26TH - 27TH MAY 2027
CULTURE AS
PREVENTION
CONFERENCE
A First-Nations-led, two day gathering bringing together community, lived expereince, cultural knowledge, practitioners, researchers, prevention leaders and international Indigenous voices to examine one critical question:
What needs to be in place before violence happens?
Limited
Seats.
Early Bird
Sale ends
30 December
2026.
26th - 27th May 2027
Join Us for The Culture As Prevention Conference
Too often, systems respond once harm as escalated, after a woman has been assaulted, after a young person has entered crisis, after a family has become involved with statutory services, after a man's behaviour has caused serious harm. It's your chance to figure out what to do before the problem becomes a crisis.
Culture As Prevention asks us to move earlier
To find the conditions that keep people safe.
To listen to what communities already know.
To learn from people who've lived it.
To put culture and connection at the centre of prevention.
To challenge the systems that only turn up once harm is alway done.
Before the crisis. Before the intervention. Before another family carries the cost.
Why Culture As Prevention?
Violence prevention is often discussed in broad terms, but what does prevention actually look like in practice?
Across two days, Culture As Prevention will bring together different forms of knowledge - First Nations Knowledge, lived and living experience, community practice, specialist expertise, research and international Indigenous approaches to explore what genuine primary prevention requires.
The gathering is for everyone with a role in crater safer communities, while remaining firmly First Nations-led in its direction, values and cultural foundations.
Two Days.
Two Different Conversations.
Restorative Practice
Where restorative practice fits in preventing harm before it happens — not as a response once harm has occurred, but as part of what keeps people safe well before it does.
It's already being used by communities across NSW, alongside cultural strength and community-led response.
A thread running through everything Day 1 covers, not a single session on the agenda.
Community Development
Asset-Based Community Development, and practical frameworks you can actually take back and adapt inside your own service, organisation or community.
Instead of starting from what's broken, it starts with what a community already has the skills, relationships and knowledge already there and builds prevention from that.
Day 2 moves from understanding prevention to doing it.
Men's Accountability
Healthy masculinity, and what real accountability looks like in practice — grounded in culture and community, not just policy.
What changes when men are held accountable by their own community, not just by a system looking in from outside.
One of the harder conversations Day 2 makes space for.
See what prevention looks like when community and culture are leading.
A day focused on what prevention looks like when culture, lived experience and community knowledge are leading the response. Participants will hear local and broader First Nations approaches to violence prevention, explore restorative practice, cultural strength and community-led responses, and learn from people with lived experience about what was needed before harm occurred, and what Aboriginal communities are already doing across NSW.
Deep Knowledge. Shared Differently.
Introducing MasterYARNS
A MasterYARN is not another lecture. It is a facilitated, in-depth conversation bringing together people who hold different forms of knowledge, cultural knowledge, community knowledge, lived experience, practice knowledge and evidence around one important prevention issue. It applies Yarning, a recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander method of knowledge exchange, as a structured methodology rather than an informal conversation format.
HEAR the knowledge - a lead contributor opens with provocation, not a lecture.
Māori Voices From Aotearoa
Sandra Peipi & Waiaria Rewha
We are proud to welcome these confirmed Maori contributors from Aotearoa/New Zealand. Their contribution will explore Maori worldviews on sexual violence, including the limitations of Western responses and how culturally grounded wraparound can better hold women, children, men, whanau and community.
The conversations will examine what can be lost when sexual violence is approached only through individual clinical, legal or service responses and what Indigenous worldviews can teach us about collective responsibility, healing, culture and prevention.
Sandra Peipi
Maori Worldview on Sexual Violence
Describe the team member here. Write a brief description of their role and responsibilities or a short bio with a background summary.
Waiaria Rewha
Maori Worldview on Sexual Violence
Describe the team member here. Write a brief description of their role and responsibilities or a short bio with a background summary.
NSW Aboriginal Prevention in Action
Some of the most important prevention is already happening here. Culture As Prevention will create space for Aboriginal organisations, grassroots programs and community practitioners across NSW to share what they are doing.
Violence prevention & community safety
Women and children
Healthy masculinity
Cultural strengthening & identity
Healthy relationships & consent
Family strengthening
Lived-experience leadership
Restorative practice
Men's accountability
Youth violence
Sexual violence
Community-led healing
Conference Schedule
26th May 2027
9:00 AM - 9:30AM
Welcome to Country & Acknowledgement
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Opening Keynote
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Restorative Practice: where it fits in preventing harm before it happens?
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Morning Tea
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Lived Experience & Community-Led Safety
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Lunch & NSW Aboriginal Prevention in Action Showcase
2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Culture's Role in Prevention
4:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Afternoon Tea
27 May 2027
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Welcome Back
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Community Development
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Morning Tea
11:30 AM - 1:00PM
Māori Voices from Aotearoa
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Lunch
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Afternoon Tea
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
International Indigenous Approaches
5:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Circle Closing - Carry It Forward
Who should attend
Culture As Prevention is designed for people working across domestic, family and sexual violence, Aboriginal community-controlled services, youth, child and family services, health, education, justice, mental health, homelessness, disability, community development, local and state government, universities, research, policy and prevention.
It is equally important that the room includes community members, cultural knowledge holders and people with lived and living experience because prevention cannot be designed only by systems.
Why these dates matter
Culture As Prevention opens on National Sorry Day - 26th May 2027. National Sorry Day asks Australia to acknowledge the Stolen Generations and the continuing consequences of children being removed from family, culture, Country and community. The second day falls on the beginning of National Reconciliation Week.
That creates a deliberate journey across the gathering.
Acknowledgement
Truth-telling
Learning
Action
Responsibility
For a First Nations-led gathering examining prevention, these dates are not simply symbolic. They remind us that systems themselves can create harm and that prevention must include listening to communities about what needs to change.
Four ways to be in the room
This conversation needs more than one sector.
Violence prevention cannot belong only to the domestic violence sector. It belongs in families, schools, sporting clubs, workplaces, businesses, health services, community organisations, governments and neighourhoods.
Because if we genuinely want fewer people harmed by violence, the question cannot only be what do we do after violence occurs? We also have to ask - what are we willing to change before it does?