2001 conference, Adelaide, Australia

Abstracts and presenters' biographies

Cheryl Abram
ADR in the care and protection context: the NSW DoCS model

The provision of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in a care and protection context is an initiative introduced in New South Wales with the proclamation of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998. The presentation included discussion on the NSW Department of Community Services’ (DoCS) model and some of the challenges experienced as the welfare statutory authority in providing ADR by staff to our clients. Challenges discussed included providing cohesive services to a diverse client group across a large geographic area. Often, in addition to the care and protection concerns of the child or young person, there can be the presence of domestic violence, mental health issues and substance abuse and different service delivery models.

Cheryl Abram is a trained mediator and is currently coordinating the NSW Department of Community Services 'Alternative Dispute Resolution Program', a project associated with the recently proclaimed NSW care and protection legislation. Cheryl has worked for a number of NSW government agencies including the Department of Juvenile Justice, Department for Women and the NSW Community Services Commission. Cheryl is committed to working in participation with her colleagues and the children and families where there is intervention by DoCS and strongly believes that mediation is an incredible tool to facilitate and secure more positive outcomes for families and DoCS.

Diat Alferink
Young people, reconciliation, our future 

The facilitator introduced a panel of six diverse young Aboriginal people who each spoke on specific initiatives that involve young Aboriginal people, themselves and their agencies and the broader community in mediation processes that foster principles of reconciliation and self-determination. The six presenters were:

The stories from the six presenters highlighted various practices and development models that encourage young people to exercise leadership and decision-making skills in their communities. Young people believe that leadership development and decision making is fundamental to creating better pathways for the future of youth and their community.

Ms Alferink is a 26-year-old young woman who was born and raised in the Flinders Ranges. From her mother's side she is from the Kala Lagaw Ya language group of the Western Torres Strait and from her father’s she is a Dutch Australian descendant. Ms Alferink is a passionate 'reconciliationist', who over the past ten years has been actively involved in reconciliation and community development projects with youth, arts and the Indigenous community in South Australia. Ms Alferink is committed to Indigenous young people actively taking up leadership roles in their community which fosters and encourages a stronger future for Indigenous Australia. Most recently, Ms Alferink attended the Future Leaders of Tomorrow Forum in Launceston Tasmania, which was hosted by the Australian Youth Foundation.

Wiwiek Awiati
The use of mediation techniques for environmental conflicts in Indonesia

The paper outlined the legal framework for the use of mediation in Indonesia in relation to environmental and natural resource conflicts. It included case studies and observation on the Indonesian experience.

Wiwiek Awiati is the Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law, Jakarta Selatan.

Dale Bagshaw
Culture and the disclosure of domestic violence in family law disputes

Dale's presentation will address the research findings from two research studies she conducted and coordinated for the Australian Office of the Status of Women's Partnerships Against Domestic Violence in 1999 which have been published in Commonwealth government reports and in refereed journals. Drawing from existing research, this presentation explores why women who experience domestic violence may not disclose their experiences to police, crisis services and professionals such as family and child mediators. The author proposes a feminist rationale and methodology to assist mediators to consider the experiences and needs of women who are subjected to various forms of domestic violence before, during and after separation and divorce. The presentation will also consider the special needs of abused women from different locations and cultural backgrounds.

Dale Bagshaw (M Soc Admin, Dip Soc Stud, BA) is the Director, Centre for Peace, Conflict & Mediation, University of South Australia. Dale first became involved in mediation and conflict management whilst on study leave from the University of South Australia at Columbia University in New York in 1983. Since that time she has conducted mediation training programs for professionals from a wide range of disciplines in all Australian states and many overseas countries. She was the Head of the School of Social Work and Social Policy from 1992–95 and is now the Director of UniSA's Centre for Peace, Conflict & Mediation and Program Director of postgraduate programs: Graduate Certificate in Mediation (Family and Workplace Relations), Graduate Diploma in Conflict Management and Master of Conflict Management. She has convened many mediation conferences at a local, national and international level, presented papers at many national and international conferences and published widely in refereed journals. She has studied mediation and conflict management practices in many overseas countries including the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Sweden, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa and recently in Austria.

Dale established the South Australian Dispute Resolution Association (SADRA) in 1988 and was Chairperson from 1988–99. She has served on several national councils advising the Commonwealth government including the Family Services Council (as the inaugural Chairperson), the Family Law Council and the National Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse. She is currently the Vice-President of the World Mediation Forum and as convenor of the inaugural Asia-Pacific Mediation Forum aims to establish a Steering Committee for future conferences in the Asia-Pacific region.

David Baker
Collaboration and networking across the Asia-Pacific region: is there a role for an Asia-Pacific dispute resolution website?

The Australian Dispute Resolution Website (Ausdispute) is an independent, not-for-profit website sponsored by the Centre for Peace, Conflict & Mediation at the University of South Australia. Its aim is to assist national and international collaboration and information sharing about conflict management and dispute resolution in all its forms. Its services have essentially focused to date on Australia. The presenter wishes to involve people from across the wider Asia-Pacific region in consideration of the potential role for an Asia-Pacific dispute resolution website which could facilitate collaboration and networking across the region. If there is general support, Ausdispute could rename itself and take on a wider and more inclusive role. The website could offer the Asia-Pacific Mediation Forum and World Mediation Forum another vehicle to support and expand their interests and efforts in the Asia-Pacific region after the conference.

The paper will draw on debates in the information technology literature about benefits or otherwise from computer-mediated communication services like websites. It will also refer to experience gained over the Ausdispute’s 18 month lifespan and the results of an 'IT and Mediation' survey conducted by the presenter and Dale Bagshaw in 2000. The paper will address constraints to widening the service and possible ways to overcome constraints and hopefully will generate ideas about possible ways to take the concept further involving other countries and associations.

David Baker is the manager of the Australian Dispute Resolution Website, Centre for Peace, Conflict & Mediation, University of South Australia. David has both practical and academic experience of mediation and information technology. After work as a Patrol Officer with Aboriginal people in the NT and SA and 13 years as Assistant State Manager, Federal Department of Community Services and Health, David now teaches in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in conflict management and negotiation and manages the Australian Dispute Resolution Website at the University of South Australia. He is a mediator with Centacare Family Mediation Service and Deputy Chairperson of the SA Dispute Resolution Association. He has a Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Conflict Management and is a PhD candidate in the School of International Business, UniSA researching fairness and downsizing.

Michael Belsky
Mediating post-adoption communication agreements

The past year the State of Oregon (USA) placed approximately 1000 children for adoption. Many of these special needs children were placed for adoption because of in utero exposure to drugs and alcohol and/or histories of neglect and abuse. In some cases, the adoptions were planned cooperatively by the birthparent(s)and the adoptive parent(s) through the Legal Assistance Mediation Process. The goals of the legal assistance mediation process are:

Of the 31 cases I have mediated, every case has mediated a Post-Adoption Communication Agreement for limited continuing contact with the birth parent(s) and adoptive parent(s). When appropriate, attorneys, children and court-appointed special advocates are encouraged to participate in the process. In the State of Oregon approximately one third of the adoptions of children in the care of the state are mediated open adoptions.

Michael Belsky, EdD, LPC, is the director of the Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management Program at Southern Oregon University. He has over fifteen years of direct experience as a mediator, facilitator and educator. He has taught mediation, mediated for the courts and has a private consulting practice. Dr Belsky helped found the Jackson County Community Dispute Resolution Center, was founding member and past president of the Oregon Association of Family Court Services and was appointed by the State Supreme Court of Justice to the Oregon Family Law Advisory Committee. He has been on the faculty of Governors State University and Friends World College. He recently taught mediation at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico and is currently interested in the mediation needs of the disabled.

Ayan Bhattacharya
Conflict resolution: building bridges beyond cultural boundaries

Given a few outstandingly brilliant individuals, some new insights, some worldwide connections and modern communication tools, a network will automatically emerge. This network, with eyes and ears scattered about the globe, will be in a position to see local problems as part of a larger global opportunity and to hear local opinions as new perspectives on global issues, thus solutions to problems will become evident and crises will be averted. This has been the founding principle of the International Melton Foundation in general and its Conflict Resolution Group in particular.

This presentation will focus on the growth of this concept, from a mere idea, to a practical ideology with creative and intellectual involvement of some of the best students from diverse fields, from universities of India, USA, China, Germany and Chile, in an intercultural, interactive environment. The presentation will also highlight this unique attempt to use skills gained by young students and professionals in intercultural understanding and communications, to build expertise and develop programs that contribute towards peace and reduction of unnecessary conflicts, the focus being on India, the speaker’s native land.

Ayan Bhattacharya, 20 years old, currently pursuing his Bachelor of Engineering studies in Information Science and Technology in BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India, has had an outstanding track record both academically and otherwise. A national topper both at the class 10 and class 12 level public examinations, he is also a National Talent Search Scholar, the highest honour bestowed on students by the Government of India. A qualified scout, he has also served in the National Cadet Corps and has a bachelors degree in Indian classical music. He has been a member of the Melton Foundation International Students Network for the past two years and is currently working in the Conflict Resolution Group as project liaison to the fellows program. His varied hobbies include software programming, international politics, philosophy and research on alternate conflict resolution models.

Rose Boucaut
Workplace bullying: policy development, implementation and barriers to reporting

Interviews were conducted with key people within the anti-bullying movement in South Australia to determine their views on: the current status of workplace bullying in this state, what is being done about it, and barriers to resolving bullying issues at the organisational level. A case study was also conducted within an organisation that has a bullying policy in place; the purpose being to identify and interview key personnel involved in implementing policy, to understand barriers they faced and issues involved in developing and implementing their policy. The research was located within the framework of Anthony Giddens' structuration theory. Turner uggested a variety of sensitising concepts to explain Giddens' theory. The investigator developed questions about workplace bullying for participants based on these sensitising concepts. Participant responses then illustrated the concepts of the model with examples of how organisations deal with workplace bullying.

Rose Boucaut is a lecturer in occupational health and safety at the School of Physiotherapy at the University of South Australia. Rose is a physiotherapist and holds a Master of Public Health Degree from the University of Adelaide (1993). Rose is currently a postgraduate student at Flinders University, South Australia, where she is undertaking a professional doctorate in education (EdD). Recent research projects include organisational aspects of workplace safety culture and workplace bullying.

Jackie Bornstein
The qualities of peacemakers

This paper described the experiences of peacemakers (PPOWP members/Nobel Peace Prize winners) using Riegel's (1979) dialectical theory of development. The theory asserts that crises and contradictions are characteristic of human experience. The presentation described the crises/contradictions that typically lead those who value peace into overt peace action, and the qualities indicated in the resolution of further crises. The level of dialectical maturity apparent in the manner in which peacemakers deal with crises was examined (i.e. the ability to endure such confrontations and regard crises as a positive step towards progressive change). The notion of success as a peacemaker was explored. The qualities that lead one to excel in peace action were examined.

Jackie Bornstein is an Honours student at the University of Melbourne under supervision with Dr Di Bretherton. Jackie completed a double major in psychology and philosophy in her undergraduate degree. In her philosophical studies she focused on comparative philosophy (eastern and western), philosophy of Buddhism and problems in philosophical psychology. This background in philosophy combined with her studies in psychology fuelled her interest in the study of peacemakers from around the globe.

