Cultural safety and cultural competency

What is cultural safety?

Cultural safety occurs when First Nations peoples:

• feel welcomed and respected in a space
• have their experiences acknowledged and validated
• see their cultures valued and centred
• have their advice heard and acted upon
• have their knowledge and skills recognised and supported
• are free from racism or discrimination in any form.

^{(Credit: Gollan, S and K Stacey, Australian Evaluation Society First Nations Cultural Safety Framework (2021) 5; Eckermann A, Dowd T, Martin M, et al. Binang Goonj: Bridging culttures in Aboriginal health. Armidale (NSW): University of New England, 1004.)}

“A culturally safe environment [is]… where First Nations staff, peers, artists, arts organisations and communities feel their protocols, beliefs, knowledges, histories, practices and expressions are understood and valued.”

^{(Credit: Inside Policy, More than Competence: Perceptions & experiences of cultural safety in the peer assessment process (Research report, Australia Council for the Arts, 2018) 10.)}

Workplaces have a legal obligation to make sure staff are safe, and that the workplace is free from psychosocial hazards. A psychosocial hazard is an aspect of work that could harm a worker’s mental health (and sometimes, their physical health). Enabling cultural safety forms a part of a workplace’s psychosocial obligations to First Nations staff. 

Learn more about psychosocial hazards and managing hazards and risks.

First Nations peoples and communities deserve to feel culturally safe when collaborating or working on projects, and when sharing Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). 

What is cultural competency?

Cultural competency is different to cultural safety.

• Cultural safety is experienced by people within an organisation or environment.
• Cultural competency is about individual actions and behaviours.

When people in the workplace are culturally competent, and policies and systems are culturally-informed, a workplace is more culturally safe.

By learning about how to engage, behave and relate to First Nations people and people of diverse cultural backgrounds, people can increase their cultural competency so that organisations can increase their cultural safety.

In other words, being culturally competent means having the skills and knowledge to respectfully understand, engage and respond in a way that supports and values First Nations peoples, skills and perspectives.

Identifying barriers and biases

To improve cultural safety, workplaces must first identify and understand the barriers and biases, both structural and individual, that First Nations people may face. This requires honest reflection, active listening and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths about how policies, practices and workplace culture may exclude or harm First Nations workers and communities.

Examples of barriers

• Precarious work and low incomes: First Nations people are often undervalued and underpaid in the arts and creative industry. Many take on volunteer work or additional unpaid labour within an organisation due to perceptions that if they don’t do it, no one else will. Paid workers often face unequal negotiating power and expectations of free work, making it difficult to advocate for more payment out of fear that their contract or project may be revoked.
• Identity strain and cultural load: First Nations people may take on extra responsibilities beyond their role, particularly if there are few other First Nations staff in the organisation. This is known as cultural load. In some cases, First Nations people may feel that their role is tokenistic or exists primarily to meet diversity targets, rather than being genuine valued. This can be exacerbated by a lack of First Nations representation within an organisation.
• Workplace racism, discrimination and exclusion: A lack of cultural competency and cultural safety can lead to racism, discrimination and exclusion in the workplace. This can be overt (obvious and deliberate), such as racial slurs or offensive comments, or covert (disguised and not obvious), such as unconscious bias or racial stereotyping. These experiences create unsafe work environments and limit opportunities for First Nations people.

Increasing cultural safety

Creating culturally safe environments is not a task only for First Nations peoples – it is a responsibility shared by all.

Workplaces can support cultural safety in many ways. Strategies may include:

Education and training

Organisations that work with First Nations people and communities can train their workers to increase their cultural competency.

Cultural competency and anti-racism training can assist to challenge stereotypes and cultural norms. It is an opportunity to engage with First Nations peoples and culture on a deeper and more meaningful level.

Training should:

• be delivered to all workers, including leadership
• be ongoing and regular to ensure continuous accountability and growth. This also means that new workers won’t get left behind
• always be delivered by a First Nations organisation. Training may be delivered online, in-person, and even by visiting particular places on Country
• create a safe space for people to feel empowered to ask questions, connect with their colleagues, and to have agency over their own learning.

Education and training are a useful starting point to work toward cultural safety within an organisation. 

Policies and protocols

Organisations can put in place policies and protocols for processes relating to:

• anti-racism and anti-discrimination
• diversity, equity and inclusion
• First Nations rights, including Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) and relating to Indigenous Data
• processes that are specifically relevant to the type of work the organisation does or the way an organisation works, including collaborations with First Nations artists and creatives
• culturally safe recruitment, retention and career progression strategies for First Nations workers
• how the organisation will empower and advance First Nations people, including First Nations staff members across all levels and areas of the organisation. This may be in the form of a Reconciliation Action Plan or a First Nations Strategy
• culturally safe complaints mechanisms including how the organisation deals with disputes or feedback internally and from the community.

