GENDER JUSTICE: EQUALITY AND EQUITY
can cook and Mums can have a rest”.
In partnership with the Northern
Territory Government and the
Larapinta Child and Family Centre,
they followed up with Girls Can, Boys
Can. The campaign declares that
“Girls can be brave!” and “Boys can
dress up and dance!”, in messages
and images that, unlike many
mainstream books and resources,
feature Aboriginal children and
families in a positive and strengthsbased way.
Another campaign, Old Ways Are
Strong, developed animations to
challenge the racist attitude that
violence is a part of traditional
Aboriginal cultures.
An evaluation of these campaigns
last year by Dr Chay Brown of
The Equality Institute, a global
feminist agency working to end
violence against women and girls,
showed the value of explicit and
direct messaging27 or “talking
straight”. Importantly, the research
also highlighted that there is no
primary prevention infrastructure
in the Northern Territory to support
work that focuses on the causes
of violence and no funding of the
primary prevention workforce itself.28
violence or health services. They say
that current funding in the Northern
Territory is unfair, and that populationbased funding should be replaced
with needs-based funding to take
into account high levels of violence,
racism, distance, language and other
structural issues.
The Tangentyere Women’s Family
Safety Group wants family violence to
be seen as a public health emergency
involving all sectors, not only domestic
ARTWORK: Girls Can, Boys Can campaign, Tangentyere Council
Transforming Power: Voices for Generational Change
33