It began in 1980 as a Māori critique of midwifery training in New Zealand. But now concerns about cultural safety are widespread, most recently regarding the troubling allegations of racism at the Hawthorn Football Club.
“While the process indicated the current environment at the club is culturally safe,” read Hawthorn’s statement in the wake of the allegations, “it also recommended that some of the club’s current First Nations training and development programs should continue to be strengthened.”
The AFL’s statement on the issue noted similarly, “the AFL will liaise with the parties to ensure appropriate support and cultural safety are in place in accordance with the wishes of those involved”.
What is cultural safety? In short, it’s a response to racism that aligns with widely accepted views about the social determinants of health and seeks to avoid the problems with past attempts to address it. The idea is that racism harms First Nations peoples by denying them access to the social, educational, fiscal and community supports that evidence shows lead to better health.
But for those supports to benefit Indigenous peoples, they must not only avoid the pitfalls of past attempts to address racism — such as blaming, othering and stereotyping victims — but actively question power and support culture in a way that builds self-efficacy and esteem.
This is well and good — laudable in fact. My concern is with labelling the objective of this approach as the achievement of “safety”. Why? Because when it fails, those injured are seen as “unsafe”, a framing I worry can be infantalising and disempowering, stymying the confidence and resilience those compelled to fight oppression need to eventually achieve justice for others and themselves.
The opposite of safety is danger, a word that traditionally evokes images of imminent physical risk from which rescue is required. While this may be an accurate description of how some people experience the denial of social justice, it doesn’t describe mine. When I encounter structural sexism, I don’t feel imperilled, but slighted, disregarded, disrespected and unjustly treated. Far from requiring rescue, or wanting to use words that suggest I need rescuing, I feel indignation and outrage, and believe the best way to help my cause is to express that. This increases the odds I’ll be seen as a cheated rights holder, rather than being pitied as a victim.
More than this, I’m careful to ensure I’m not overwhelmed by negative feelings, and that the ones I allow myself energise me for the fight ahead. This is the philosophy of sticks and stones taught to me as a child, which, while no longer in fashion (we now know words can be hurtful), still resonates as a healthy and necessary mantra. Especially for someone who’s going to be experiencing oppression for a lifetime; someone who, if they want to make things different for their children and grandchildren, will need management techniques for debilitating emotions like grief and fear.
The First Nations families whose stories were at the centre of the ABC’s reporting of racism at Hawthorn may decline to tell their stories to the panel convened to investigate. Reporting suggested they had “serious reservations” about retelling stories that were “traumatising”. This was a change from previous expressions by players and their partners to use their stories to obtain accountability for the injustice they’d experienced and to “save … others going through” what they had.
Is this the negative impact of safety culture at work? Clearly, there’s not enough information in this one incident to say. But woven together with other incidents of this type, both here and overseas, it suggests the possibility that the language of safety culture, however well intended, may be undermining the mental health of young members of minority communities and sapping their will to resist.
Fighting for social justice is a hard slog. No one should be judged for declining to walk that path. But to encourage those who do fight, we need to choose language that supports their resilience, so they can retain the anger, insult and righteous indignation they need to tell their stories and demand justice again and again.
A colleague of mine had a disagreement with an indigenous representative regarding budget allocations for community projects. The basis of the dispute was that the representative wanted a greater share of the funding for indigenous programs whereas the organisation’s funding model allocates funds according to a formula that accounts for the number of people who have sought assistance (for example, programs that assisted refugees, single-mothers, and migrant communities who have much higher representations in this locality). In the fallout, the indigenous representative withdrew from further discussions, claiming that they felt ‘culturally unsafe’.
I don’t know how such an accusation can be rebutted. Is it not entirely subjective? The term sets a Kafka trap whereby anything said in defence is merely cited by the accuser as further evidence that the organisation is indeed, culturally unsafe.
A friend of mine experienced serious racism for quite a while. Our work had a process for dealing with such things but she didn’t want to use it because she didn’t want to be accused of “playing the race card”. Eventually it started to affect her mental health so she used the work grievance process in an effort to get a transfer to a different division.
Work said her grievance was groundless so she took her complaint to the Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission found plenty of evidence of the racism she was experiencing.
Who on earth put two thumbs down on a simple story? I’ll give you five thumbs up! <3
“I don’t want to work with that person, because I don’t feel safe with them.”
This is the new chestnut being used by Millennials in the work place, when someone holds then accountable for their sloppy/unprofessional/tardy/non work.
Nothing to do with workplace safety. Just hurt feelings.
And, as you claim, words can hurt, true, but emotional resilience is equally important.
We are in a period of retrograde evolution. Physical resilience is being lowered (obesity, food quality), emotional and mental resilience is also being lowered (hurt feelings, cultural safety), management is going backwards (most managers are HR incompetent and get played like cards by the emotionally manipulative, aka Millennials). Governance is going backwards because it’s not about leadership anymore. And wealth is concentrated, not distributed, so inequities will eventually lead to civil conflict.
And people laugh at me for being a prepper. Last laughs anyone?
It’s so galling when the nutters turn out to have been correct – for the wrong reasons.
If being reasonably well read on relevant topics like evolutionary psychology as it relates to workplace bullying, makes me a nutter, so be it. Read up at theauthoritarians.org (prof. Bob altemeyer, ret.), Then find Janice Harper who has researched workplace mobbing and found disturbing correlations with group dynamics pre genocide.
Our trend towards totalitarian society is underway and presently stoppable. But for how long?
If being reasonably well read on relevant topics like evolutionary psychology as it relates to workplace bullying, makes me a nutter, so be it.