Di Bretherton
Conflict, language and culture

It is a truism that lack of a common language can give rise to misunderstanding and conflict. Language may be seen as an essential tool for the analysis and resolution of conflict. However, language can also be used to escalate a conflict or damage an adversary. Indeed, so integral is language to cultural identity that language may itself become the object of the conflict, the matter that is fought over. This paper explored some of the roles that language can play in conflict within and between different cultural groups. The discussion addressed questions such as: How do diverse cultures conceptualise and resolve conflict? What attitudes, skills and knowledge promote intercultural understanding and constructive conflict resolution within and between cultures? To what extent can western conflict resolution strategies be applied in other cultural settings?

Di Bretherton is Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre and an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the Foreign Affairs Council of Australia and Chair of the Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace of the International Union of Psychological Science.

Alan Campbell
Involving children in decisions that affect them when their parents divorce

In the past five years, mediation and counselling services funded by the Australian Government have been developing strong 'child inclusive' practices. This conversation will explore the meaning of 'child inclusivity' and chart the developments, both in Australia and within the region, for including children in decisions that affect them after divorce. At the end of the conversation, participants will have developed an understanding of Australian initiatives, the problems associated with the inclusion of children, and ways in which we might move forward in involving children more directly in decisions that are made about them.

Alan Campbell is a full-time Ph.D. student at the University of South Australia, researching the direct involvement of children in Family Law decisions that affect them. He has been CEO of the Family Mediation Centre in Melbourne and Director of Mediation at the Family Court of Western Australia.

Christine Charles, Brian Dixon, Sonia Waters and Craig Greene
Reconciliation: the Department of Human Services' journey

On 29 September 1999 the Department of Human Services’ Statement of Reconciliation was endorsed and signed by Antikirinya Aboriginal Elder Ngitji Ngitji Mona Tur; Kaurna Elder Lewis O’Brien; the Chief Executive of the Department of Human Services and Executive Director of the Aboriginal Services Division. This dialogue will tell the story of how this groundbreaking document came to be at a time when reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians was in a state of paralysis.

The presenters will:

Christine Charles has worked in community, public and private sectors, over the past 25 years. Christine has held a number of senior government positions, including Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Cabinet Office in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet; and Director of Strategy & Budget in the former Department of Housing and Urban Development. Christine is now the Chief Executive of the Department of Human Services, a portfolio that covers health, housing, family and community services, ageing and disability services, including the SA Health Commission, SA Housing Trust, former Departments of Family and Community Services and of Housing and Urban Development. The portfolio covers approximately 33,000 staff, has an annual recurrent budget of around $2.6bn and assets of around $6bn. She has been involved in a range of constitutional and federal issues and is a member of the national Administrative Review Council. Christine joined the SA public sector in mid 1992, from Flinders University.

Over the past 28 years Brian Dixon has held a number of senior positions in Aboriginal affairs including the Director of the Aboriginal Health Branch in the Northern Territory Health Services and the Director of the Aboriginal Health Division in the South Australia Health Commission. Since 1998 he has held the position of Executive Director of the Aboriginal Services Division in the Department of Human Services. This division has responsibility for service delivery to Aboriginal people in the areas of health, housing and community services. Brian sits on a number of national and state Aboriginal committees, including the Heads of Aboriginal Health Units, the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia and the South Australian Aboriginal Health Partnership.

Sonia Waters is an Aboriginal woman from Adelaide who is the Manager of the Workforce Support and Development Team within the Aboriginal Services Division of the Department of Human Services. Sonia has worked in the Aboriginal employment and training area in the public sector for 13 years. Her passion is to see more Aboriginal people employed in the South Australian human services workforce. Sonia has initiated the Indigenous Scholarship program which has seen the uptake of Aboriginal scholarships increase from 9 to 53 over three years.

Craig Greene is a Gurindji man from Alice Springs who moved to Adelaide in 1993 to attend university, in 1998 graduating with a BA in Communication Studies. Craig is the first Aboriginal person to hold this degree in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Craig is actively involved in the Aboriginal community and has a passion to work with Aboriginal people to assist them to achieve their goals.

Stephanie Charlesworth
Mediation: what have we learned so far?

Mediation has been accepted as a useful out-of-court dispute resolution process in Australia and other countries for at least fifteen years. The way mediation has been taught, practised and accepted has evolved over this period. I intend to obtain views of prominent Australian, American, Canadian, New Zealand and English practitioners on the desirability or otherwise of current trends, such as regularisation, institutionalisation, and specialisation according to content, among others. Common and diverging ideas and priorities will be listed and provided in advance for participants. This will allow some prior development of themes so that a useful exchange will be possible during the discussion.

Stephanie Charlesworth has professional qualifications in social work and law, and was a full-time member of staff at the Social Work Department at the University of Melbourne for 25 years. She has done sessional teaching at the University of South Australia and at Latrobe University in postgraduate mediation courses, and has qualified as an approved consultant with the Academy of Family Mediators in the United States. Stephanie has also studied delivery of mediation services in Canada, Belgium France and Ireland. As a mediator she has worked in small claims disputes in Boston, and family law disputes in Montreal, Toronto, and Melbourne where she now practices as an approved family and child mediator and practice supervisor at Carew Counsel Solicitors.

Stephanie has designed and presented courses for a number of government departments, mediation organisations and universities, and has been a coach with CDR (Colorado), Bond University Dispute Resolution Centre, LEADR, AIFLAM and Relationships Australia. An important interest for her is writing on the subject of mediation and she has presented papers in Australia and at international conferences in Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the US. Her publications include co-authorship with John Haynes of The fundamentals of family mediation, Federation Press 1996, and Disputed families, Federation Press 2000. as well as a number of chapters of books and journal articles on various aspects of mediation policy and practice.

Margaret Clark and Di Bretherton
Partnerships for peace

The Partnerships for Peace project seeks out successful projects managed jointly by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Australia. It then studies the relationships of the managers of these projects to try to understand what processes and learnings are needed to establish, in the context of a history of domination, partnerships that are characterised by equality, reciprocity, communication, trust and commitment. Equality implies an equal role in making decisions and a fair distribution of costs and benefits. Reciprocity reflects the belief that equality does not mean 'sameness'. Relationships will be interactive and mutual. Communication across cultures will require listening, sharing and constructive feedback. Trust will need to be built over time because the shared history is one of distrust. Commitment will be required to work through the differences towards the common goals. Examples of partnerships we have studied to date are that of Ian Hunter and Eric Bottomly at CERES in Melbourne and the Gove project in Arnhemland with Djalu Gurruwiwi and Family and Guan Lim.

Margaret Clark (PhD, Political Science, Ohio State University, USA) has coordinated the 'Partnerships in Peace Project: An Aboriginal Concern' at the International Conflict Resolution Centre, University of Melbourne. She brings to this project a background in global indigenous concerns, international law/relations and peace studies.

Di Bretherton is Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre and an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the Foreign Affairs Council of Australia and chair of the Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace of the International Union of Psychological Science.

Tim Clarke
Meaning and understanding in a multi-cultural world 

Many assumptions are made about cultural identity on the macro and micro level. These predeterminations influence the way that we perceive others and the meaning we ascribe to what they do and say. But are these assumptions legitimate? How homogenous or consistent are the cultural norms upon which we base our views? Are there in fact more differences than similarities and are we blinded by our categorisations of others? What mediation philosophy, techniques and strategies allow us to foster internal and cross-cultural understanding?

Tim is a barrister, mediator and facilitator practising in NZ. His experience includes 13 years of mediation practice, 3½ years as a Disputes Tribunal Referee and two years’ teaching dispute resolution at Waikato University’s School of Law. Tim is a member of the LEADR 'Advanced Panel' of mediators.

Andrew Colsky
Transformative mediation: its effects on workplace culture

The transformative model of mediation has been successfully introduced into the United States Postal Service as a proven method to improve workplace culture. Participants will learn what the transformative model of mediation is, how it differs from other models and why it has been so successful in fostering improved workplace environments. Actual case studies will be reviewed and session attendees will participate in role-plays designed to highlight the transformative mediation process.

Andrew E Colsky is an employment attorney and conflict management specialist. He serves as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) counsel to the United States Postal Service and its REDRESS® (Resolve Employment Disputes, Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly) program, the country’s largest employment ADR program. He is a member of the United States government ADR Steering Committee and Section Coordinator of the federal Interagency ADR Workplace Disputes Section.

Joy de Leo
Dialogue between cultures based on universal values

Universal values provide a bridge for understanding across cultures as they transcend our differences, beliefs and practices. Some would say that universal values are inherently part of what it means to be a human being, regardless of cultural, religious, political and social overlays. However, even for those who do not subscribe to this, it may be strongly argued that in a globalised world, characterised by increasing poverty, hunger and conflict, the path to living together in peace and harmony, and sharing limited resources in a shrinking world, is through shared values of the highest order. Values such as respect for self, for others and for life, honesty, inclusion freedom, responsibility, caring, compassion, equity, etc promoted at every level, from the personal, to the family, community, national and to global levels, provide a solid foundation for a dialogue towards peace and mutual understanding. Once these values are integrated into our own personal lives and underpin our actions and decisions, genuine understanding and true appreciation of others and their differences becomes a way of life.

Joy de Leo is currently the Executive Director of Multicultural Affairs in the South Australian Department of the Premier and Cabinet, responsible for promoting linguistic, cultural and religious diversity, social cohesion, harmony and intercultural understanding. She also represents Australia as Vice President UNESCO-APNIEVE (Asia Pacific Network for International and Values Education for peace, intercultural understanding, democracy, human rights and sustainable development). She is also a member of the UNESCO Australian Education Network. Joy formerly worked in the area of multicultural and Aboriginal education and also in vocational education and training in the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment. When she worked in the federal government some years ago Joy was SA Regional Director of AusAID (Australia's overseas aid agency) in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Kel Dummett
Creating a flexible regional foreign policy for Australia: learning from the lessons of East Timor and applying them in West Papua

Australia's inflexible foreign policy regarding East Timor resulted not only in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Timorese over the 26 years, but also caused a virtual collapse of the close relationship between the two countries. The embarrassing policy backflip Australia was forced to make in East Timor has made Australia appear untrustworthy in the eyes of many Indonesian leaders. What changes should be made to our foreign policy to make it more transparent, honest and flexible, so that it can adapt to political changes within the Asia-Pacific region, especially in relation to West Papua?

Kel Dummett is a full-time PhD student at RMIT University, Melbourne. He has been a teacher at secondary and tertiary levels, worked in remote Aboriginal communities, been an elected councillor for a Sydney council and worked as an environmental manager. He has been an active peace, environment and social justice campaigner for more than 20 years. For the last 10 years he has been an active member of the Australia West Papua Association.

Debbie Dunn
Narrative mediation: a story worth listening to?

What does it mean to engage in practices of mediation informed by narrative therapy? What difference does it make to the role of the mediator? What 'taken for granted truths' about mediation are challenged by working in this way? What opportunities and possibilities become more available to those in disagreement when the mediator works 'narratively'? How does it honour knowledges informed by different cultures? What difference does this make to what 'the parties' take away from the mediation? These and other questions will be explored through conversations and the presentation of some of the proposals for the practices of narrative therapy in a mediation context.

Debbie Dunn is an accredited mediator with LEADR and is the current Chair of the Chapter in South Australia. She has a long history of working in and with organisations. She has been a general manager of a multinational company, a company secretary, a human resources manager and has operated her business Accord Therapy & Mediation Services since 1994. She holds a postgraduate diploma in narrative therapy and it is these proposals that now inform her work with individuals, couples, groups and organisations. Debbie has a long-held interest in the practices organisations engage in and the effects of these practices on people, their lives and their relationships. This has led her work into the area of workplace bullying.

