Collective healing for members of the Stolen Generations SUMMARY REPORT www.healingfoundation.org.au www.facebook.com/healingfoundation National Workshop, 1–2 September 2015, Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach www.twitter.com/HealingOurWay ISBN: 978-0-9941578-2-9 Collective healing for members of the Stolen Generations SUMMARY REPORT National Workshop, 1–2 September 2015, Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach Report prepared for the Healing Foundation by Muru Marri – Ilse Blignault & Rachelle Arkles, November 2015. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the spirit of respect, we acknowledge this country as belonging to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. To our Stolen Generations members and their families, we remember you and honour you for your courage. This report summarises the outcomes of a national workshop on collective healing for Stolen Generations members and their descendants, held in September 2015 and funded by the Healing Foundation. Its contents reflect the collective knowledge and experience of ten organisations from around Australia that received funding for projects under the second or third rounds of the Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations Initiative. We acknowledge the leadership of the Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations Reference Committee and the contributions of workshop participants. The workshop was coordinated by Caitlin Mullins from the Healing Foundation and facilitated by Benny Hodges. Donna Hensen painted the special stones that people took home. Two members of the Muru Marri team at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at UNSW Australia, Ilse Blignault and Rachelle Arkles, acted as scribes and prepared this report. Stolen Generations members, organisations and services at a collective healing gathering, September 2015 page 2 Collective healing for members of the Stolen Generations – SUMMARY REPORT CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................................................................ 2 ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5 OPENING SESSION ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 PRESENTATIONS ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation Wuggubun Stolen Generation Gathering .............................................................................................................7 Link-Up (Qld) Aboriginal Corporation Still Bringing Them Home .....................................................................................................................................10 Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia Inc./Link-Up SA Reunion to Self & Healing Arts Therapy Program ................................................................................................11 Katherine Region Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation Katherine Healing Projects ...................................................................................................................................14 Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation Men’s Healing Project ...........................................................................................................................................16 Bringing Them Home Committee (WA) Inc. Stolen Generations Healing Camps ......................................................................................................................17 Link-Up (NSW) Aboriginal Corporation 2015 Healing Weekend .........................................................................................................................................19 Connecting Home Inc. Men’s Country Healing Camp ...............................................................................................................................21 Cootamundra Girls Aboriginal Corporation Coota Girls Collective Healing ...............................................................................................................................22 Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation Healing Our Way ...................................................................................................................................................25 REFLECTIONS ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27 KEY THEMES AND CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................................. 28 APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 A. List of Workshop Participants ..........................................................................................................................29 B. Organisational Logos and Their Stories ............................................................................................................30 page 3 ACRONYMS AMS Aboriginal Medical Service BTH Bringing Them Home HREOC Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission KBHAC Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation KRSGAC Katherine Region Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation KSGAC Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation NSW New South Wales NTSGAC Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation Qld Queensland SA South Australia SEWB Social and Emotional Wellbeing UNSW University of New South Wales WA Western Australia page 4 Collective healing for members of the Stolen Generations – SUMMARY REPORT INTRODUCTION Background The Healing Foundation is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation with a focus on building culturally strong, community led healing solutions. It supports organisations around the country to design and deliver healing programs that work for their communities. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, healing is a holistic process which addresses mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs and involves connections to culture, family, community and land. The Healing Foundation knows that healing works best when solutions are culturally strong, developed and driven at the local level, and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Healing Foundation is committed to working together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to create their own healing responses, developing the evidence base for best practice Indigenous healing, and sharing this emerging evidence with communities, government and non-government organisations around Australia. The Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations Initiative was designed to meet the unique healing needs and aspirations of Stolen Generations survivors, with a focus on collective healing. Between 2013 and 2014, the Healing Foundation funded 31 projects under this initiative, representing an investment of almost $1.5 million. In 2015 another 8 projects were funded, along with a review of the first two years of the initiative 1 and this national workshop. The Healing Foundation also commissioned Muru Marri at UNSW Australia to develop a resource that could be used by Stolen Generations members, organisations and groups to design, implement and evaluate effective collective healing responses 2. In developing the resource, an earlier national workshop with key stakeholders was held in June 2014. Workshop aims and format The September 2015 workshop was designed to provide ample opportunity for representatives from ten Stolen Generations organisations to share their experiences and learnings from projects undertaken over the past year. To assist participants in preparing presentations and facilitate information exchange and collective learning, a general outline was provided in advance. They were asked to give a short description of their project (including the target group, activities undertaken, and the overall goals), as well as examples of how the project had contributed to changing participants’ lives and the critical success factors (what they did in the project that was critical to supporting and achieving this change). This report presents a summary of the collective healing project presentations and the general discussion. Report structure The body of this report is divided into four sections: • Opening session • Presentations (in the order in which they were presented) • Reflections • Key themes and conclusion. The appendices contain a list of participating organisations and individuals (Appendix A) and the various organisational logos and the stories behind them (Appendix B). 1 Healing for Our Stolen Generations: Sharing Our Stories http://healingfoundation.org.au/wordpress/wp-content/files_mf/1454631079HealingforOurStolenGenerationsSharingOurStories.pdf