The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) emphasised that there was inadequate and lacking Aboriginal participation in the design and delivery of police cultural safety training for recruits and in-service officers across all jurisdictions. Significant efforts were required to ensure the most effective courses were developed given “the question of Aboriginal-police relations is clearly so central to the whole question of policing in Australia, and the issue of police training so fundamental”.

The Royal Commission noted several important factors in the provision of police training:

• Sufficient time dedicated to confronting and working on negative attitudes trainees may hold towards Aboriginal people.
• Evaluation of training to determine the seriousness given to the course by trainees and staff. Formal assessment also allows for the examination of changes in police attitudes.
• Aboriginal involvement with the Aboriginal component of training courses prepared in consultation with representatives from the Aboriginal community (with care taken not to over-burden Aboriginal staff).
• Consider the role of women given the importance of women in Aboriginal communities, the appropriateness of contact with Aboriginal women by male police, and/or the need for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women to be employed by police departments
• Police participation and support from the most senior levels of police will enhance the aims of the course and cadet perceptions of its importance.
• Ongoing training for young police including on-the-spot supervised training to develop skills in dealing with difficult situations.
• In-service training including intensive community development workshops, external to the police force, where members of the police are engaged in interaction with people from a whole range of different disciplines and backgrounds.

Victoria Police assessed Recommendation 228 as fully implemented in 2023:

Part A)

• Victoria Police aims to ensure the cultural awareness of every police officer and employee. There is an existing system for Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training. The Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training is a self-determined cultural awareness program.
• The program addresses the role that Victoria Police played in historical Government policies that directly affected the Victorian Aboriginal community. These include topics of colonisation, the Stolen Generations, cultural bias and Aboriginal identity. The training aims to educate on matters of terminology, language and Country, Acknowledgement and Welcome to Country.
• The 3.5-hour training package was initially developed by Aboriginal employees and was revised in 2019 by Nyuka-Wara Consulting, a registered Aboriginal training provider working with Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers and other Aboriginal employees. In May 2022 the package was endorsed by the Aboriginal Justice Caucus.
• Cultural content is presented by Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers and other Aboriginal employees, who share their personal experiences with the support of divisional and regional training officers.
• As part of continuous improvement Aboriginal cultural awareness has been threaded throughout the Diploma of Policing POL50118 to strengthen messages from the standalone sessions.
• As of July 2023, ACAT has been embedded into foundation training for police, Protective Services Officers and Police Custody Officer recruits.
• To date, all Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training has been face to face, rather than online. This was considered the most culturally appropriate format. However, in practice it can mean that a longer roll out is required. It also affects the availability of Aboriginal facilitators and Aboriginal Cultural Liaison Officers to deliver the cultural components of the training, including their ability to travel to regional and rural locations across Victoria. Consultation and planning are underway to video record Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees’ truth-telling experiences to expand the Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training package and minimise cultural fatigue of presenters.
• Feedback from employees who have participated in ACAT has been overwhelmingly positive with many providing advice that they have utilised the cultural knowledge to proactively engage with the Aboriginal community. There has been noted increase in Police Aboriginal Liaison Officer (PALO) applications across the state since the inception of the training.

Parts B) and C)

Parts B) and C) of this recommendation are addressed in Part A.

Victoria Police remains committed to ensure that exposure to Aboriginal culture and history is available to all its employees. The Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training Package (ACAT) was developed by an Aboriginal consulting firm, Nyuka Wara, in collaboration with the Victoria Police, Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers (ACLO) and Priority and Safer Communities Division (PSCD). The initial roll out of the package commenced in October 2020 via Microsoft Teams (due to the COVID19 restrictions) and was facilitated by Sergeant James Egan, a Bangerang man who was seconded from the Victoria Police Academy, supported by Eddie Moore from Nyuka Wara and Jacqui Marion (Priority and Safer Communities Division) to assist with the roll out.

ACAT Package

• The package is broken down into themes that explore topics such as historical and political contexts, understanding culture, lands and language, Law v Lore, stolen generation, protection and segregation, impacts of colonisation, Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, Aboriginal Youth Cautioning and an understanding of the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework and deliverables. The content is supported by storytelling of several Aboriginal employees.
• Storytelling by Aboriginal people is at the core of the package and, for sustainability, several video-recorded inserts from Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal Victoria Police employees have been planned so that their contributions are enduring and undiluted. This format will reduce the potential trauma to Aboriginal facilitators having to continually share their stories and where Aboriginal facilitators are not available, the storytelling is not lost.
• The package will be transitioned to the Divisional Training Network for ongoing co-delivery by Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers and Divisional Training Officers and managed by yearly training calendars. An internal code has been attained so attendance numbers and locations can be monitored and reported.
• The ACAT package does not replace localised awareness or immersion packages but is intended to supplement them.