Shona Erskine
Conflict resolution in cross-cultural settings

The present study investigates the role of culture in conflict resolution. 43 Australian and 40 Chinese completed an 82-item scale measuring the four dimensions of cultural values identified by Hofstede. They then responded to two conflict scenarios by answering a series of questions based on the Littlefield, Love, Peck, and Wertheim model of conflict resolution. It was hypothesised that Australian and Chinese groups would have different value system placement along Hofstede's four dimensions and that this would manifest in different interpretations of conflict according to the Littlefield et al. model. Analysis suggests that the groups differ on each of the four dimensions, and interpreted and responded to the scenarios differently. It was concluded that value dimensions of culture are associated with conflict response. This has implications for establishing expectations for win-win outcomes, common goals and empathy for others' needs, all of which are integral to the use of integrative bargaining to handle conflict constructively. The presentation suggested that further studies investigating the role of gender and individual conflict pathways are required in order to develop guidelines for inter-cultural conflict resolution more fully.

Shona Erskine recently completed a Bachelor Arts (Honours) in Psychology at Deakin University under the supervision of David Mellor. She is now studying mediation through the International Conflict Resolution Centre at Melbourne University while planning a PhD to investigate the aspects of the mediation process that encourage parties in conflict to gain an understanding of their different value systems.

Tom Fisher
Judging mediation: judicial settlement conferences in divorce-related disputes

Despite earlier interventions by lawyers, mediators, counsellors and other professionals, a small minority of divorce-related disputes still heads for formal adjudication. Some of these seemingly intractable cases, however, first come before judges and other bench officers in less formal settings, where they may use a mixture of facilitative and evaluative techniques in often-successful attempts to save needless emotional and financial expenditure. I will describe differing models from Australia, Canada and the USA and report specifically on evaluation findings regarding the pilot program in the Melbourne Family Court. The ensuing conversation may deal with questions about the involvement of judges in such processes, the ways in which they can be most effective, and the strengths and weaknesses of the models described.

Tom Fisher, PhD, is senior lecturer and coordinator of the graduate programs in conflict resolution and family law mediation in the School of Law and Legal Studies at La Trobe University. A qualified family law mediator, he is a co-author of two major studies in that field for the federal Attorney-General’s Department and has published articles in Mediation Quarterly and the Australian Dispute Resolution Journal. He currently holds a Small ARC grant to evaluate a pilot project in judicial settlement conferencing at the Melbourne Family Court and has been engaged as a consultant to the Attorney-General’s Department to work on a professional development program in child-focused family dispute management for mediators and counsellors.

Kathleen M Giles
Dealing with different work styles: moving from aggravation to appreciation

This workshop explored individual attributes as compared to the type of work we do. The extent to which we can master 'speaking each others' languages' may determine the amount of stress and conflict we face in daily work. During this workshop we learned together how to accept the contributions of differing points of view. We learned how to learn about those differences from each other and how to build more peace in the workplace.

Kathleen M.Giles, EdD, LPC, has provided psychotherapy services to families and individuals since 1989. She directed a rape crisis centre for nine years and worked in community coalition-building for prevention of child abuse during that time. Most recently she has facilitated large-scale change in a variety of corporate, governmental, religious and non-profit organisations. She brings to this conference experience in creating organisational health as well as individual health.

Antonius Herkutanto, Tom Fisher and Di Bretherton
Bodies and bullets: stretching the limits of ADR in Indonesia

In 1998–99 the medico-legal advisor in a hospital in Djakarta facilitated meetings between representatives of the military police and members of the families of two students shot in a political demonstration. At stake was the police’s demand to recover bullets lodged in the students’ bodies. An apparently satisfactory solution was reached. Was the intervention appropriate? Was it ‘mediation’? Does it matter?

Dr Herkutanto has conducted mediations in high conflict situations in Indonesia. With both medical and legal backgrounds, he has mediated issues between military families of victims of ‘insurrections’. His paper will provide Asia-Pacific mediators with an insight into the use of mediation in complex and volatile situations.

Tom Fisher, PhD, is senior lecturer and coordinator of the graduate programs in conflict resolution and family law mediation in the School of Law & Legal Studies at La Trobe University. A qualified family law mediator, he is a co-author of two major studies in that field for the federal Attorney-General’s Department and has published articles in Mediation Quarterly and the Australian Dispute Resolution Journal. He currently holds a Small ARC grant to evaluate a pilot project in judicial settlement conferencing at the Melbourne Family Court and has been engaged as a consultant to the Attorney-General’s Department to work on a professional development program in child-focused family dispute management for mediators and counsellors.

Di Bretherton is Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre and an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Melbourne. She is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Council of Australia and Chair of the Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace of the International Union of Psychological Science.

Lillian Holt
The role of humour in conflict resolution

Reconciliation as a government-endorsed policy in Australia has centred on many issues, eg the land, the history, the Indigenous peoples. However, it seems that the emphasis remained in the structural, ie the factual, the historical, thus the external. The emotional and the spiritual thus the internal were overlooked, including humour. However, whilst little research with an oppressed population has transpired, Linda Maree (1997) suggested that one key to dealing with the past in a constructive and empowering manner was humour. So where does humour fit in the reconciliation process?

Lillian Holt is the Director of the Centre for Indigenous Education, University of Melbourne. Prior to her current appointment, she worked for sixteen years at Tauondi, an adult Aboriginal community-based college, in Port Adelaide. Lillian has a BA from the University of Queensland and an MA from the University of Northern Colorado, USA. She is currently enrolled in a PhD on humour at the University of Melbourne. She has travelled extensively and has spoken at many conferences, nationally and internationally. Lillian has formally worked in Aboriginal education for the past thirty years and sees humour as a tool for both resistance and healing.

Mereana Hond 
Settling treaty claims in New Zealand: are we resolving or creating disputes?

This workshop explored two central issues: first, the Treaty of Waitangi claims settlement process and the capacity thereof to achieve reconciliation of grievance between Maori and the state; and secondly, the nature of intra-tribal, value-based disputes emerging during treaty claim settlement negotiations and the application of dispute resolution mechanisms to manage this conflict. The workshop commenced with a presentation of treaty claim settlements in New Zealand. The central focus was to facilitate discussion and insight into the issues raised, particularly in relation to the complex intra-tribal dimension that is increasingly demanding attention from those who negotiate these settlements. The session also presented examples of how dispute resolution models are being applied and adapted within the treaty claims processes.

Mereana Hond is of English, Dutch and Maori descent, with principal tribal affiliations to Taranaki Tuturu. A lecturer at the Faculty of Law and the School of Maori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, Mereana has broad teaching and research experience in dispute resolution, second language acquisition and issues relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.

Robert Iseman
Values and restorative justice: the South African example 

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission stands as one of the greatest moral challenges ever attempted by a country. By the end of the 1980s South Africa had experienced 50 years of one of the most brutal and oppressive governments of the twentieth century. With the election of a black majority government in 1994 the country was attempting to move from barbarism to civil government in just a few years and words like vengeance, retribution and restitution dominated the political discourse. Most political analysts were predicting a period of instability, a dramatic white exodus and probably civil war. The proposition that a 'truth commission' might be able to mediate the potential damage had to be considered as a possibility. Truth commissions had been attempted in a number of cases around the world as a method of healing wounds caused by gross violations of human rights but most had experienced little success. Given the extreme challenge the South African experience has been successful beyond most expectations and South Africa continues to grow in strength and stability. This paper argues that the most significant factor in South Africa’s success was the moral leadership of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Mandela could speak with the power of moral authority as a victim of human rights violations who was willing to take a stand for making a break with the past for the sake of the future and Tutu invoked the combined rhetoric of Kantian rationalist ethics and Christianity. Together they were able to convince a whole nation that the healing power of restorative justice was the 'right' thing to do.

Robert Iseman is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Social Policy. He lectures in philosophy, ethics, counselling and workplace conflict. He divides his time between teaching and duties as president of the UniSA Branch of the NTEU.

Craig Jones
Tea without sugar: the mediation of agreements between pastoralists and Aboriginal peoples in a native title environment

Aboriginal peoples have consistently sort to protect the ownership of their traditional lands. This has been approached in a number of ways: direct action including armed resistance and strikes, seeking to influence the legislature, going to court and finally seeking to make agreements. This paper focuses on the latter and addresses the issue of cross-cultural mediation in the native title context with a particular focus on Aboriginal peoples and pastoralists. The paper proposes that interest-based mediation techniques are the best way to approach cross-cultural disputes. These techniques allow parties to address power imbalances on their way to durable outcomes. In this sense successful mediation across cultural boundaries is supported by pre-mediation work to ensure that parties are able to make effective decisions. The mediation is then conducted in a bi-cultural space at the intersection of pastoral and aboriginal domains. The construction of a conflict resolution domain allows the parties to manage cultural issues and power differences effectively. The interaction of local peoples in making effective land management decisions will lead to practical reconciliation.

Craig Jones is a full-time PhD student at Queensland University in the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. His thesis seeks to investigate cross-cultural mediation technique and theory as it is applied in Australian rangelands. For around the last tens years he has been working with Aboriginal peoples and other rural Australians in achieving cooperative land management outcomes. Most recently he has been working in the native title arena with the National Native Title Tribunal (5 years) in Queensland. He hopes to bring some of the insights from his practical mediation/negotiation work into the theory work behind his PhD thesis. Much of his work has been about the empowerment of local peoples, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in effective decision making. It is the ability of local peoples to make effective decisions about issues that affect their lives that will bring about practical reconciliation.

Yuval Kalish
Mediating history: the Palestinian–Israeli conflict

One of the major challenges of international mediation is how to address history. Since each faction weaves its own narrative around the historical facts, finding common ground is especially difficult for the mediator. The presentation will examine possible ways of mediating history by examining the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, providing both a historical framework in which to assess one of the most difficult conflicts in the world today, and a process with which to mediate history.

Yuval Kalish is of German/Israeli descent. He is a psychologist and a trained mediator. He worked with Israeli and Palestinian youth in Israel, trained Israeli Defence Force officers in conflict management, and facilitated Reconciliation Study Circles in Australia. He is currently completing his MA in organisational psychology and is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne.

Joanna Kalowski
Mediating across cultures: reorienting values and attitudes

Recent events both national and international highlight the ambivalent feelings Australians hold towards those we view as 'other'. The purpose of this workshop is to permit dispute resolution practitioners to examine their own responses at this time, and to engage in a critical analysis of a number of fundamental cross-cultural constructs. The goal is to enable those working in cross-cultural settings to revisit their own deeply held beliefs, and to work through ways in which personal positions may impact upon practice in the current environment. If the group of participants were to arrive at an agreed view of the effectiveness of key strategies, this could be widely shared among conference delegates.

Joanna Kalowski is a mediator and management consultant with a lifelong commitment to social justice and human rights issues. A former member of the National Native Title Tribunal and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Jo has had the opportunity to examine the impact of policies on people, and struggles with the idea that statutes enshrining individual rights are of limited use to those wishing to address the rights of groups, especially minorities. She writes and lectures on cross-cultural perspectives in mediation, education and management practice.

Justice Ambeng Kandakasi, Judge of the Supreme and National Court of Justice of Papua New Guinea
Conflict resolution practices in the Asia-Pacific region

Justice Ambeng Kandakasi was appointed as a judge of the Supreme and National Court of Justice of Papua New Guinea on the 1st of November 2001. Just before his appointment he was a partner of a well and long established firm in Papua New Guinea of Young & Williams since October 1996 concentrating on a civil practice after a year of being a senior associate. He started his employment with the firm in January 1991.

