This manual is written for communities that are ready to address the issue of sexual abuse. The law requires that all suspected cases of child sexual abuse be reported and prosecuted. Canadian society tends to want to push sexual abusers into prisons as quickly as possible. Aboriginal communities, on the other hand, tend to see the problems of abuse as an imbalance or a sickness in the person, the family, and the community. A sickness calls for healing, not jailing.
Sexual abuse is fundamentally an abuse of power.
Abusers use their power, control, or influence over victims in order to gain access to sexual contact. Because there is a power imbalance, healing usually requires an infusion of power into the situation. The challenge for Aboriginal communities is to develop a strategy for dealing with sexual abuse that balances the needs of everyone involved in the situation for protection, healing, justice, and the restoration of healthy human relations. The community's own culturally-based understanding of how to best do this should provide the guiding framework for building a program. Sexual abuse is a part of the pattern of life in many families and communities.