The SAFE Method
Creating Cultural Safety From the Inside Out
The SAFE Method
The SAFE Method is a strengths-based, First Peoples-designed framework created by Shawn Andrews to support cultural safety, healing, and structural change. It works across five interconnected domains — because safety must be built not just in people, but in the systems around them.
Unlike models that tinker at the edges, the SAFE Method goes deep — rebuilding systems, strengthening identity, and embedding cultural safety across every layer of society.
We use the SAFE Method to guide every part of Buneen Group’s work — shaping how we design programs, support communities, and drive systems change. Each of our entities applies it differently, but together it ensures cultural safety is embedded at every level, from individual healing to organisational reform.
The Safe Method has five interconnected domains, but it always starts with SELF.
Healing begins within
We support individuals to develop emotional literacy, cultural identity, and personal resilience — the inner strength to lead, speak, and grow
Power to speak Power to act
We help people and communities build confidence, restore decision-making power, and lead on their own terms — with purpose and clarity
Kinship is everything
We strengthen intergenerational connection, cultural belonging, and relationships that support healing — especially for children and young people in care.
Truth-telling, governance, and collective strength
We hold space for mob to lead together — through cultural governance, community-led planning, and healing that honours story and place.
Change the system — not just the person
We work with organisations to embed cultural safety at all levels — policy, practice, leadership and structure — so the system becomes safe, not just the staff.
How We Use It
When you work with Buneen Group, the SAFE Method isn’t just theory — it’s built into how we walk alongside you.
In consulting, it guides our cultural audits, facilitation, and strategy development.
In employment, it informs how we support jobseekers and train managers.
In youth programs, it shapes every step — from on-Country camps to long-term mentoring.
It helps us ask the right questions, design the right systems, and stay grounded in care — not compliance.
SAFE ensures that whatever service we deliver, we’re also building something bigger: a stronger, safer future for First Peoples