Prior to entering the private legal practice life, he taught at the University of Papua New Guinea for the whole of 1988, the first half of 1989 and the second half of 1990. The break was on account of him undertaking postgraduate studies at the University of San Diego, USA, from where he graduated with a Master of Laws degree in 1990.

 His other formal and professional qualifications include a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB) from the University of Papua New Guinea. That was followed by a certificate of completion of post graduate legal training from the Legal Training Institute of Papua New Guinea, which is a pre-requisite to admission to the PNG legal bar and the practice of law in PNG. He was admitted to practice as a lawyer in November of 1989.

Presently he is the Chairman of the Judicial Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution ('ADR'). He is actively behind the drafting of appropriate rules and hence a system for ADR in PNG.

The Honorable Hugh F Landerkin QC and Professor Andrew Pirie
Judicial dispute resolution 2001: a space odyssey or modern reality check? 

'...it is for the court, not the parties, to allocate the precious resources that is the court' Frank E Sanders. 

In this workshop, a law professor and a judge, both with many years of expertise in the area of dispute resolution, examined how they constructed the first intensive week-long training program for judges in Canada at Royal Roads University, and their sense of its reception and impact on the first Canadian learners.

A cultural sea-change is occurring in our court systems today. With ever-increasing court filings, the party-controlled adversarial model of dispute resolution is losing its controlling sway. Courts everywhere now appreciate the positive influences that conflict analysis and management can have on their processes. Additionally, courts recognise what social psychologists have discovered in the recent past: the greater the voice given to the disputants in court litigation, the greater the satisfaction and acceptance of the results from court systems, regardless of what the results may be.

The challenge today is to bring justice to everyone's door. No person should be disenfranchised from this goal, for economic, time, or other human reasons. We hypothesise that judges can profit from training in ADR: the theory, the practice, the skills. Judges have a lifetime of skill sets on which to build: they are good listeners, analysts and decision makers. They have experience in problem solving, negotiation, and dealing with conflicted people, businesses and organisations. Further training in the area of conflict analysis, management, and dispute resolution can only make judges and the court system better. A critical question remains: can this prototype course be employed in other legal cultures mutatis mutandis?

The Honorable Hugh F Landerkin, QC was appointed a judge of the Provincial Court of Alberta, Family and Youth Division, Calgary, Alberta in 1988. He is currently on medical leave from his court and volunteers, part time, as Special Advisor to the Dean, Conflict Analysis and Management Programs, Royal Roads University. With Professor Pirie, he will co-teach a course on Dispute Resolution at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, this coming fall. A trained mediator and arbitrator, along with extensive negotiation and litigation experience as a member of the Bar of Alberta for twenty years, Judge Landerkin continued to develop his interest in ADR when he obtained his Master of Judicial Studies Degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, the only postgraduate program designed solely for judges in the United States. His thesis developed a new mediation-arbitration model for the resolution of custody disputes in his court. He has taught Bench and Bar throughout his legal career, as well as at the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. He was the founding president of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family. Active in Bar activities, he served as President of the Calgary Bar Association (1979–80), a Bencher of the Law Society of Alberta (1980–1986), and as chair of the Alberta Law Foundation (1984–1986). He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1980 (Alberta). 

Professor Andrew Pirie is Professor of Law at the University of Victoria. He teaches courses in ADR, negotiation and mediation theories and practices. He was Executive Director of the UVic Institute for Dispute Resolution, 1989–1996, and has trained individuals and organisations in various countries on disputing skills. Professor Pirie received his BA (Economics) from the University of Waterloo (1972), was the gold medallist for his class in Law, obtaining his LLB from Dalhousie University (1975), and received his LLM at Victoria University, New Zealand, in 1976. He was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1978 and practiced law with a major Toronto law firm until 1981 when he came to the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria. He has lectured, trained and written extensively on ADR, here in Canada and abroad in the United States, New Zealand, England, Cambodia and Thailand. He is the author of a new seminal text on ADR, Alternative dispute resolution: skills, science, and the law (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2000).

Michael Lang
Developing excellence in practice: the path to artistry

As practitioners stretch the boundaries of their practices, critical questions emerge about how we integrate the skills and knowledge necessary to be effective and resourceful practitioners. This session explored the following questions. How do mediators advance from learning basic skills to becoming excellent in their work? What makes a mediator effective and resourceful? How can we learn from our professional experiences, so we can become more competent in our work? This session was personal, practical, hands-on, and provided participants with opportunities to gain and practice new skills. A brief lecture provided a foundation in theory; while much of the seminar was devoted to hands-on practice. Participants learned and practiced specific methods for increasing competence in their practices. In addition, they learned to identify the theories that guide their practices, to use those theories in shaping their work, and developing methods and skills to become competent, resourceful practitioners.

Michael D Lang is Professor of Conflict Management at Royal Roads University, Victoria, B C, founding Director of Antioch University's Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution, and former Editor of Mediation Quarterly. Michael has been a mediator, trainer and consultant for 23 years. He is co-author of The making of a mediator: developing artistry in practice.

Val Lang and Rhiân Williams
Dialogues in rural Australia: demanding processes that harness diversity

Of all the challenges facing rural Australia one of the greatest is how to get the difficult but necessary discussions and dialogues started. In 2000 the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women undertook a project aimed at increasing the skills of rural women in managing public discussion processes on contentious issues. The project had grown out of the foundation’s desire to respond to the process of reconciliation and the issue of native title. This workshop will explore why the foundation chose to focus on ‘process’ rather than ‘content’ and how this focus led to groups talking about the hard issues. The poster will also present what made the project successful from the participants’ point of view and how the project has continued on from its initial three pilots. This poster will reinforce the critical importance of developing procedural expertise at all levels in communities.

Val Lang lives and works on a farm and in a small rural community in Lismore, Victoria. As a community member and as a member of several hospital boards she has been involved in dealing with the processes and effects of major restructuring of health services. She is active in rural women’s organisations at a national, state and local level. She is on the executive of the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women (FAAW), a member of Victorian Women in Agriculture and Resource Management (Vic WARM) and on the Victorian Rural Women’s Network Reference Group. Val has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and a Diploma of Education. She has recently completed the Australian Rural Leadership Program. Val oversaw the development of FAAW project on public discussion processes.

Deborah Lange and Catherine McMahon
'Systemic thinking' for conversations when diverse views are present

The goal of this workshop is to provide participants with an opportunity to raise their awareness of their own thinking process and the thinking process of others. It is intended that participants experience how to not be too attached to an idea nor avoid an idea in the interest of generating deep understanding and transformative solutions to address our needs. Systems thinking enables people to hold the tensions between views that may be diametrically opposed. Systems thinking enables people to consider economic, environmental, social and spiritual views and the effects of decisions to different areas of the community or organisation or group. This workshop will enable participants to experience one methodology to think systemically, hold the tension and allow creative transformational thinking to emerge. Participants will be guided in small groups to follow the process whilst engaging in a conversation about a complex topic.

Deborah Lange works collaboratively with organisations to achieve cultural change and improved business outcomes in her business which has been established for 11 years, Deborah Lange & Associates. She focuses on individual and organisational learning as the means to effect change, and is gifted in creating an environment of open enquiry and trust into which individuals or groups feel they can fully contribute.

Catherine McMahon’s career has focused on developing public policy and programs from a cross-government perspective in the SA public sector. Catherine’s experience includes executive management and policy roles in human services and economic development. Catherine has extensive experience with non-profit organisations, and is an accredited LEADR mediator and IAMA arbitrator.

Siew-Fang Law
Chinese culture and mediation techniques

All societies have values, beliefs, ideologies and institutionalised means to interpret differences, to define relationships, to justify inequality and to deal with conflicts. Similarly, the definition of peace and conflict could vary in different cultures. An examination of conflict in social-cultural contexts is necessary and could enhance understanding of cultural differences in perceptions of, and approaches to, conflict.

Chinese view social harmony as a main key in interpersonal interaction. This paper would bring in a few principles of keeping harmony in Chinese values: such as, the Chinese ideology of harmony (he), relationship (guan xi), face (mian zi), emotional debt (ren qing), and different emotional expressions. I would discuss how would these values, attitudes and behaviours hinder and/or help resolving their conflicts.

Siew-Fang Law is a Chinese Malaysian PhD student at RMIT University. Her research interest is in inter-cultural mediation techniques and conflict resolution. She is a currently project officer with the Centre of Intercultural Development at the University of Melbourne. She also has been actively involving with the International Conflict Resolution Centre, University of Melbourne. Through the centre, she was assisting in the 'Conflict, Culture and Language' course at the University of Melbourne and also acting as the Coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network, which is a UNESCO peace project. She has a Master's degree in Psychology from England, and a Bachelor's degree from Canada. Her previous work involved social identity theory, inter-group attitudes and behaviours, and acculturation orientation of different ethnic groups. Measures such as social distance, authoritarian values, social dominance, self-construal, implicit theory, personal and collective self-esteem, social desirability, and host community versus immigrant acculturation orientation were adopted.

Yung Le
Conflict resolution in the context of globalisation: preserving the intangible heritage of Vietnam

The proposed paper is based on a case study specific to Vietnam, but would be of particular relevance to many other countries confronted with advancing globalisation. The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of rapid social and economic development on the family, school and local community in Vietnam, with particular focus on the degradation of traditional knowledge/value systems. It is recognised that cultural heritage provides the building blocks of a community’s identity and is essential in its human and social development. In the face of globalisation, there are concerns that these basic social patterns and structures are increasingly under threat, thereby providing a catalyst for intergenerational conflict within the family life and the local community. In light of this, the preservation of intangible heritage becomes critical, and conflict resolution training is proposed as the key to bridging the gap between traditional values and western standards. The target group is young people aged under 25, who have been identified as the most affected population in the country’s globalisation process. Significantly, they are the first generation ever to be free from the stranglehold of war, but at the same time, entangled and vulnerable to the rapid socioeconomic changes taking place.

Yung Le is a project officer at the UNESCO Vietnam Office, under the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Program, where she is responsible for coordinating projects in the areas of Youth and Culture of Peace. Prior to her current position, she was actively involved in the International Conflict Resolution Centre, assisting in various training courses. She has a double degree in Arts/Science from the University of Melbourne.

Stewart Levine
Managing by agreement: the new MBA

Managing by Agreement creates covenantal relationships that are based on shared commitment to ideas, issues, values, goals and management process. Covenant is the true source of real teams, and is a key ingredient for having a 'work family' which provides a source of the richness and fulfilment we seek. With covenants in place results beyond expectation follow. When you start a new project you will have the tools to put in place a road map that reminds you of your mission, and the route to get you there. If you’re deep in conflict MBA provides a 7-step process to resolution. Managing by Agreement provides a dynamic context that advances change in organisational cultures. Agreements provide the context that promotes collaboration, teaming, learning, change and continuous improvement. The new MBA provides standard practices through which desired changes can be identified, clarified and implemented. Individuals and groups are legitimised as they learn how to address their unique needs and concerns. The result is empowerment, teamwork, increased productivity and self-management.

Stewart Levine teaches all over the world. Getting to resolution: turning conflict into collaboration was named one of the 30 best business books of 1998. McGraw Hill is featuring his new book, The book of agreement: tools for self-organizing in a virtual world, in its 2002 Sourcebook for Innovative Management Practices.

