Mutual Ways is the basis of the Walk Together Design. It is the policy under which it must operate to be effective. It shows two cultures meeting to make decisions about, for example, improved outcome for and effective operations of, Indigenous communities. And it has stages: the first being where intended partners meet separately in a facilitated process to decide their goals and strategies. Only when each group has unified goals and strategies are they brought together, again in a facilitated process.

In other words, it is a method of working where there is shared authority and responsibility from the outset. Anything else is likely to fail because it does not create essential relationships in an “intercultural space” or “between world”. Mutuality of purpose, values, processes, system and outcomes are the key foci.