A pocket-guide series

Practical Allyship

Small moves, said out loud, in the moments that matter.

Four pocket guides, a practitioner handbook and a facilitator's companion on racism, equity, power, privilege and cultural safety, for support workers, personal care workers and the whole team across aged care, disability and NDIS services, home and community care, and health. The focus throughout is cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

PDF download now. EPUB planned for 2027. Checkout through Payhip. Written by Bernard Petter.

The shelf

Four pocket guides, a handbook and a companion, one shared language

Four A5 pocket guides built to be read in a coffee break, the A4 practitioner handbook that sets out the thinking underneath them, and an A4 facilitator’s companion. Colour-coded and plain-spoken.

Cover of Practical Allyship: Racism, Equity and Cultural Safety, an ochre pocket guide by Bernard Petter

Pocket guide · A5 · 18 pages · PDF

Racism, Equity & Cultural Safety

“Cultural safety is judged by the person on the receiving end, never by us.”

Racism at work is rarely loud. It’s the roster, the “joke”, the question that lands wrong. This pocket guide turns good intentions into practice (what to notice, what to say, and how to repair). The focus throughout is cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

  • Plain-language words that matter
  • In-the-moment moves & ready-to-say scripts
  • What to notice in each role: new starter to executive
$14.99
AUD, GST included
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ISBN 978-1-7646236-5-0

Cover of Practical Allyship: Power, Privilege and Cultural Safety, a deep green pocket guide by Bernard Petter

Pocket guide · A5 · 18 pages · PDF

Power, Privilege & Cultural Safety

“Cultural safety is a power practice, and safety is judged by the person on the receiving end.”

Every workplace runs on power: who decides, who’s heard, whose way is “normal”. This guide helps you see the power in the room, recognise what you hold was never earned, and create the conditions for cultural safety. The focus throughout is cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

  • Plain-language words for power & privilege
  • Five ways to recognise your power, with scripts
  • What to notice in each role, new starter to executive
$14.99
AUD, GST included
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ISBN 978-1-7646236-6-7

Cover of Practical Allyship: Everyday Critical Self-Reflection, a plum pocket guide by Bernard Petter

Pocket guide · A5 · 18 pages · PDF

Everyday Critical Self-Reflection

“The work starts with a mirror, not a checklist.”

The hardest person to see clearly is yourself. This pocket guide builds the everyday habit underneath allyship and culturally safe practice: noticing your assumptions, questioning your “normal”, and turning discomfort into change. The focus throughout is cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

  • Plain-language words for reflective practice
  • A two-minute reflection you’ll actually do
  • Questions to sit with, and what to notice by role
$14.99
AUD, GST included
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ISBN 978-1-7646236-7-4

Cover of Practical Allyship: Cultural Safety Essentials, an indigo pocket guide by Bernard Petter

Pocket guide · A5 · 17 pages · PDF

Cultural Safety Essentials

“Cultural safety isn’t yours to declare. It’s theirs to determine.”

Cultural safety is named in the standards but rarely explained in your pocket. This guide distils the essentials (what it is, where it comes from, and the five things to do). The focus throughout is cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

  • What cultural safety is, and who determines it
  • Safe vs unsafe, and five essentials
  • Terminology, repair and what to notice by role
$14.99
AUD, GST included
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ISBN 978-1-7646236-8-1

Cover of Creating the Conditions for Cultural Safety, the Practical Allyship practitioner handbook by Bernard Petter

Practitioner handbook · A4 · 28 pages · PDF

Creating the Conditions for Cultural Safety

“Cultural safety is not something you can deliver, declare, or complete.”

You help create the conditions. The person receiving care decides whether it was safe. This handbook is a practical guide to that work. The focus throughout is cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

  • What cultural safety is, and what it asks of you
  • Seeing racism clearly: the four forms
  • Critical self-reflection: the core practice
$29.99
AUD, GST included
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ISBN 978-0-9750844-6-5

Cover of the Coach’s and Facilitator’s Companion to the Practical Allyship series, by Bernard Petter

Companion · A4 · 26 pages · PDF

Coach’s & Facilitator’s Companion

“Hold the structure. Follow their lead. Let them have the last word.”

A working handbook for anyone helping others put the four pocket guides into practice: one conversation, or one room, at a time. Led with First Nations co-facilitators, never instead of them.

  • The coaching craft: the arc, powerful questions, listening
  • Session designs: a 1:1 arc and a group arc
  • Worked scenarios: six situations, worked through
$39.99
AUD, GST included
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ISBN 978-1-7646236-9-8

Save $14.97

Four pocket guides · A5 · PDF

The Four-Guide Set

Own the complete pocket system.

All four pocket guides, bought together. Bought one at a time they come to $59.96.

  • Racism, Equity & Cultural Safety
  • Power, Privilege & Cultural Safety
  • Everyday Critical Self-Reflection
  • Cultural Safety Essentials
$44.99
AUD, GST included
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Save $24.98

All six titles · PDF

The Complete Library

Everything in the series.

All six Practical Allyship titles: the four pocket guides, the Practitioner Handbook and the Coach’s & Facilitator’s Companion. Bought as the set plus the handbook and companion they come to $114.97.