Rosemary Lyster
Managing conflict: the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW)

This conference paper deals with various provisions of the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW) (WMA) that institutionalise, or attempt to resolve, conflict over water. The basic premise adopted is that for water conflict to be resolved there should be adequate access to information, real opportunities to participate in decision-making processes and proper recourse to legal remedies. Conflict resolution and participatory theory are used to analyse the difficulties that are inherent in the Act and, where appropriate, to suggest a possible way forward. Conflict is institutionalised by the Act with respect to the water management planning process. The Act brings together various parties who have been identified as interested and affected parties in the forum of a water management committee (WMA s. 13). The Act then describes the functions of the committees (WMA s. 14) and their procedures (Schedule 6, Part 2). The members of the committee are directed to ‘strive for consensus in reaching decisions’. Given the level of conflict inherent in the management committees, it is surprising that a process of facilitation or mediation of interests is not prescribed. Will the Chairperson be trained in conflict resolution skills? How will power imbalances within the committees be managed? What level of assistance will be given to members of the committee who struggle to digest the technical and scientific data with which they must deal. Is the taking of decisions by the casting of a majority vote a justifiable mechanism for resolving such conflict? The paper goes on to suggest the use of mediation or facilitation to assist with the making of management plans in the interest of sustainable water management.

Rosemary Lyster, BA, LLB, LLM (University of Natal, South Africa). Rosemary Lyster is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney and a consultant to the Environment Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal. She specialises in environmental law, administrative law and dispute resolution and has published widely in these fields. She is the principal author of David Farrier, Rosemary Lyster, Linda Pearson, Zada Lipman, The environmental law handbook (3rd ed), Redfern Legal Centre Publishing, 1999. In the field of environmental law, Rosemary’s research interests include privatisation and corporatisation, ecofeminist theory, energy law, water law, environmental rights, and environmental dispute resolution.

Ian Macduff and Mereana Hond
Settling treaty claims in New Zealand: are we resolving or creating disputes?

This workshop and presentation explored two key linked issues: first, the nature of intra-tribal value-based disputes emerging during treaty claim settlement negotiations between Mäori and the state and the mechanisms available for the management of this conflict; and second, the role of capacity-building training in the preparation of first nations people for negotiations and for the process of reconciliation with the state. The workshop commenced with a presentation of treaty claim settlements in New Zealand. The central focus was to facilitate discussion and insight into the issues raised, particularly in relation to the complex intra-tribal dimension that is increasingly demanding attention from those who negotiate these settlements. The session encouraged consideration of the broader indigenous context. It also presented examples of how dispute resolution models are being applied and adapted within the treaty claims processes.

Ian Macduff teaches in the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, and is Director of the New Zealand Centre for Conflict Resolution. His principal teaching fields are in dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on negotiation and mediation, and in international conflict. He has run training programs in NZ, Australia, Italy, and Sri Lanka.

Mereana Hond is of English, Dutch and Maori descent, with principal tribal affiliations to Taranaki Tuturu. A lecturer at the Faculty of Law and the School of Maori Studies, at Victoria University of Wellington, Mereana has broad teaching and research experience in dispute resolution, second language acquisition and issues relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.

Pat Marshall
Designing dispute resolution systems in educational institutions

It is now more than a decade since Ury, Brett and Goldberg published their seminal book Getting disputes resolved in which they offered a model for designing dispute resolution systems. Many organisations, while having in place the documentation for dispute resolution systems, do not practise the principles of beginning with interest-based processes before moving to those that are rights-based. This paper will examine the constraints on such organisations, particularly educational institutions. These constraints are due, largely, to the nature of the task, the nature of the client, and the nature of the organisational culture. The paper will also explore some strategies for dealing with these constraints, and determine the current usefulness of the prevailing dispute resolution model.

Patricia Marshall, MA, Dip Ed, Dip HR, MACE, has been an educator and educational administrator in secondary schools, TAFE, industry, business colleges and universities. She is currently Director of Marshall Enterprise Learning. She works as a consultant to organisations in education and training, conflict resolution strategies and process, and issues of organisational behaviour. She also lectures in the Department of Learning and Educational Development, University of Melbourne.

Donnie Martin
Child and family participants in child protection decision-making conferences

This presentation will draw on the experience of the Care and Protection Unit of the South Australian Youth Court to identify structures and processes that promote participation of children and family members in decision making for the future care and protection of children regarded as ‘at risk’ by statutory welfare authorities. The unit offers Family Care Meetings based on a family conference model to ensure that children, parents and extended family have an opportunity to participate in a process from which they may previously have been excluded. Options for family care are considered, and the child’s wishes must always be conveyed to the meeting either directly or by a child advocate. Wherever possible both the child’s mother and father will be invited to attend, with the support of other relatives. Mediation between estranged family members, and between family and statutory welfare authorities, are features of this model.

Donnie Martin has been Senior Coordinator of the Care and Protection Unit since1998. She is a social worker with many years experience in the child protection field, with particular expertise in assessment and therapeutic services for children, and infant mental health. Other unit staff with social work/psychology qualifications and considerable experience in child protection and related fields were co-presenters.

Pat McIntyre
Choice meets for vegetarians: a peace praxis

A Buddhist monk places his faith in the regular practice of mindfulness. A Jesuit priest also places his faith in the regular practice of examining consciousness. When one meets with a spiritual elder, in the east, the west, the modern or the ancient world, for help in the making of a decision, that holy person helps the retreatant to reach a balanced integration of the different and sometimes competing dimensions of one's existence.

More richly aware; the retreatant more soulfully considers and makes their choice. From the meeting with their retreat guide, the retreatant is able to practice a more real, more critical and more human decision making. Their interior reconciliation blossoms in wise action (often courageous and unexpected) and a soulful peace (less subject to the ups and downs of life). It is the long practice of a certain ‘mindfulness’; common to the monk, the priest and to the indigenous elder; that makes it possible for meetings with them, to elicit the retreatant's interior reconciliation.

If our retreatant is a group, trying to reach a decision/resolve a conflict, how much more is that so? Fortunately, the choices that most groups meet to make do not require the depth of practice of a Master! But soulful attributes are necessary in the person of the facilitator; and some exercise in group mindfulness is necessary in the choice-making group; if wisdom and peace is to emerge. More collaborative groups and spiritually alive communities often do require the help of a more skilled ‘guide’. For example; deeply spiritual and powerful Elders assist whole communities to make decisions in many indigenous communities in contemporary Australia.

Conflict resolution and decision-making facilitators are about the work of peace and good governance; but they are largely trainees in peace practice. We have much practicing, talking and reflection to do if we are to articulate our helpful spiritual practices, if we are to provide witness to a potential active reconciliation between different spiritual and cultural dimensions of our collective existence. If we are to return soulful listening into the choice-making meetings of our society; if we are to counter the naive denial of soul in our public life; our conversation should demonstrate that spirituality has everything to do with politics!

We have spiritual traditions more ancient than the written word to draw upon for guidance in spiritual practice for peace. ‘Who is this coming up out of the wilderness leaning on her lover?’ asks the Song of Songs. Is it Buddha, Moses, Jesus or Che Guevara? Is it Lara Croft? It may be Wisdom, it may be Peace and it may be you!

The answer that we articulate should bear witness that the peace praxis in which we engage is capable of a radical candour; and that it is capable of a courageous and genuine cross-cultural/inter-faith collaborative reconciliation. We might otherwise be governed by and aspire to become no more than cartoon characters; ever the hero or the martyr; never the journeyed guide, upon whom soulful lovers lean. Shalom? Peace be with you? Om!

Patrick McIntyre, a barrister/mediator based in Darwin, has also worked as a group/community discernment facilitator among civil rights action groups, religious, political, business and educational organisations and rural and Indigenous communities. In his own legal practice established in Clare, SA, in 1981, Pat worked for 15 years predominantly in multi-party ‘class’ actions and rural community development. Since his move to Darwin in 1994 Pat has facilitated negotiations with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. That work has involved constitutional, administrative, land rights, native title, sacred sites, corporations law and industrial relations matters as well as civil and commercial litigation. He is president of the NT Aboriginal Reconciliation Council and also of the NT Chapter of LEADR. He has delivered training workshops in India in 1994 (action for social justice) and 1998 (LEADR mediation). Pat is also a visiting lecturer at NTU Law School.

Tania Miletic and Di Bretherton
Ethnic identity, memory and conflict: effects of the Balkans conflict on young Australians from Croatian and Serbian origins

Ethnic identity is seen as a psychological construct which links memories of the past to the present and to expectations of the future. Personal exposure and involvement with a culture leads to the development of identity, and this then is said to influence how information is processed and interpreted, including how memories are constructed and retrieved. The present study examines the construction of ethnic identity in two groups, young people (18–35 yrs) born in Australia identifying themselves as Croatian and Serbian Australians. It then examines strength of association between measures of ethnic identity and memories surrounding the political conflicts that occurred in Southeast Europe and involving these two groups. The results suggest that ethnic identity is constructed and reconstructed in a dynamic way as circumstances change. The results also suggest that measures of ethnic identity are associated with what might be called sided/biased remembering of events. This has important implications in relation to conflict negotiation and resolution as well as importance in considering the stories of people who come from conflict zones, even in second and subsequent generations of Australian immigrants whose heritage is from a country with a history of or current conflict.

Tania Miletic received her BA at Melbourne University in 1996, and received her Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology in 1999. Under the supervision of Associate Professor Di Bretherton at the International Conflict Resolution Centre, she completed her thesis entitled 'Collective Memory and Ethnic Identity in Contexts of Ethnic Conflict'. Tania has been employed with the Victorian Transcultural Psychiatry Unit since late 1997 as a Research and Education Officer. She shares her time between participating in the development and delivery of clinician training within the Education and Professional Development Program, and is involved with various projects within the research program examining issues of migration, culture, service delivery and clinical practice in mental health.

Di Bretherton is Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre and an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Melbourne. She is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Council of Australia and Chair of the Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace of the International Union of Psychological Science.

David B Moore
Community conferencing as transformative problem solving: dealing with the past, the present and the future

People in conflict often take part in some form of dispute resolution. The process may be adversarial; it may be non-adversarial. Unfortunately, both options are sometimes the wrong medicine. In many cases of conflict, people don’t need so much to clarify the facts of any specific dispute as much as they need to acknowledge and transform the general conflict. In their recent book, Transforming conflict, David Moore and fellow Transformative Justice Australia Director John McDonald introduced a theory of conflict transformation and a very practical guide to using 'conferencing' to transform conflict in workplaces and other communities. In this conversation, we will visit some of the first principles of conflict transformation, and results from some of the very successful conferencing programs internationally.

David Moore holds degrees in languages, political economy and social theory. He taught at Melbourne University and Charles Sturt, where he coordinated justice studies and was centrally involved in the Australian pilot of community conferencing. David later worked in the Queensland Premier’s Department, before co-founding Transformative Justice Australia in 1995. David now lives with his family in Sydney, and works internationally promoting transformative justice.

Catherine Morris
From diatribe to dialogue: transforming public disputes: case studies from Cambodia

'In the sea you find the crocodile, in the earth you find the wolf, in the forest you find the tiger and at the market you find the police. So where can you go?' This Khmer expression metaphorically describes the historical – and current – situation of Cambodia. The history of severe conflict in Cambodia over the past several decades has left a deep residue of trauma, bitterness and mistrust. Deep wounds from the past are still raw and painful. Public dialogue in Cambodia continues to be fractious and polarised. Government institutions, including courts, are mistrusted. Public frustration with impunity of offenders has led to increasing incidents of violent mob street 'justice'. 

In this climate, several Cambodian government and civil society leaders have been experimenting with non-partisan workshops and forums aimed at fostering improved public dialogue on a variety of public policy issues ranging from grassroots village decision making, to urban sanitation, to elections, to the proposed trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders. This session featured presentations from several Cambodian leaders including their successes and ongoing challenges.

