With Northern Territory children as young as 12 entering into unhealthy relationships, those on the frontline of domestic violence are welcoming a new resource aimed at teaching respect.
The NT has the highest rates of domestic, family, and sexual violence in Australia, with Aboriginal women among the most victimised groups of people in the world.
A frontline worker in Tennant Creek, Cassandra Fraser, sees these statistics play out daily in her community.
"It's not just adults, the younger generation are also getting into unhealthy relationships," she said.
She says many of these unhealthy relationships include coercive control and jealousy, adding that Indigenous communities are fragmented after decades of inter-generational trauma and poverty.
The resulting suffering is evident in the community's high rates of domestic violence with social media now also playing its part, says Ms Fraser.
Takes a whole community
For all of these reasons, she said she was "very keen" to take part in Talking Respect, a suite of teaching resources for teachers, youth workers and social workers.
At the heart of Talking Respect is a series of interviews with young people from across the region, reflecting on issues like consent, porn, nudes and jealousy.
Ms Fraser, who works at the Tennant Creek Women's Refuge, drove around the town recruiting young people to share their views.
She saw the interviews "plant seeds" in young people, "so they could start to see when something's not right and talk up".
"I'd like to see it taken up across Tennant Creek. We need it," she said.
"Stopping this behaviour takes a whole community."
Breaking the ice
Connie Shaw, 23, works as a youth worker in her community and is part of the Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group (TWFSG), working to stop gendered violence in Alice Springs' Town Camps.
At 17, she was interviewed for the project and said she had learned a lot since then.
"I feel like I should have known more back then," she said, but as a young person, "there aren't a lot of resources out there".
As a youth worker and a member of TWFSG, Ms Shaw says she sees first-hand how important resources like Talking Respect are.
She said she was glad to be part of the resources, and hoped they made a difference.
"I wish young people could ask me about their relationships, because I know how to look for the signs of a bad relationship.
Ms Shaw said the videos would hopefully be "an ice breaker" to start conversations about young people's lives.
Model healthy behaviour
Maree Crabbe developed Talking Respect in partnership with local women's shelters to help erode the gender inequality, attitudes and beliefs that underpin domestic violence.
"These resources are primary prevention resources, so they're not going to stop violence happening tonight or tomorrow," she said.
On top of videos, a purpose-built website offers manuals, Power-point slides and discussion questions that anyone can download and use.
Talking Respect also includes animations that "model" healthy behaviour in situations that could have provoked unhealthy behaviour.
Ms Crabbe said, while this was by no means the only primary prevention resource aimed at young people in Australia, there were not many of them and Talking Respect was unique because of the cultural diversity it reflected.
Young people from a broad range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds participated in interviews.
She said the resources were sensitive to the ongoing impacts of colonisation and were focused on engaging with young people in a way that encouraged participation.
