10 FEBRUARY 2026
Australia’s first standalone National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence was officially launched today at Parliament House in Canberra. The plan paves the way to stronger and safer Aboriginal communities, driven by re-empowered Aboriginal communities.
Titled Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices (2025-2035), the plan is designed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It sits alongside and on equal footing with the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children.
Co-Chair of the Our Ways steering committee and CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) Muriel Bamblett said the plan reflects generations of advocacy led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and is a clear call for change.
“We know that violence against women and children is unacceptable. We also know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience family violence at disproportionately high rates,” Ms Bamblett said.
“This plan provides a different pathway that’s led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, grounded in generations of lived experience, in culture, and in evidence.”
“In Victoria, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations like VACCA have shown that when Aboriginal people design and deliver solutions for our own communities, they deliver stronger outcomes,” she said.
“In 2016 the Taskforce 1000 report into services provided to Aboriginal children and young people in out-of-home care in Victoria found over 80 per cent of children entered care for family violence. Today’s data is at 72 per cent, which indicates that with investment in Aboriginal approaches we can bring about change,” Ms Bamblett said.
The Our Ways plan aligns with work being delivered across Victoria by Aboriginal-led agencies.
VACCA’s family-violence services reduce exposure to violence, improve connections to family, culture and community, and increase safety and wellbeing through programs targeting early intervention and prevention, as well as case management, therapeutic supports and counselling, and other services for persons experiencing family violence and for persons using family violence.
Extensive, nation-wide consultation was central to the plan’s development, as well as the foundational work of the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council.
Our Ways supports Victoria’s commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, particularly to reduce all forms of family violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children by at least 50 per cent by 2031, as progress towards zero.
“Our Ways – Strong Ways – Our Voices reflects what Aboriginal communities have been saying for generations – that healing, culture and connection to Country are essential for strong and safe families and communities,” Ms Bamblett said.
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FOR RELEASE –
Simone Egger - Senior Manager, Communications and Public Affairs
PH: 0472 505 780 E: simone.egger@vacca.org
ABOUT VACCA - www.vacca.org
The Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) is Victoria’s peak voice for Aboriginal children. We are the leading provider of Aboriginal child and family services, and the largest provider of services for Aboriginal family violence and homelessness. We have been supporting children, young people, and families in the community for almost 50 years as an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO).
Through our vision of self-determination – Live, Experience, and Be – we exist to support culturally strong, safe, and thriving Aboriginal communities. We deliver over 80 programs across Victoria including child and family services, family violence, support for stolen generations, child protection, cultural strengthening programs, mental health, financial services, justice and redress support, early years, and homelessness services.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which we work. We pay our respects to their elders, past and present, and to their children and young people who are the future elders and caretakers of this great land.