Victoria Police, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Inclusion Action Plan 2023-2025

• Victoria Police is building Aboriginal cultural capability and awareness through increased participation and strengthened training content. This is achieved by making ACAT mandatory for all Victoria Police employees, and by working with Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers (ACLO) and Traditional Owner groups to identify opportunities to include localised content.

Objectives

• Improve the relationship between police and the Aboriginal community in Victoria.
• Improve engagement with non-Aboriginal employees to understand the lived experiences of Aboriginal peoples.
• Improve and promote Aboriginal workplace cultural safety and inclusion.
• Increase the attraction and retention of Aboriginal employees.
• Improve cultural safety for Aboriginal peoples when accessing Victoria Police services.
• Develop the skills of Aboriginal employees to contribute to ACAT content.
• Encourage Victoria Police employees who have chosen to not previously identify as Aboriginal, to feel culturally safe to do so.

Steps

• The ACAT package was developed by an Aboriginal consulting firm and then strengthened by Victoria Police Aboriginal employees.
• In March 2022 ACAT was made mandatory for all police and Protective Services Officers (PSOs) and for Police Custody Officers (PCOs) in March 2023. Victoria Police is working to establish a process to ensure all Command participate in most updated ACAT.

Organisational impact

• Organisational engagement in genuine conversations about the true experiences and history of Aboriginal people.
• Contribution to a culturally safe and inclusive workplace for Aboriginal employees.
• Enabling informed responses by Victoria Police employees to Aboriginal communities.
• A demonstrated increase in the personal knowledge of Victoria Police employees of the true history and culture of the Aboriginal people.

Outputs

Yoorrook Justice Commission, Chief Commissioner’s Evidence

The Victoria Police Chief Commissioner was examined by the Yoorrook Justice Commission on the 8th of May 2023. The following aspects of Victoria Police’s cultural safety training was examined.

Effects of Stolen Generation on Aboriginal Peoples

A ‘Police Foundation Training’ document on Aboriginal cultural awareness included the following instructions:

You can discuss here that we have all heard many stories of Stolen Generation people saying that it was the worst thing that ever happened to them. And then you have others that say it was the best thing that happened to them.

The Chief Commissioner agreed that this “messaging is largely inconsistent with [his] understanding of the effect of being a member of the Stolen Generation on First Peoples in Victoria.”

Training Duration and Timeline

The Chief Commissioner explained to Yoorrook that the training would be developed for custodial staff within 6 months, and training would run for 3.5 hours. Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter responded with the following statement.

Because our people are getting locked up at ridiculous rates. Three and a-half hours is not good enough and six months waiting is still not good enough. Your staff hold so much power over people that they need to understand that that should have been mandatory. You have apologised for 170 years, yet we get three and a-half hours. It's not good enough.

Knowledge of Aboriginal Cultural Practice

Another training document titled ‘Lore and Law’ referred to ‘payback’ as an Aboriginal cultural practice. The Chief Commissioner stated that this “would appear to be completely out of context from a Victorian perspective.

Commissioner Kevin Bell stated he was “embarrassed” “to read about payback which displays a complete ignorance of the Victorian Aboriginal community.” Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter said it was “offensive”.

The Chief Commissioner said he had not read those documents in full and vowed to review all training material to correct the information.

Racial Bias

A ‘Police Foundation Training’ session plan for recruits relating to Aboriginal culture contained an activity that asked the instructor to ask the students the following.

Do you remember in the last session we spoke about people and how they identify as being - how they identify has been of Aboriginal heritage.

Have some fun with this, let your bias show here when describing each person.

Yoorrook Justice Commission, Yoorrook for Justice Report

Yoorrook is deeply concerned that a service which has existed for 170 years with unquestionable power over the lives of Aboriginal peoples has failed to support and deliver basic appropriate cultural awareness training. The Aboriginal Justice Caucus and Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreements have been advocating for changes to cultural awareness training for Victoria Police for more than 20 years.

Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training (ACAT)

Aboriginal cultural awareness training (ACAT) was only made mandatory for all sworn Victoria Police employees (police members and Protective Services Officers) in July 2022, following endorsement by the Aboriginal Justice Caucus in May 2022.