  • Racism, Equity & Cultural Safety
  • Power, Privilege & Cultural Safety
  • Everyday Critical Self-Reflection
  • Cultural Safety Essentials
  • Creating the Conditions for Cultural Safety
  • Coach’s & Facilitator’s Companion
$89.99
AUD, GST included
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For teams and organisations

Licence the whole series

All six titles for your staff. Store the files and share them with your own staff for internal training, supervision and facilitated sessions, and print copies for licensed users. No resale, sub-licensing or public posting.

Team Licence

Up to 15 people in one organisation

$299.00
AUD, GST included
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Organisation Site Licence

Unlimited people at one site

$749.00
AUD, GST included
Buy now

More than one site? Ask for a quote. Tax invoice available on request.

All prices are in Australian dollars and include GST.

The thinking behind the series

Rain, not seeds

Most training treats cultural safety like a seed: plant it, grow it, and claim it as a competency. One actor, a straight line, an endpoint. Cultural safety doesn't work that way. It works like a water cycle.

  1. 01The mountainsIdeas older and larger than any one practitioner, with Irihapeti Ramsden as the highest peak.
  2. 02The riversOne for each idea: power and privilege, racism and equity, critical self-reflection. Different rivers, same mountains.
  3. 03The confluenceEvery river narrows to one question: what can I actually do? Cultural safety starts and ends with me.
  4. 04The deltaPractical guidance for the ground you stand on. It might help. It settles nothing.
  5. 05The seaAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, families and communities hold the verdict. It is never ours to give.

↺ Then it rains again. First Nations knowledge and authority are upstream of the theory as well as its judge.

The pocket guides are the rivers. Each carries one idea down to the delta, for one person in the moment.

Read the essay

Free sample

Read before you buy

Get the cover and four pages of Cultural Safety Essentials: where I stand, the three ideas the rest hangs on, safe and unsafe practice side by side, and the five essentials. Free, by email.

When you ask for the sample you agree to receive it by email, plus occasional emails from Bernard Petter about the Practical Allyship series. Unsubscribe any time with the link in every email. We only ask for your email address. Privacy notice

Key features

Every guide is built the same way

Learn the pattern once and you know your way around all four. Each pocket guide keeps to the big ideas, in plain words, and is short enough to read in a coffee break.

  1. Where I stand

    Each guide starts with the author naming his own position, plainly, before asking anything of the reader.

    In all four pocket guides

  2. Three ideas the rest hangs on

    Everything in a guide grows from three ideas. Carry these and you can work the rest out. The guides hold to the big ideas on purpose.

    In all four pocket guides

  3. The ones people trip on

    The words that get misused, in plain language, each with what it looks like at work.

    In all four pocket guides

  4. Words for the hard moments

    Ready-to-say lines for the moments people freeze, with a note on why each one works.

    In Racism, Equity and in Power, Privilege

  5. A two-minute reflection

    Six questions, adapted from Gibbs’ reflective cycle, with questions to sit with after a hard moment. Two minutes, honestly, beats an hour you never take.

    In Everyday Critical Self-Reflection

  6. Repair beats defensiveness

    You will get it wrong. Everyone does. Four moves for what happens next: name it, own it, repair, change.

    In three of the four guides

  7. What to notice by role

    Allyship looks different depending on the power you hold. Each guide sets out what to notice, from new starter to executive.

    In all four pocket guides

  8. This week I will…

    Each guide closes on a short list to act on this week, and an honest limit: this is a map, not the territory.

    In all four pocket guides

The method underneath

The lens turns inward. The verdict stays with the person receiving care.

Cultural safety, or kawa whakaruruhau, was named and developed in Aotearoa New Zealand by Irihapeti Ramsden, a Māori nurse and educator, out of a wider movement of Māori nurses and students naming what safe care required. Her call wasn’t to learn more about other people. It was to turn the lens back on ourselves: our own culture, our assumptions, the power we carry. And whether care feels safe, she said, is decided by the person receiving it, never by us.

Ramsden tells us why and where to turn the lens. Brookfield helps us stop that lens becoming a mirror that only reflects ourselves. First Nations people retain authority over whether the resulting conditions are culturally safe.

Reflective practice

Brookfield’s four lenses borrow other eyes: your own, the people you serve, your colleagues, and theory and evidence. A small habit, repeated, beats a one-off epiphany.

Everyday Critical Self-Reflection

Coaching, not telling

A four-move coaching arc: Surface, Sit, Shift, Step. Socratic questioning, a question worksheet and six worked scenarios.

Coach’s & Facilitator’s Companion

Action learning at work

One-off workshops rarely change practice. The Companion sets the guides inside a work-based project: diagnose, learn, apply, reflect, embed.

Coach’s & Facilitator’s Companion

Signs of movement, not a test

You cannot test your way to cultural safety. Look for movement, not mastery, and ask the people on the receiving end whether they feel safer over time.

Coach’s & Facilitator’s Companion

The guides support a learning program or self-directed practice. They are not an accredited or assessed course.

Questions & answers