 and beyond. For the right to self-determination, and to have the dedicated forums and mechanisms to guarantee their participation, in forming the systems that shape our lives. 38 June Oscar AO, Forum opening remarks More evidence is needed to help understand what works to prevent violence. Significant knowledge gaps exist in relation to effective interventions for perpetrators of sexual violence, and for LGBTIQA+SB people. However, the voices of First Nations experts are clear in that the solutions to family violence lie in culturally appropriate strategies that support safety and healing, and prevention and accountability of offenders. Punitive responses focussed on the criminal justice system alone do not work and in fact can endanger women and children. Unlike non-First Nations responses to women’s safety which tend to focus on gender equality, as well as individualising responses by separating out young people, women and men to respond to or prevent family, domestic and sexual violence, First Nations responses look holistically at the impacts of colonisation on families, communities and individuals.39 Caution must be exercised however to ensure local and culturally contextualised healing and traumainformed approaches does not minimise the role of gender inequality, racism and poverty in exacerbating levels of violence experienced by First Nations women. Wiyi Yani U Thangani • First Nations Women’s Safety Policy Forum • Outcomes Report | 32