The Line - Indigenous

The Line - Indigenous
Best-practice communication with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Where the broader campaign will engage young people in an online environment, the Indigenous social marketing campaign will encompass both a national and place-based approach, including targeted media, school-based engagement, and engagement of culturally appropriate intermediaries and influencers.
What exactly is The Line? And what happens when you cross it? This website is all about the line and the kind of behaviour that goes over it.

Sometimes there's no argument about where to draw the line. There are some things you should just never do. In Australia, we're united as a community about things that are unacceptable. Like violence, rape and abuse. These are things that should never happen, which is why we have laws against them.

On the up side, we're also pretty united about what it takes to create happy and healthy relationships. There are some things that always work, like loving and respecting each other, being considerate, listening, and trying to understand the other person's point of view.

So whilst everyone agrees that violence is crossing the line, sometimes the line can be blurry. With things like with bagging someone out to your mates, or texting someone 300 times a day. At the end of the day, where you draw the line is up to you. Explore the site and find a whole heap of stuff that will help you decide.

The Line campaign is managed by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). It’s aimed at helping teenagers and young adults through a difficult time in their lives. The things they experience in relationships now can affect them long into adulthood, so it’s very important to help in every way we can and ensure they understand the importance of respectful relationships.

The campaign was a recommendation from Time for Action: the National Council’s Plan to reduce violence against Women and Children, announced in April 2009.

The campaign aims to increase the knowledge of young people about the components of a respectful relationship including communication, trust and consideration for others in developing and maintaining healthy relationships; the components and forms of intimate partner violence (including cyber bullying and harassment) and sexual assault; and the effects of violence on relationships. It also aims to increase the incidence of positive behaviours in relationships, including open communication across genders; listening to and valuing others’ opinions; and trust, consideration, courtesy and respect.