Listening to First Nations Voices: Power, Trust and Accountability After the Royal Commission
By Fiona Boyle, Kooyoora CEO
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse fundamentally reshaped Australia’s understanding of abuse, accountability and institutional responsibility. For many First Nations people, however, the Commission did not begin a new conversation so much as bring long‑held truths into public view.
Abuse occurring within institutions cannot be separated from the broader history of colonisation, systemic racism and the misuse of power. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, institutions have often been places of harm rather than safety, including missions, churches, schools, out‑of‑home care, detention settings and government systems.
The Royal Commission acknowledged this reality, noting that First Nations children were, and continue to be, dramatically over‑represented in institutional contexts and face compounded risks of abuse and silencing.
Power and Historical Harm
Central to First Nations experiences of institutional abuse is the concept of power, who holds it, how it is exercised, and who is excluded from decision‑making. Colonial systems displaced cultural authority, dismantled kinship structures and imposed external control over First Nations lives. These same power imbalances frequently played out within institutions, where children and families were expected to comply, remain silent or accept mistreatment as unavoidable.
Survivors told the Royal Commission that abuse was often enabled not only by individual perpetrators, but by institutional cultures that normalised racism, dismissed complaints, or privileged reputation over truth. First Nations survivors, raising concerns frequently carried additional risks of disbelief, retaliation, child removal, or reinforcing harmful stereotypes. In this context, silence was not consent, it was survival.
The Royal Commission research report, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and sexual abuse in institutional contexts, explains how the impacts of past discriminatory policies and ongoing systemic racism put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at heightened risk of institutional child sexual abuse.
Racism as an Enabling Condition
Racism was not incidental to institutional abuse; it was an enabling condition. The devaluing of First Nations voices, cultures and experiences allowed abuse to go unchecked and unchallenged. Stereotypes about credibility, behaviour or family life were used to undermine disclosures or justify inaction.
The Royal Commission recognised that culturally unsafe environments significantly reduced the likelihood of disclosure and access to justice for First Nations survivors. Many survivors reported that institutions did not understand, respect or engage with community‑led healing, instead relying on Western frameworks that failed to address intergenerational trauma.
Importantly, racism does not always appear overtly. It can be embedded in policies, complaint processes, governance structures and risk frameworks that were never designed with First Nations people in mind. This remains the case when considering the professional standards regimes, for which Kooyoora administers.
Trust, Truth and Trauma
Trust, once broken, is difficult to rebuild. First Nations communities’ mistrust of institutions is grounded in lived experience and historical evidence. The removal of children, the suppression of language and culture, and repeated failures to protect the vulnerable have left deep scars.
The Royal Commission highlighted that institutions seeking to rebuild trust must first confront uncomfortable truths about their past and present practices. Trust cannot be restored through statements or policies alone. It requires transparency, accountability, cultural humility and genuine power‑sharing.
Survivors consistently emphasised the need to be believed, to be treated with dignity, and to be given choice and control in how they engage with institutions. Trauma‑informed and culturally responsive approaches are not optional, they are essential, but they are missing.
Kooyoora’s Role: The need for Independent, Culturally Aware Oversight
Kooyoora’s work sits at the intersection of these lessons from the Royal Commission. As an independent body, Kooyoora recognises that safeguarding is not only about responding to allegations, but about understanding the systems that allow harm to occur.
Kooyoora’s approach explicitly examines power, racism and trust within institutions:
Power analysis asks who makes decisions, whose voices are heard, and how authority is exercised — particularly when complaints are raised.
Racism analysis considers how bias, cultural blindness or structural inequities may shape safeguarding responses, risk assessments and outcomes.
Trust analysis focuses on whether systems actually invite disclosure, protect complainants and demonstrate accountability, especially for those with historical reasons to distrust institutions.
In working with institutions, Kooyoora encourages reflective practice rather than defensiveness. This means moving beyond compliance to ask harder questions: Are our safeguarding processes culturally safe? Are First Nations voices meaningfully included in governance and response? Do our systems protect the institution, or the people within it?
Looking Forward
The Royal Commission made clear that safeguarding is inseparable from justice, culture and truth‑telling. For institutions working with First Nations communities, this requires listening deeply, relinquishing control, and being open to change that may be uncomfortable but necessary.
Kooyoora’s work continues to be shaped by these principles, supporting institutions to move from risk management to genuine accountability, and from procedural trust to earned trust. Whilst we ask this of the institutions we work with, Kooyoora is also on its own journey to address these.
Ultimately, preventing abuse and responding well when it occurs is not only a regulatory obligation. It is a moral one, grounded in respect for First Nations peoples, recognition of enduring harm, and commitment to a safer and more just future.