Catherine Morris, a lawyer, has been active in the field of dispute resolution since 1983. She is director of Peacemakers Trust, a Canadian non-profit organisation for research and education in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Catherine is an Associate of the Center for Asia Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria, Canada, where she served in leadership capacities at the Institute for Dispute Resolution from 1992 to 1998. She has been involved in initiatives in Thailand and Cambodia since 1994. Her publications include works on mediator ethics and qualifications, conflict and culture, ADR in legal education and peacebuilding in Cambodia.

Judith Morrison
Comparing conflict theories for scoping problems and means for their resolution

Does Australian mediation training present a range of conflict theories in order to critically evaluate the scale and context of issues needing resolution? All conflict theories promote intermediary processes, identifying impediments to agreement, and assisting participants search for solutions. Differences often relate to scale – theories vary for scoping interpersonal, local, regional, national, international and global conflicts. Appreciating different theories offers greater flexibility for taking into account the scale of the problems and the scale at which it is possible to seek resolution.

ADR as it is directed and supported through national programs may be inadequate for addressing problems unresolvable through existing laws and legislation. Theory is critical to determine whether majority/minority issues are being adequately scoped as disputes, resolvable through compromise, or as conflicts that entail deeper concerns about legitimacy and recognition and require cross-cultural engagement between western and non-western traditions. If outcomes cannot be accommodated within predominant national structures, broader theoretical frameworks may be needed so that mediators can explicitly stipulate what kind of process could address intra-state disparities between the interests of dominant/subordinate peoples; otherwise predominant national interests simply dictate a prescribed, and potentially unjust process.

Judith Morrison is a PhD student with the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Perth. Her interest is in  theories dealing with the resolution of disputes and conflicts, and how they can be applied in Australia to support the facilitation of cross-cultural decision-making processes. Her practical work in conflict resolution and her research, drawn from a wide range of global sources of knowledge, suggest that conflicts that ensue from changes in the use of land and resources are influenced not only by ‘material’ issues but also by ‘psychological’ issues, that is, how effectively groups can negotiate about the values that underpin statutory, legal and contractual settlements. Her assertion is that there is insufficient attention given in Australia to approaches being put in place in other regions of the world to actualise the capacity of indigenous people to effectively participate in decision making about land and lifestyle choices, given that many issues in Australia have parallels elsewhere. The developing academic research concerned with resolving cross-cultural conflicts indicates that theory informed by practice is a source of replicable knowledge that could help to improve competency in the facilitation of Australian cross-cultural decision-making processes. In Australia, as elsewhere, conflict resolution has to deal with dominance systems and disadvantage, rights to recognition, capacity for self-determination, and capacity to meaningfully participate in multi-party decision making about co-existence and sustainable uses of land and resources. If it is conceded that in Australia issues needing to be reconciled about domination, disadvantage and non-recognition represent conflicts rather than disputes, theory should be drawn from the field of conflict resolution as much as from alternative dispute resolution in order to critically evaluate decision-making processes as being adequate for the prescribed purposes.

Her thesis examines how well participants who are to engage in cross-cultural decision making are assisted and supported to develop appropriate processes. Last year she participated in, and reported on, a four-month consultative process whereby representatives from all native title claimant groups throughout South Australia were asked to consider negotiating with the SA Government, the SA Chamber of Mines and Energy and the SA Farmers Federation to devise a statewide Indigenous Land Use Agreement as a basis for integrated working relationships. Claimants have expressed their willingness to proceed with the negotiations which will have to deal with a wide range of potentially conflicting interests in land and natural resources. Relevant theory will be necessary to critically examine and fully understand the scale and the context of issues needing resolution. One of the recommendations in Judith's report was that a survey be conducted amongst stakeholder groups to determine what resources they might draw from in order to adequately structure and participate in this significant cross-cultural process.

Graeme Neate
Reconciliation on the ground: meeting the challenges of native title reconciliation

The recognition of native title and its practical exercise along with other rights and interests is a national issue which is dealt with at a local community level. The Native Title Act 1993 provides a process that favours the mediation of native title claimant applications and provides a range of options for recording the agreements that are made. Mediated outcomes are desirable for a range of practical reasons, primarily because an agreement should provide a durable basis for long-term relationships on the ground. The National Native Title Tribunal has been established as an impartial, independent body to assist parties to reach agreements on some or all of the matters relevant to native title applications.

The size, complexity and cross-cultural nature of native title matters means that mediation techniques need to be adapted or refined to suit a variety of circumstances. The paper examined the statutory scheme and practical aspects of native title mediation in Australia.

Graeme Neate is the President of the National Native Title Tribunal. He was a part-time member of the tribunal from 1995 and was made President in March 1999. Between 1992 and 2000 he was the Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Tribunals in Queensland and a member of the Land Court of Queensland. Mr Neate is a lawyer who has worked in private practice and the public sector. He has been professionally involved in Indigenous land and cultural heritage issues since 1980, and has published a book and numerous articles, chapters and conference papers on Indigenous land and cultural heritage matters. He edits a loose-leaf native title legal publication.

Franca Petrone
Developing a culturally sensitive mediation process

This facilitated dialogue session explored the meaning of culture within various contexts as it applies to the practice of mediation. For example, culture within (and between) organisations, areas of practice, social groups, nationalities. The overall aim was to identify, through selected exercises and conversation with the participants involved, strategies that are in use or that can be implemented in order to assist in the development of culturally sensitive mediation practices.

Franca Petrone works as a mediator, consultant and an academic teaching dispute management and legal aspects of international business at Flinders University. She has a particular interest in how mediation services are set up, promoted and evaluated. Franca has mediated and conciliated in numerous areas independently and within various organisational settings. She is a member of the LEADR Advanced Panel of Mediators, a Regional Advisor to the Public Service Merit Protection Commission, a Senior Case Officer with the Child Support Agency and a legal member of the Drug Assessment and Aid Panel.

Cathy Picone
Recovering from whiteness: for whites working to end racism

Old residual feelings are limiting our work to end racism. Feelings are no reliable guide to action. Good feelings are to be enjoyed – but what to do with our 'bad' feelings? Feelings from long ago in our lives can surface when we don't want them to and get in the way of our action. Residues of old 'bad' feelings can interfere when we're trying to think or act: frustration, urgency, tiredness, embarrassment or nervousness, feelings of timidity, passivity, of hopelessness or helplessness, feelings of grief or competition or criticism or of disliking or mistrusting some people (or all!). Unless we have experienced a recent hurt in our lives, we can be pretty sure that such feelings are from the past.

For us whites, the most likely feelings to be interfering with the effectiveness of our anti-racism work are precisely those feelings which all whites feel – because we're white. One such 'whiteness feeling' – an emotional residue from the past – is isolation. The dominant white society has enshrined isolation in all of our social institutions and structures. We have made isolation the norm.

This is reflected in our education system where we encourage young ones to compete, in our health and mental health systems, in our judicial and parliamentary systems, but most of all in our economic system.

Old 'bad' feelings can be gotten rid of. We have a natural repair kit. We can completely recover from old distress feelings. If we have a listener who is thoughtful, attentive, generous and open-hearted to us, we can gain fresh perspective on our old 'blocks' by means of:

Our listener needs to not impede the processes of our natural repair kit. Due to the universal and systematic rigid conditioning against it, this will probably be the hardest part of your efforts to get this to work for yourself.

Our listener needs to not be scared of letting us use our natural repair kit. Laughing, crying, sweating, shaking – if they happen ,– are simply part of the 'kit'. They're natural. Any unease which may be felt about them arises from our having been stopped from allowing them to operate fully when we were very small (usually by well-meaning parents) and from then on by a society-wide structure of interweaving oppressions reflecting and reinforcing that early interference. ('There, there, be a good girl', 'Look at the pretty birdie', 'Your sister's a good girl, see she isn't crying' and, even earlier, getting fed unnecessarily or given things to suck.) Our listener needs to not be scared to let us have our feelings.

Racism is big part of the society-wide structure of interweaving oppressions. Class oppressions and gender oppressions (women's and men's oppression) are some others; 'mental health' oppression, ageism and adultism also. As we talk with someone who is able to pay loving, respectful attention to us without interrupting us, if we cry or laugh or yawn or shake or sweat, we can think better about the things we want to do to end racism. As we cry and laugh and yawn, we can plan the elimination of the scourge of racism from our planet. We can reflect on how racism has impacted our own lives and the lives of others. As we do, if we're allowing ourselves to be fully human, we may find ourselves trembling or shaking inwardly with nervousness or feeling fearful. We may find ourselves crying or laughing, or both together. This is natural. We aren't 'crazy'. There's nothing 'wrong' with us. This is just a part of the way we get rid of these old, useless hurts and residual feelings. Afterwards our thinking is sharper and clearer. We are less confused, less afraid or less embarrassed. We are more relaxed and confident – more ourselves – and thus more effective in our work to end racism.

Cathy Picone has been an activist in the peace, women's and anti-racism movements for more than twenty years. Presently International Delegate for Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Australia (WILPF). For many years WILPF representative on Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (SA). Currently member of the National Consultative Committee for Peace and Disarmament convened by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Cathy is also a group facilitator running numerous support groups and workshops. (Established in 1915, WILPF is an international non-governmental organisation with consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC and UNESCO.)

Sandy Policansky
Workplace conflict resolution: issues and dilemmas for practitioners

This presentation raised issues and dilemmas faced by mediators when attempting to resolve disputes in a work place setting. The key issues are:

Sandy Policansky works with CRS Australia in Adelaide. She has extensive experience in the provision of injury management services in the private and public sector and over 20 years experience working in the health services. This has included management positions. She is a social worker who has postgraduate qualifications in conflict resolution and is an accredited arbitrator and mediator. She works in the field of vocational rehabilitation case management and is a Workcover provider, dealing with return to work services, occupational stress and resolving conflicts within the workplace. Sandy is a senior rehabilitation consultant in the mental health services team and co-ordinates all employee assistance services to a number of organisations.

Ken Rigby (with Fiona Underwood)
Bullying in schools and the workplace: international perspectives on the nature, prevalence and consequences of bullying

This workshop examined issues related to bullying in schools and the workplace. It outlined the nature, prevalence and consequences of bullying in these contexts and suggested ways in which the problem can be addressed.

Dr Ken Rigby is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of South Australia. He has published widely in the area of bullying. His book, Bullying in schools and what to do about it, published in Australia (1996), England (1997) and Canada (1998), is an authoritative research-based text. He consults regularly with schools, and provides seminars and workshops nationally and internationally.

Jacob Rumbiak and Harry Bagasel
The inspirational 12-year non-violent struggle for justice for West Papua

Jacob has played a key role in the non-violent struggle for self-determination and justice for West Papua. He outlined the key issues, and gave a brief history of their 12-year struggle and how the people and leaders have resisted violence despite extreme acts of violence and intimidation by the Indonesian military and police. The situation inside West Papua is very tense at the moment following the kidnapping and assassination by the Indonesian military of key independence leader Chief Theus Eluay on 11 November.

Jacob Rumbiak is a West Papuan who has been living in Australia for 18 months. He is a respected leader with the Free West Papua Movement (OPM) who was jailed in 1989 for 17 years for subversion after making a freedom speech to students. He spent 11 years in jail, including several years with Xanana Gusmao. He was instrumental in setting up the West Papua Youth Awareness Team, which now has thousands of members across West Papua and other parts of Indonesia. WESTPANYAT works to empower young people. Jacob is committed to finding a peaceful path to self-determination and justice for West Papua.