Our trend towards totalitarian society is underway and presently stoppable. But for how long?
I think articles written by people living with racism would be much more useful. On The Ticket a couple of weeks ago Tracey Holmes argued that racism is violence. I found her argument strong even though there wasn’t a lot of time to explore it.
I did cultural safety training when I worked in the health sector. It really helped me understand some systemic problems that are hidden unless you’re actually experiencing them, and it allowed some people to recognize that they were racist without feeling threatened by the process of realisation. Everyone I knew became a much better practitioner and the patients felt more empowered by the improvement in our practice which created vastly improved relationships which, in turn, improved care and outcomes for patients and job satisfaction for practitioners.
As for sexism, at its worst women can be unsafe at work, school, etc. I’ve been prevented from staying back at work because I couldn’t safely be on my own with a male colleague. At school I count myself lucky that a teacher only put his hand up my skirt and between my legs because he raped someone else. Walking to the bus stop at 9pm on night going home from uni, I was confronted by two men with knives.
The reality is sometimes some people are genuinely unsafe – physically and/or emotionally. That doesn’t mean they will necessarily live the rest of their lives as victims, and it doesn’t mean that demanding better of our society is infantalising people, turning them into victims or pitying them.
Being in danger of physically attacked is being unsafe, no doubt about it. But things like complaining that changing a hospital’s name “had turned the hospital into a “culturally unsafe place for our people” (not that I approve of the change) seems like going too far.
What hospital do you mean? Is it Maroondah renamed Quuen Elizabeth? Someone came up with some words (culturally unsafe) to describe being belittled because of the colour of your skin and if it only ended there, it would be a “sticks and stones” thing hey? But racism doesn’t end there does it? If “culturally unsafe” is the language politicians use to describe a metaphoric slap in the face at a racially sensitive time, then that’s just what they’re using hey? The language itself is a just an attempt to define the feelings and as with all descriptions of feelings, it falls terribly short.
Again… who on earth put the thumbs down on this and on which part? Fess up please!
Crikey comments have become overpopulated and often degraded by many anonymous ‘conservative’ reactionaries and/or ‘Putinistas’ who view everything as some left wing conspiracy to be defied; like a cross of sentiments between Fox and RT 🙂
Culturally safe seems like a really stupid term to me. Culturally respectful, appropriate etc I am fine with. But if the people concerned in the apparent Hawthorn atrocity (which it was if true) need to draw on the courage of their predecessors like Winmar and Goodes and front up. I could scarcely believe my eyes when I read the allegations and this must be either confirmed and remedied or proven false.
But cultural safety would be what? I am a whitefella, so I can’t really know, but the Aboriginal people I do know would be kicking heads here rather than hiding.
Hawthorn atrocity? You have got to be kidding mate. Although I do agree with you that “cultural safety” is a stupid term. The whole adoption of the word “safe” by so-called “marginalised” people is way overdone. We have universities sponsoring “safe places” and people in the LGBQTI community saying they feel “unsafe” when anyone disagrees with their world view. What they really mean is being able to make statements and claims about notions of social structures without fear of being contradicted or challenged. It is hardly surprising that such a popular word with proven success and weight should be enthusiastically adopted by others.
But back to Hawthorn. There has been too much comment from media and commentators, some Aboriginal and some not, which obviously assumes malicious intent and guilt on the part of Hawthorn’s coaches – while making liberal use of the word “alleged” and “allegedly”. It is obvious from their utterances that they actually believe that all claims are not simply alleged, but are, in fact, already proven. And your “apparent Hawthorn atrocity” falls perfectly into the same type of utterance. As does your statement, “I could scarcely believe my eyes” – why, have you never seen accusations aired on a media programme before?
What has happened to the presumption of innocence in this society of ours? Or the reasonable expectation of due process? Personally speaking, I’m sick of it.
That bus sailed long before the stable door bridge was burnt.
Great to see Bruce Lehrman and Brittany Higgins finally get their fair day in court at last, though. It is a strikingly somber, sensitive, careful and informative process, even so far.
We wish justice well, as I’m sure Journalism does.
Pity having to admit in court li…misleading police over her “blue dress”™® M. Lewinksky being preserved untouched in a plastic bag for two years, having worn it to a party a couple of weeks after the alleged event.
I pay precisely zero attention to any accusation made in the media trial star chamber now, and even less to the Op Ed cottage industry that each inevitably spawns. Really, ‘Journalism’ is not on balance ‘substantial’ information on these matters these days. It’s really just J’accuse! show biz; a kind of ‘victimhood porn’.
I pay very serious attention to accusations…when they are formally made and explored via the relevant accountable, transparent, professionally stewarded due processes. That might be an independent organisational process, such as the AFL investigation the Hawthorne accusers are now apparently threatening not to cooperate with, or the Federal one (three!) Rachel Miller refused to cooperate with. It might be a formal police investigation, like the one Kate Thornton started, stopped, re-started and eventually asked to be discontinued. Or it might be an actual formal judicial trial, like the sexual assault one of Bruce Lehrman now finally underway. Due process is to be taken very seriously. Meeja trial? Not at all. Not now. Trial-by-media has flogged itself to death.
So let’s see what happens next procedurally with the Hawthorne accusations. It will be fairly telling for me if the accusers do, like Miller, decline to participate after all, and focus on a behind-closed-doors compo settlement. We will see.
One of the things Grace Tame taught us (if we were listening) was how re-telling one’s story can be re-traumatising. She explained it very well in (I think) her first speech to the National Press Club and asked journalists to be mindful of it when they talk to people who have suffered abuse. She also wrote a poem, Hard Pressed, about it – https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/grace-tame-poem/13486622