Create culturally safe environments

Organisations can contribute to culturally safe environments by:

• employing more First Nations people in the workplace across all levels of the workplace
• displaying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags
• installing an Acknowledgement of Country plaque in the workplace
• incorporating Acknowledgements of Country and Welcomes to Country at events, before meetings, performances or gatherings.

Across the organisation, the goal is to embed First Nations perspectives into policies, programs and decision-making processes.

Acknowledgements of Country and Welcomes to Country

Acknowledgements of Country and Welcomes to Country recognise and demonstrate respect for First Nations peoples as the traditional owners of Country, including lands, waters and skies.

Acknowledgements and Welcomes create a sense of inclusion for First Nations people, both workers and visitors. This practice emphasises that First Nations cultures, histories, and ongoing presence is valued and celebrated. When done meaningfully and embedded into workplace culture, Acknowledgments and Welcomes demonstrate a genuine commitment to reconciliation and cultural safety instead of being a token gesture.

This demonstration of respect can assist to create culturally safe places where First Nations peoples feel comfortable to work and visit.

Learn more about:

• Acknowledgments of Country
• Welcomes to Country

Cultural and Ceremonial Leave

First Nations people may need time off work to participate in important cultural, spiritual, and community obligations, such as Sorry Business or to observe national and cultural events (e.g. NAIDOC Week, National Sorry Day, or Reconciliation Week).

Workplaces are encouraged to have policies for cultural and ceremonial leave to support First Nations employees.

Sorry Business

Sorry Business (sometimes also called Sad News in the Torres Strait Islands) is what happens when someone passes away.

It is a deeply significant part of First Nations Culture. It involves mourning and funerary practices specific to First Nations communities that can last weeks or months. Planned events, meetings or work may be put on hold during Sorry Business. These practices help bring people together, often the whole community, to honour the deceased and support grieving families.

If you work with First Nations people, it is important to support any worker who may need time off work for Sorry Business.

• Talk to them about their personal and cultural mourning needs.
• Consider options beyond the standard two days of paid compassionate leave that all employees are entitled to.

Avoiding cultural load

One very important way to increase cultural safety is to reduce cultural load. 

What is cultural load?

Cultural load is the often-unacknowledged additional workload carried by First Nations people that relates to their identity as a First Nations person. 

Cultural load occurs when extra demands are made of First Nations people that non-First Nations colleagues do not face. This extra workload may be unknowingly placed but can have a negative impact on a First Nations worker’s wellbeing, workplace experience, and sense of identity.

Some examples of cultural load

• Representation expectations — being asked to speak on behalf of all First Nations people or provide cultural advice outside their role
• Unpaid cultural work — mentoring, educating colleagues, being asked to connect with community or undertake consultation, or advising on policy or cultural matters without appropriate recognition, consent or compensation
• Navigating cultural safety — managing workplace environments that may not fully understand or support First Nations perspectives
• Emotional labour — responding to racism, stereotypes, or the burden of explaining cultural issues.

Cultural load can be a heavy burden, particularly when someone is the only First Nations person in a team or workplace, or one of a small number.

It is important that workplaces clarify the role of the First Nations worker and adequately compensate for additional responsibilities not covered in their current role description.

Ways to prevent cultural load

To prevent First Nations staff feeling the burden of cultural load from additional work, organisations can:

• explicitly acknowledge cultural load, and commit to reducing or preventing it across the organisation
• ensure that roles with cultural advisory functions are formalised in position descriptions
• ensure any First Nations-related work is designed and scoped with First Nations leadership and input
• distribute responsibility for cultural safety across the organisation
• educate non-First Nations staff about how to interact respectfully with First Nations colleagues, including how unconscious reliance on First Nations staff for cultural advice contributes to cultural load
• where First Nations people are employed to undertake cultural responsibilities or First Nations-related work, recognise this in their remuneration. Learn more about valuing cultural contributions in the workplace
• recognise First Nations-related work tasks in workload management.

By embedding these actions, workplaces can create fairer, more inclusive environments that recognise the valuable work of First Nations workers and prevent cultural load.

If you are experiencing workplace issues

Support is available from: 

• your workplace’s Employee Assistance Program — as part of some agency programs, individuals can request to speak with counsellors who have received cultural awareness training, or counsellors who have lived and worked in Indigenous communities and have a high level of experience and understanding of Indigenous culture
• Lifeline on 13 11 14 or by text on 0477 13 11 14 (available 24/7)
• 13YARN on 13 92 76  (available 24/7) for First Nations peoples.