Harry Bagasel was born on Yapen, an island off the north coast of West Papua. He is a law student at Candrawassih (Bird of paradise) University in Jayapura, and is Chairman of the West Papua National Youth Awarenss Team (WESTPANYAT) in West Papua.

Rick Sarre
Alternative dispute resolution and non-adversarial regulation: why are they still not mainstream and can they ever become mainstream?

Notwithstanding the push to ADR in some litigation circles and moves towards non-adversarial (civil and administrative) penalties in relation to regulatory and other offences, there appears to be no letting up in the desire for parties to have their day in court. Why might this be the case? What is it about legal formalism that makes it so enduring? This paper outlines the arguments why, sometimes, there may need to be a formal hearing in order to bring about satisfactory outcomes. It will also discuss recent moves to increase regulation of ADR in Australia.

Rick Sarre is Associate Professor of Law and Criminology with the School of International Business, University of South Australia. Formerly (for 6 years) the Head of the School of Law and Legal Practice, University of SA, he lectures in criminal justice and criminology, and business law for the University of South Australia, Graceland University (Iowa, USA) and at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is the Program Director, Bachelor of Management (Justice) at the University of South Australia, an Associate of the Australian Institute of Criminology, and, most recently, the author of (with John Tomaino, eds), Considering crime and justice: realities and responses, Adelaide: Crawford House Publishing, 2000.

Kay Schaffer
Telling, witnessing and responsibility: reconstituting the body politic

The past decade has witnessed a plethora of truth commissions around the world, designed to address human rights abuses through the testimonies of its victims in order to heal deep divisions in a nation’s history. This paper will look at the importance of storytelling in such contexts. Focusing on the HREOC Inquiry into the Forced Removal of Indigenous Children from their Families in Australia, it considers the importance of telling one’s story and having it acknowledged in a national forum, the different aspects of speaking and listening, and the dynamics that attend a difficult healing process for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and for the larger Australian nation as community

Kay Schaffer is a Professor in the Department of Social Inquiry at the University of Adelaide where she teaches in the areas of gender studies, cultural studies and postcoloniality. She is the author of several books, including Women and the bush (Cambridge, 1988) and In the wake of first contact: the Eliza Fraser stories (1995). Her latest publications include the edited anthologies Indigenous Australian voices: a reader (Rutgers UP, 1988), Constructions of colonialism (Cassell, 1998) and The Olympics at the millennium (Rutgers, 2000).

Joanne Staugas
Commercial mediation

It is often the level of commitment to the outcome of a project that bears on its success. Contractual arrangements define duties and obligations. It is each stakeholder's obligation and duty to perform in a balanced and informed way and assist in the successful completion of a project or the resolution of a dispute should it arise. Strategies for dispute prevention and an understanding of dispute management techniques should be considered at the outset. They will be influenced by principles of trust, openness and flexibility and clear communication. This session focused on strategies for dispute prevention and management and how they differ from the perspective of different parties to a contractual arrangement. Industry and the business community are developing and implementing codes of practice as a strategy for dispute prevention and management in various sectors, for example, the banking and finance sector, and the franchise industry. Many industries would benefit from the development of codes providing standards of conduct that require cooperative and conscionable behaviour (reflected in the provisions of the Trade Practices Act), thereby sharpening the focus on building better relationships and promoting openness in business dealings.

Joanne Staugas is a partner of Finlaysons and practices in construction law and commercial dispute resolution. She has specialist expertise in engineering and building contracts and over 15 years experience in construction projects throughout Australia. She provides legal and strategic advice in 'front-end' contract negotiation and documentation, a practice she has developed out of extensive experience working with principals and major contractors in resolving construction disputes.

Rhonda Stien
ADR in a care and protection context

The provision of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in a care and protection context is an initiative introduced in New South Wales with the proclamation of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.The presentation included discussion on the NSW Department of Community Services’ (DoCS) model and some of the challenges experienced as the welfare statutory authority in providing ADR by staff to our clients. Challenges discussed included providing cohesive services to a diverse client group across a large geographic area. Often, in addition to the care and protection concerns of the child or young person, there can be domestic violence, mental health issues and substance abuse and different service delivery models.

Rhonda Stien, Executive Director, Child and Family, NSW Department of Community Services, BA (Social Work), MA (Social Work) and MA (Business Administration) has worked in senior executive positions in a range of government and non-government sectors. Some of her key achievements include establishing a new agency from scratch in a rural area, which after 5 years resulted in 5 professional services and two geographic locations and the development of a traditional foster care service into a comprehensive range of services for hard-to-place children.

Dean Reynaldo L Suarez
Mediation in the Philippine islands

Dean Suarez passed the Philippine Bar in 1960 after graduating from the University of the East. Thereafter, he engaged in private practice until he was appointed Judge of the Regional Trial Court at Cabanatuan City. He has been Associate Commissioner of the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, then Chief of Staff, Office of the Senate President. He was also appointed Member of the Philippine Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, New York City, and a delegate to the Asia Regional Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime. He has attended several workshops, seminars and courses abroad. Thereafter, he was appointed as Deputy Court Administrator of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Upon his retirement as Deputy Court Administrator, he was named Executive Officer of the Centenary Celebrations Committee, Supreme Court, then as Head of the Judicial Reforms Office of the Philippine Judicial Academy. Early this year, his alma mater, the University of the East, appointed him as Dean of the College of Law. Despite his deanship, his dedication to public service remains and thus he continues to be a Professor for the Philippine Judicial Academy and is still a member of several of its committees.

Jan Jung-Min Sunoo
Cross-cultural mediation: 'do you see what I see?'

Mediators and others in the field of conflict resolution are taught to listen actively, rephrase neutrally, validate their clients’ concerns, and search for common interests. We are told that we are 'process experts' first and foremost. But what if the process we are trying to facilitate is itself loaded with cultural meaning? Suppose the very 'neutral' questions we ask colour our neutrality in the eyes of the disputants? Are the disputants always viewing the process in the same way as the mediator? In this interactive session, participants learned to recognise how differently from their neighbour they view the world of mediation, and were encouraged to accept and 'own' their particular viewpoint so that they can view the world through the eyes of others. Examples from the speaker’s own experiences working with Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Native American, South American, German and African American peoples were used to illustrate the complexities of conflict resolution across cultures.

Commissioner Jan Jung-Min Sunoo is a Program Director with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Global Conflict Management Services Department (US government). He has mediated disputes for more than ten years and taught conflict resolution skills in Korea, Indonesia, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Brazil and Australia. Sunoo has facilitated multi-party environmental and tribal disputes, negotiated contracts for the Teamsters union, held positions at the City College of New York and San Francisco Community College, and practiced clinical psychology at the Watts Health Center in Los Angeles. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in community psychology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, received a Masters of Arts degree in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Brenda, a writer and grief recovery specialist.

Jan Jung-Min Sunoo and Brenda Paik Sunoo
Coping with grief in the workplace

Death. It's with us every day. In addition to the most recent devastating act of political terrorism in New York and Washington DC, daily losses are being played out in our workplaces everywhere. A fellow employee's spouse dies, another's succumbs to cancer, your secretary's daughter is killed in a car accident, your colleague is going through a divorce, jobs are being eliminated… How do you offer support in a way that is helpful, non-intrusive and culturally sensitive?

Seven years ago, the facilitators lost their 16-year-old son unexpectedly to a heart attack as he was playing basketball at school. They share their experiences and insights with humour and sensitivity and lead participants through a series of activities that help develop appropriate and helpful approaches in assisting the bereaved. The group dealt directly with the issues that matter including sharing of resources for the workplace, policy suggestions, etc., while respecting everyone's personal comfort zone in exploring this sensitive, universal and largely neglected fact of life.

Jan Jung-Min Sunoo is a Commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Office of International and Dispute Resolution. He has worked as a clinical psychologist at the Watts Health Center in South Central Los Angeles, mediated disputes for more than ten years, taught conflict resolution in Korea, Indonesia, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, facilitated multi-party environmental and tribal disputes, negotiated contracts for the Teamsters union, and taught at City College of New York and San Francisco Community College. Appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, he focused on resolving interethnic conflict until 1993. After the death of his teenage son, Commissioner Sunoo and his wife participated in, then co-facilitated, one of the local chapters of Compassionate Friends, a national organisation for bereaved parents.

Brenda Paik Sunoo is a bereavement specialist and writer based in Southern California. As former senior editor for Workforce magazine, she won several journalism awards for her coverage of human resources management, fast-growth companies, cultural diversity, education and social trends in the workplace. Her articles have appeared in Modesto Bee, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times, Korea Times English Edition and A. Magazine, Expatspouse.com and Vault.com. In addition, Ms Sunoo has appeared on television as a guest and host on KCET-TV 'Life and Time', after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. After the death of her teenage son, Ms Sunoo co-facilitated one of the local chapters of Compassionate Friends, a national organisation for bereaved parents. She and her husband frequently speak at labor-management conferences on 'Facing Grief at the Workplace'. Ms Sunoo, a certified Grief Recovery Institute practitioner, as well as reiki instructor lives in Orange County with her husband. They have one surviving son.

David Syme
ADR in Australia: challenges and priorities

The presentation will briefly outline some of the challenges facing ADR in Australia, and the policy priorities that these suggest. NADRAC's strategies to deal with these priorities surround standards for ADR, ADR in courts and tribunals, diversity, and research and evaluation. For more information on NADRAC go to www.nadrac.gov.au

David Syme is director of the secretariat of the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC). NADRAC is an independent body of experts which advises the Commonwealth Attorney-General on ADR policy issues.

Hughie Tan Yeak Hui
ADR in Malaysia: an overview

Hughie Tan Yeak Hui is a barrister and ADR practitioner instead of solicitor and mediator. He is 56 years of age and has been in legal practice since 1977. He is the principal of a law firm and a dispute resolution consultancy firm based in Kuala Lumpur. The firm offers consulting services to legal and quasi-legal problems with emphasis on cross-cultural issues. It adopts a win-win instead of adversarial approach to resolving of disputes.

Jaime Tan
Negotiation online: does the medium make a difference?

Traditional theories of negotiation in social science have been mostly based on face-to-face interactions (Bazerman and Carroll, 1987; Johnson and Johnson, 1997). However, with the advent of new communication technologies and the rise in the number of virtual work organisations, there is an increasing reliance on computer-mediated communication between individuals, especially in this emerging global economy. Electronic media, such as emails and computer conferencing, have allowed remote individuals to overcome temporal, geographical and even hierarchical barriers. It is not unimaginable that individuals may be using such electronic media to negotiate conflicts with other virtual workers in the world. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to re-examine the assumptions that traditional (face-to-face) negotiation is based on. Because the primary medium of most electronic media is plain text, electronic communication is likely to contain impoverished dynamic personal information and feedback, thus the general assumptions that apply to traditional negotiation may not apply to electronically-mediated negotiation.

Jaime Tan is a second-year PhD student currently enrolled in the University of Melbourne. She is interested in examining the differences in the negotiation process across different mediums of communication, specifically between face-to-face and electronically mediated negotiation. She came to Australia from Singapore to pursue her graduate and now postgraduate studies.

Juan Tausk
Business mediation in family enterprises

We shall consider mediation in family enterprises analysing the specific difficulties for the mediator and indicating some conceptual and technical resources that facilitate work in this field. Some cases shall be presented so as to observe the impact of primary ‘liaisons’ that highlight similarities and differences with usual business mediations. The course of the negotiations is tinged by demands in which the parties’ adherence to ‘positions’ poses obstacles to rational work on the ‘interests’. A paradoxical event can be observed: the mediator can appreciate that the positions interweave with the interests. The reduction to unidimensionality complicates the intervention of the third party, who vacillates in his/her capacity to operate. The prevalence of ‘mirror-like confrontations’, conflictedly processed family histories and mourning, and the generation of intense destructive passions expose the business initiative to the risk of being ‘shipwrecked’, which seems to preoccupy the mediator more than the stake holders.

