Collaborating on custodial health: The role of Indigenous businesses

Professor Kerry Arabena
Managing Director

Why scaffolding matters

Reform in custodial health needs more than good ideas. Even the strongest programs can collapse without policies and protocols to embed them in daily practice. Drafting these frameworks is often dismissed as a technical task, yet it is also where power is exercised. Whoever writes the policies sets the boundaries of what is possible.

For Aboriginal people in custody, those frameworks have usually been written by others, using language and structures that leave cultural authority out.

Putting Aboriginal authority in from the start

As part of the custodial health reform work in Victoria, Karabena Consulting drafted policies, protocols, and indicators for an Aboriginal Community Controlled Correctional Health Service (ACCCHS). Aboriginal authority was present from the first line of policy design, rather than being bolted on afterwards.

Our role included:

• Bringing together stakeholders across corrections, health, and community

• Drafting frameworks that grounded debate while leaving room for ownership

• Embedding Aboriginal cultural authority at every stage

• Mediating conversations where Aboriginal voices had been sidelined

• Aligning the work with Closing the Gap and Treaty agendas

Turning dialogue into structured outputs, allowed us to create a platform for equal participation.

Turning policy into practice

The documents Karabena prepared offered practical starting points, such as:

• Protocols for embedding Aboriginal Health Workers and Elders in prison settings

• Draft policies on cultural safety training for corrections staff

• Indicators for measuring prisoner wellbeing, family connection, and reintegration outcomes

• Procedures for continuity of care between prison and community health services

These drafts were deliberately presented as proposals. Their purpose was to spark argument, refinement, and adaptation, giving stakeholders something to push against and shape. In this way, the documents acted as scaffolding for co-design, not as finished manuals.

Bridging two worlds

Producing documents that meet government requirements while protecting Aboriginal authority takes a specific kind of capability. Mainstream consultants may be able to deliver quickly, but their outputs often lack cultural legitimacy. Community organisations bring authority, yet they can be stretched too thin to meet the timelines of government reform sprints.

Indigenous businesses such as Karabena Consulting can operate in both spaces. They meet institutional deadlines and formats, while remaining accountable to Aboriginal organisations and communities. That dual positioning makes it possible for reform to move forward without losing cultural authority along the way.