Recent announcements made by the Meeting of Attorneys-General32 to develop national principles around a common understanding of coercive control and to explore criminalisation is the latest example of a system that prioritises criminal and punitive approaches over healing ones to respond to violence. This announcement was made despite concerns from many Aboriginal women about the disproportionate impact of criminalisation on First Nations peoples and evidence that the misidentification of First Nations women as the predominant aggressor in family violence situations continues.33 Significant evidence of racism in policing and the justice system has not been addressed and will especially impact Indigenous women.34 Improving responses to violence requires a whole of system approach spanning primary prevention through to tertiary responses Policy built primarily on the assumption that all violence perpetrated in First Nations communities is by First Nations men echoes a colonial legacy of policies that ignore reports of violence experienced by First Nations women when it is not perpetrated by First Nations men. It also contributes to a First Nations led service system that is simultaneously underfunded and over-relied upon. While research into family violence shows that primary prevention and early intervention is critical to breaking the cycle of violence, this is one of the least resourced areas in the service system. In remote areas, ‘drive in and drive out’ services are reliant on women’s services on the ground, increasing the burden of responsibility on under resourced and overworked services to facilitate connection and enable primary prevention services to build rapport and achieve positive outcomes for community. A whole of system response also requires flexible funding that acknowledges the holistic nature of services and inter-connectedness of family violence prevention work. There is also a chronic lack of recognition, value and support of the unpaid care work that First Nations women do in communities, including supporting victims of violence and filling the gaps that inadequate services and policy induced poverty (particularly through the welfare system) create. Much greater support and value needs to be placed on this care work, which is often informally given, but critical to addressing family violence. There is also a clear role and responsibility for mainstream organisations to prevent and address violence. Non-First Nations organisations need to better educate themselves around First Nations family violence responses and be better in providing safe spaces for First Nations people. Often the health system is the first and only point of contact with professionals for First Nations women experiencing violence. However, we also know that mainstream primary health care providers do not adequately respond to First Nations women experiencing violence.35 There are examples of misdiagnosis or minimisation of First Nations women’s health conditions where medical interaction may be so culturally unsafe as to heighten women’s health conditions or even lead to preventable deaths.36 Wiyi Yani U Thangani • First Nations Women’s Safety Policy Forum • Outcomes Report | 31