Juan is a psychologist graduated 33 years ago, speaks fluently English and Spanish also speaks French, German and Hebrew. Born in Argentina, he has Argentine and German citizenship.

Thomas Trenczek
ADR and restorative justice approaches under the shadow under the (criminal) law (system): the state of the art of victim–offender mediation (in Germany), the danger of cooptation and a reconsideration of law theory

Unlike other countries, especially common law jurisdictions, mediation in Germany most frequently is used within the criminal justice field by victim–offender reconciliation/mediation programs (VOR/MP). However, the conceptual orientation and enforcement of victim–offender mediation programming in the criminal justice system (especially in Germany) brings some dangers with it – dangers for the traditional criminal justice approaches as well as for the mediation schemes. Theoretically, there may be more dangers for the criminal justice system, at this time in practice it is a threat to the ADR approach. It hides the real nature and character of conflict mediation and it prevents elements of restorative justice from giving up their shadowy existence. The practice of VOMP (in Germany) is far from its potential; it is far from corresponding to the basic idea of conflict resolution and reconciliation as well as from the well-established professional standards of victim–offender mediation (in Germany). Most conspicuous are the multiple search for niches of acceptance and the adaptation to inappropriate ideas from the world of juvenile welfare and criminal law. In its conception VOMP may not be the ideal way to foster a restorative justice or mediation approach but for the treatment of conflicts it is a useful means in a continuum of possible steps. If victim–offender reconciliation has an essential meaning, it is not because of the modest attempts at practical realisation but because the connected ideas and vision make the essential tasks of law clear to us. This last statement shall point to the fact that fundamental criticism that does not lead to any development is not what I intend. The thoughts presented are not meant to be a 'killer argument' (in German: 'Totschlagsargument') against the implementation of mediation within the criminal justice system; however they might be a reason to reconsider the current usage of the criminal justice system as well as the status of victim–offender mediation and its further development. Even though my thoughts are based on an analysis of the German Criminal Statutes and based on empirical observations made in Germany I doubt that the essence of my criticism is not true for the Australian approach and beyond.

Dr Thomas Trenczek is Professor of Law at the School of Social Work of the University of Applied Sciences in Jena, Germany, where he teaches criminal and juvenile law as well as mediation/conflict resolution. He holds several law degrees (Dr. iur. summa cum laude; bar exams) as well as a MA in Social Sciences of the University in Tübingen, Germany. In 1987/88 he has spent a year of research at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis (USA). He worked as a law clerk and in the state attorney's office, in a law firm as well as in governmental bodies. From 1988 to 1991 he was secretary general of the German Association of Juvenile Courts and Court Services. Besides he is a cofounder and on the board of the WAAGE conflict resolution centre in Hanover, the largest VOMP in Germany. From Oct. 2001 to Jan. 2002 he spends part of his sabbatical at the TC Beirne Law School and the Corrs Chamber Westgarth Dispute Management Centre, University of Queensland.

Katharine Vadura, Giancarlo Chiro and Peter Gale
Bridging the gap: human security, the individual and the state

The definition of human security moves the debate about security beyond issues of war and peace. It is a human-centred idea rather than a state-centred one and includes issues of population, hunger, disease, social conflict and identity, international crime and resource scarcity. The importance of this concept is evidenced by the fact that it has become a major component of western foreign policy, as well as the subject of United Nations debate. In an era of globalisation, it is our belief that the concept is a valuable one offering important possibilities, not only for understanding international relations in the post-cold war world, but also as a basis for meaningful global change.

Dr Katharine Vadura, Lecturer, School of International Studies, UniSA
Dr Giancarlo Chiro, Senior Lecturer, School of International Studies, UniSA
Dr Peter Gale, Lecturer, Australian Studies, Unaipon School, UniSA

Basil Varghese
Mediating the minefield of poverty and violence

This session will explore violence and poverty in our society from an individual, group/local/national and global perspectives. It will be an attempt to understand how we engage in the society, and what are the possibilities of creating a society that is free from violence and poverty. It will attempt to understand what is it to be human and what are the dehumanising aspects in our culture. What are some of the possible ways of thinking/learning we can use and understand? What are some of the ways out of this violence and poverty?

Basil Varghese as Education Co-ordinator for the Brotherhood of St Laurence has been a key figure in challenging and changing teachers' attitudes, curriculum responses and the education communities attitude to poverty. He has presented keynote addresses at teacher and subject associations, conferences, workshops, and strategic planning and consultations seminars.

Highlights have included:

Basil’s engagement with the business community, local communities, church, unions, schools and tertiary groups is a key and ongoing plank in the Brotherhood's work of involving and partnering community. .Highlights of this role have included

Basil also works with a wide range of government and educational agencies. These include

Polly Walker
Mending theweb: conflict transformation between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians

This workshop explored some of the profound differences between Indigenous and western worldviews that affect the conceptualisation and practice of consensual conflict management. It also facilitated consideration of the process-structures that Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians have found effective in transforming conflict between them. The workshop integrated research participants’ stories which illuminate aspects of intercultural conflict transformation regarding deep understanding, developing relationships, understanding emotions, positive social action, balancing inequalities and self-transformation.

Polly O Walker completed her PhD at the University of Queensland. Her topic concerns conflict transformation between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians. She currently lectures in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit and the University of Queensland. She recently participated in the Bohmian Dialogues between Indigenous and western scientists which explore the connections between native science and quantum theory. She is a certified mediator and has implemented workshops for the ADR branch of the Queensland Justice Department as well as for Indigenous and non-Indigenous community groups. She has also written a number of journal articles on Indigenous issues regarding conflict transformation.

Mark Wayland
Non-violence and conflict resolution in Australia

A recent investigation of the existing literature on violence and violence prevention found that much attention has been given to levels and types of violence in Australia over the last ten years. However violence is by no means a unitary construct. Violence can be thought of, discussed and characterised in more ways than one. In fact, notions of what constitutes violence are evolving. Prevention and reduction of violence are important goals and promoting a culture of peace and non-violence is an attractive way to conceive of and build a desirable and functional society to live in. The management of conflict (and hopefully its resolution) before conflict becomes violent is the ideal and probably most effective point of intervention. Moreover, the way we deal with conflict as individuals and groups within communities is important in determining whether the end result of conflict is constructive or destructive. Promoting non-violence as a value and practice is both intelligent and forward looking. This paper reviews definitions of violence and gives a brief overview of the main trends in Australia. It will introduce the example of M1 and S11 protests as a lead in to discussion of violent and non-violent political dissent. These protests make an interesting and topical discussion subject because the concerns of protesters are legitimate but the expression of that protest has at times been violent. Do the ends justify the means?

Mark Wayland has a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from the University of Melbourne. He has worked as a research assistant at the University of Melbourne and edits the working paper series and moderates the Cultures of Peace News Network for the International Conflict Resolution Centre, University of Melbourne.

Rhiân Williams
Mediation: the good, the bad and those without standards

Are we mediating in circumstances where we shouldn’t? Are we imposing culturally biased processes on disputants? Are we pushing for agreements just so that we look good as the preferred mediation provider? How would we know? More importantly how would consumers of mediation services know? This paper explores why rigorously developed and imposed standards should apply to mediators. It outlines some of the consequences of the current lack of any meaningful national standards and in particular the implications for cross-cultural mediation especially in Indigenous settings. Drawing on the author’s own experience in developing the ACT Competency Standards for Mediators the paper will argue that standards, without a commonly agreed assessment regime and a mechanism for the enforcement of the standards, are useless.

Rhiân Williams has been mediating for over 12 years, specialising in public policy mediation. She has worked on training projects with diverse groups including young homeless people, Indigenous people and rural women’s groups.

Michael Willis
Learning from each others' mediation successes

Practitioners were asked to contribute from their own experiences (in a way that could not identify individual parties) examples of mediation strategies and techniques that they have found to be effective in particular situations (and also to share their biggest flops, so we can learn from those, too).

Michael Willis is a Gazetted Mediator with the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria (DSCV). Michael came into the practice of mediation on the basis of hard-learnt lessons of 25 years of negotiation, community involvement, advocacy and decision making in the field of environmental planning, wherein his perspective has been one of cooperative group work and community development. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer (Civil), an Associate Member of the Australian Psychological Society, and a member of the Victorian Association for Dispute Resolution. He holds degrees in Social Psychology and in Civil Engineering, and has a graduate diploma in Psychology. He is currently completing a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology from Monash University with a minor thesis on certain aspects of mediation. Michael was trained as a mediator by the DSCV of the Victorian Department of Justice and is also a trained facilitator.

Julia Wolfson
Talking Paper: getting people talking together – a visual dialogue resource

As our ability to understand each other seems increasingly complex, and our desire to solve individual, relationship, social and world problems becomes a matter of urgency, effective methods to facilitate transformative dialogue are needed. Talking Paper, a communication resource for Metaplan facilitation, is one such tool. The unique feature of Talking Paper is that it gives everyone a voice. The anonymous nature of the process allows the group to focus on ideas rather than personalities, thus managing power imbalances in the group. There are in-built safeguards to ensure that no-one dominates. This interactive workshop also demonstrated a number of applications used in cross-cultural and human rights contexts.

Julia Wolfson has been active in community and service organisations for over twenty years in different parts of the world. Julia uses Talking Paper as a powerful dialogue agent for assisting disenfranchised people to achieve a voice of their own in order to innovate changes.

Chuan-Cheng Wu
Issues of Taiwanese industrial disputes: the solution of the Kee-Long Transportation dispute case

The economics in Taiwan is downsizing since last decade. In the field of industrial relations, the disputes between labour and management are increasing by contrary. The case of the dispute of Kee-Long Transportation Co. 1992 in Taiwan was determined with a lose-lose outcome between the employees and the employer. The arbitration committee, which was made up from three parties – government, union and management – according to the law (Arbitration Disputes Act) seemed to be no function at all. The outcomes were that the dismissed employees left their jobs with tears and the company was sold by the employer. The article is addressing the reasons probably because the IR system in Taiwan is unreliable and ineffective. Besides, the culture and ideologies in management and labours in Taiwan are argued by the author.

Chuan-Cheng Wu was a director of the youth branch in south of Taiwan, KMT political party between 1978 to 1989. He was a lecturer and director of student affairs at I-Shou University between 1990 to 1994 and is an associate professor of I-Shou University, Taiwan, ROC since 1998. He has a PhD from Paisley University, Scotland, UK. He has also been actively involved in international activities including organising the Women Human Resource Development Association and he acts as a chairman in an attempt to promote human resource quality in Taiwan.

Lim Lan Yuan
Development of a mediation culture in an oriental country: a case study of Singapore

Singapore has an oriental culture where social harmony and consensus predominate. Yet mediation is embraced as part of the legal system and actively being promoted. Introduced only in 1994, mediation is now widely known in Singapore’s society. The need for mediation and its justification are explained in this paper. The multi-racial background of Singapore highlighting the importance of social cohesion is first introduced. This is followed with the discussion of the history and development of various forms of mediation during this short period. The paper concludes by relating the role of mediation in maintaining harmony and for resolving community and social conflicts. Case studies of the common forms of conflict are presented as illustrations.

 

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