Delivery of this training across the organisation has been slow, with 29% of police members and 21% of Protective Services Officers having completed it as of February 2023. In the Southern Region only one in 10 police members had completed the training. The recently released Victoria Police Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Inclusion Action Plan 2023–25, indicates that participation of ACAT was at approximately 36% as of 30 April 2023, with 6,615 participants.

Although the Chief Commissioner has now vowed to finalise the rollout of training by the end of 2024, Yoorrook considers its slow uptake reflects that Victoria Police is failing to grasp the importance of culture to Aboriginal people or to understand the systemic causes of over-representation. This is also demonstrated by the training only being a one-off course of 3.5 hours.

Police Foundational Training

Even more disturbing was the evidence Yoorrook received regarding cultural awareness training for all police recruits delivered as part of their Police Foundational Training. This training was not developed by a registered Aboriginal training provider or endorsed by the Aboriginal Justice Caucus. Rather, it was developed by the Centre for Professional Policing which is part of Victoria Police. Some of the content in this training module indicated a deep lack of knowledge of Victorian First Peoples and culture. In some cases, the outcome was highly offensive (as described above in the Chief Commissioner’s evidence).

The training illustrates a defective appreciation of Aboriginal history and culture that does not respect cultural rights. Rather, it denigrates them. During his evidence, Chief Commissioner Patton agreed that the recruit training was ‘not only inadequate but offensive’ and he apologised for it.

Cultural Load

Yoorrook was also concerned to hear there is an expectation within Victoria Police that Aboriginal employees and Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers share their personal experiences. It is inappropriate to expect Aboriginal staff to share their personal histories to what might frequently be hostile or ignorant audiences. Such expectation on staff to do so indicates the pervasiveness of systemic racism. Any expectation that Aboriginal staff will take on the cultural load of ‘educating’ other staff is inappropriate, offensive and retraumatising.

Victoria Police, Chief Commissioner’s Statement of Commitment

After the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Chief Commissioner issued a Statement of Commitment that included 79 actions Victoria Police will deliver by the end of 2025. This includes the following actions relating to ACAT.

Embed Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training

23. Ensure all police, Protective Services Officers and Police Custody Officers complete the Training.

24. Expand the Training to all Victoria Police public servants.

25. Embed the Training in Foundation Training.

26. Develop refresher training.

First Peoples’ – State Relations, Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework (VAAF) data

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Outcomes

Victoria Police, Response to the Inquest into the Passing of Veronica Nelson

Victoria Police accepted recommendation 9 from the inquest into the passing of Veronica Nelson, noting in their response that it has been implemented.

This recommendation is accepted and has been implemented. In September 2020, Victoria Police introduced an Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Training (ACAT) package that is now mandatory for all police, Protective Services Officers (PSOs) and Police Custody Officers (PCOs) and is embedded into the Victoria Police training calendar.

The 3.5-hour ACAT package is a self-determined cultural awareness program initially developed by Aboriginal employees and revised in 2019 by Nyuka-Wara Consulting, a registered Aboriginal training provider working with Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers and other Aboriginal employees. In May 2022 the package was endorsed by the Aboriginal Justice Caucus.

The package addresses the role Victoria Police played in historical Government policies that directly affected the Victorian Aboriginal community. It addresses themes such as colonisation, the Stolen Generations, cultural bias and Aboriginal identity. It also aims to give employees some practical tools on terminology, language and Country, Acknowledgment and Welcome to Country.

Cultural content is presented by Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers and other Aboriginal employees, who share their personal experiences with the support of divisional and regional training officers.

The delivery of ACAT, including performance and compliance, is a standing agenda item for Victoria Police to report on to the Aboriginal Justice Forum meetings.

Victoria Police, Response to the Inquest into the Passing of Tanya Day

In the Inquest into the passing of Aunty Tanya Day, the Deputy State Coroner directed several recommendations to Victoria Police, including Recommendation 4.

Victoria Police accepts Recommendation 4 and to that end will review training in the context of the RCIADIC recommendations, that seeks to enhance members cultural awareness and encounters with the Aboriginal community. Examples of current initiatives adhering to the RCIADIC recommendations include:

• Revised ACAT to enable consistency in messaging, accreditation for recording compliance and adaptable for local input; and
• Professional Development Command suite of Aboriginal Cultural training within different courses/ stages of policing.