Description

The New South Wales Legal Aid Commission’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Mediation Program (ATSIFAM) was a pilot family dispute resolution service designed to meet the needs of Indigenous people in New South Wales. The pilot program began in April 2002 in Dubbo and Campbelltown, NSW. This article is drawn from an evaluation of ATSIFAM conducted for the Legal Aid Commission. The article analyses issues regarding Indigenous mediation that have been identified in the literature and the results of interviews with 21 clients who participated in ATSIFAM mediations. Issues discussed include the range of family dispute matters that went before mediation under the program; the complexity of Indigenous mediation matters; mediator neutrality and impartiality; confidentiality; voluntary attendance; whether it is appropriate to mediate cases of Indigenous domestic violence; cultural difference and appropriate training; Indigenous self determination and empowerment; ATSIFAM as an Indigenous service within a mainstream organisation; whether having an Indigenous mediator made a difference to clients; and longer term impacts from the mediation. The results of the client interviews suggest that ATSIFAM was a successful mediation program across a range of measures.