What Cultural Safety Means to Me

Beginning with Relationship

At Shemewé Collective, everything begins with relationship — not as a concept, but as a living experience. Cultural safety is not a policy or a checklist for me. It’s a deeply relational practice, one that honours the uniqueness of each person I sit with and the cultural world to which we each belong.

Cultural safety, for me, begins by asking a simple question: what does safety mean to you — especially when I’m working with people whose cultural identities differ from mine. The idea is often new for people — but when the invitation is also expressed with a genuine tone, and respectful approach, it’s welcomed.

We start with a focus on relationship — that together we are establishing a safe working space with each other. When I begin working with someone, I usually say something like this: “This is your space to learn and practice. You can’t do anything wrong here. My role here is to serve your learning experience.” I call one to one work with people lessons rather than sessions. Our focus is on learning rather than something being wrong or in the need of fixing.

Starting with Acknowledgement

Cultural safety, for me, also begins with an Acknowledgement of Country — because in Australia that’s how we honour the First Peoples of this land. When I’m working with people outside Australia — the Acknowledgement of Country is often unfamiliar. Some of the people I meet with are Indigenous to their own lands, like in Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands, and this practice is new to them.

So, we talk about where it comes from — that it is a tradition of Australia’s First Peoples to welcome visitors to their Country and protect their safe passage while on their lands. Being encouraged to use such a beautiful cultural practice in my own work is a privilege. So right from the start culture is front and centre. This also invites questions like, tell me about your culture, your people or tribe? Are you living and working on the lands of your people? If not, do you know the Traditional Custodians on whose land you are on? Such questions lead us to consider the importance of culture in our work together.

Moments of Cultural Safety

Cultural safety is often found moment to moment with a person. In each of the scenarios below, I was working with First Peoples of different nations—not only within Australia, but across neighbouring regions. A Facilitator had recently learned of her Indigenous roots. The stories of discovery she shared in each lesson were woven to became part of her support while navigating some difficult and significant life decisions. A Financial Manager shared her choice to step away from some limiting cultural beliefs she identified that women should remain silent, and a leader is defined by who is the most convincing. With support and practice she found her voice and the kind of leader she strives to be. With presence and care a Country Manager began to reconnect with her people and culture as part of her healing from a traumatic experience. These are some of the ways that cultural safety can show up in our work together.

Letting Culture In

Cultural safety also means to understand that culture defines beliefs, values, attitudes and identity. It's vitally important to me to welcome culture along with the person into their learning space. I recall hearing a speaker at a FECCA conference say in professional settings she wanted to be introduced as a DJ and radio host first rather than by her cultural identity. I heard her desire to be seen as a skilled professional and not reduced to a cultural identity. I follow what is safe for the person in front of me, not what I think it should be. This includes those of us from Western backgrounds too. Part of our Western inheritance is to, in a way, deny that we are formed by culture. We're supposedly free from all of that. And I'm not sure that that's true.

Cultural Empathy and Humility

People can feel my genuine desire to learn and know about their culture. They can feel my respect, as I approach their culture with an openness to learn and be guided by them as a newcomer. I know because I have received feedback without asking for it. An African man once described what he experienced in our interaction as “cultural empathy.” That stayed with me.

A Desire to Know

So, for me, one of the foundations of cultural safety is an enthusiasm — a desire to know and learn. That desire is deeply real for me, because every time I learn, it expands my world. I want to connect with people across this extraordinary planet — the human family to which I belong. I don’t want to be limited by my own lens of perception. I want to meet people from different places, with different life experiences, who see the world in ways I don't. I want to learn to see through their eyes.

The Cost of Ignoring Culture

If I have no interest in a person's cultural identity, or think my cultural lens is superior in some way or behave as though I am the expert in their life, well, to me, that's just a very unsafe place for any person to come into. It shuts down rather than opens a space for learning. Without trust, the vulnerability to name and come to terms with the obstacles or limitations a person is facing, or the challenges they're navigating, isn’t possible. And when that happens, we can't get anywhere.

Living What I Speak

At Shemewé, we speak often of multiplicity and inclusion — not as slogans, but as lived values. That means I must embody what I speak. Not just say I value inclusion but demonstrate it — moment by moment — in how I show up, how I listen, and how I relate. Because when we begin with cultural safety, we begin with trust. And from trust, real learning — and real change — can happen.

Call to Action

Learn more about the work of Shemewé Collective: https://shemewe.com.au

If you're a leader, HR professional, or someone committed to building inclusive workplace culture, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out if you’d like to explore how cultural safety can be embedded into your team, your EAP, or your broader wellbeing strategy — or simply share how it shows up in your world.