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Shifting Ground empowers people to think, talk and act on issues of culture, race and power.

We are an Aboriginal-owned and women-led enterprise designed to shift how you show up, lead and work ethically. By cultivating conscious awareness of power and relationships, Shifting Ground strengthens your capacity to navigate the complexities of issues of culture and race and act with purpose. These approaches support you to build genuine and reciprocal relationships with First Peoples communities and more broadly, throughout your practice. 

Our long-term vision is to contribute to a broader cultural shift that supports future generations by fostering First Nations resilience and self-determination across all sectors while providing the frameworks for non-Indigenous people to deeply value our knowledge, experience, diversity and ways of doing things.

A safe space for developing new ways of thinking

Training

Our training is dedicated to developing you and your organisation’s strategic depth and capacity for systems change.

We support organisations to move from awareness into transformation and action, grounded in First Nations leadership, lived experience and frameworks that embed cultural safety and relational accountability across operations.

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Our Services

  • We work with organisations to develop a critical language, understanding and practice of decolonisation, race, privilege, power, whiteness, and cultural safety. Our interest is in critical friendships, long-term relationships where we support you over time to develop your knowledge and practice in this space.

    We invite participants to reflect on their current practices, and open their eyes to the systems of oppression that may have been invisible to them, in order to understand how we are all enmeshed in a system of injustice and inequity.

  • We work with organisations to support them in understanding what best practice collaboration looks like. Beginning with the development of a framework for understanding how colonisation, race and racism shape our interactions and result in extractive relationships, we co-create a new approach centred on First People’s ways of being and knowledge exchange that deeps your understanding of culture and ability to connect across communities.

  • You can’t talk about something, especially something difficult, if you don’t have a shared language and knowledge base.

    We support organisations and individuals to navigate crisis and risk management from the foundation of deep relationships grounded in trust, reciprocity, power sharing and capacity building.

  • We design learning pathways with the understanding that cultural safety is contextual, relational, and ongoing. Grounded in First Nations knowledges and histories, our approach equips participants with the skills for critically engaging with race, racism, and colonisation. Creating opportunities for sustained reflection, conversations, and integration, these approaches are responsive to place and community to tailor each program to the realities and responsibilities of those involved.

  • Shifting Ground understands impact must be culturally informed, relational, and transformative. We combine the latest methodologies in impact measurement and evaluation with First Nations ways of knowing, being, and doing, ensuring that evaluation is a generative process. Our approach values stories as much as statistics, privileging lived experience alongside data, and centring First Nations voices in defining what success looks like. We help organisations move beyond compliance toward meaningful accountability, building tools and processes that track progress, illuminate gaps, and guide future growth — all while remaining grounded in respect, reciprocity, and cultural integrity.

  • Mentorship creates culturally safe spaces for growth, reflection, and leadership development. Shifting Ground walks alongside individuals and organisations to strengthen racial literacy, deepen cultural awareness, and build confidence in navigating complex social and cultural contexts. Grounded in First Nations knowledge systems, our mentorships foster accountability, resilience, and genuine allyship, empowering participants to transform their practice and contribute meaningfully to social and cultural change.

  • We provide tailored policy and strategy consultancy informed by a responsive approach. We acknowledge that the needs of organisations are often nuanced and complex, especially in the early stages of collective self-reflection and development of a practice aimed at valuing First Peoples knowledges and experiences.

    We can help your organisation to do this through advice and guidance, support in your strategic planning and the development of policies. Our critical friendship is founded on open and honest feedback.

“Diversity Arts Australia is proud to work with and learn from Shifting Ground, a First Nations owned and led organisation driving genuine cultural change. Their expertise and guidance in decolonising practices and embedding cultural safety from a First Nations lens has been invaluable to our work. Through our longstanding collaboration on initiatives such as Fair Play, the Imagine Case Studies and the Creative Equity Toolkit, we’ve witnessed their deep integrity, vision, and commitment to equity. We’re honoured to continue learning and growing together.”

— Lena Nahlous

CEO & Executive Producer, Diversity Arts Australia

OUR PARTNERS