Family Violence
Family Violence is when someone in your family uses violence, threats or intimidation to control another family member. This might be your granddad, aunty, cousin or anyone else in your family being abusive.
Sometimes kids might not be hit, pushed or yelled at, but they can still see, hear or sense the violence. This is also a type of violence against children and young people.
Your mum or caretaker might want to take you away from the violence so you don't get hurt, but sometimes the person being abusive makes it really hard for your mum to do that.
If you or your mum are getting abused, it's not your fault or your mum's fault. Victims should never get in trouble, the people using violence should!
Violence is never your fault and don't let anyone tell you it is!!
Aboriginal families use the words 'family violence', but it also involves the whole community, as Aboriginal people are very connected to their communities and its not just about 'intimate partner violence'. Aboriginal people also know that its not just about one family member trying to control the other, but the violence is also affected by past events such as the Europeans stealing land, stealing children, introducing drugs and alcohol and generally hurting Aboriginal people.
If you don't know about Aboriginal history or culture, get an adult to help you look at
the Creative Spirits website: http://www.creativespirits.info/
