Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples

Fractured culture: educare as a healing approach to indigenous trauma

Tanietta Delauney — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:58:16 PDT

In Australia, governments of various persuasions spend many millions of dollars 'tackling' drug and alcohol abuse, high incarceration rates, violence, and other social problems in Indigenous communities. Research shows that trauma and addiction go hand in hand, and Intergenerational Trauma, a complex form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is expressed as violence and drug and alcohol abuse, with poor health, and high rates of injury, death, and imprisonment. Educare, education as healing, is an Indigenous pedagogical approach that uses culturally sensitive protocols and utilises ‘cultural medicine'.

A major strength of this approach is the use of Indigenous cultural tools. Weaknesses include the limited number of trained Indigenous practitioners. The importance of this program relies on cultural safety, Educaring and Dadirri as spiritual and holistic healing methods. Research suggests that many social problems are associated with disconnection from traditional cultural and spiritual ways of being. Indigenous peoples have a role to play in developing and implementing culturally safe healing practices. The Indigenous program creates the relational milieu needed for genuine safety and is a recognized psychosocial variable in epidemiological patterns of disease. Healing via educaring is culturally safe, and is a genuine Indigenous pedagogical platform used for engaging with culture.

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities and the development of pandemic influenza containment strategies: community voices and community control

Peter D. Massey et al. — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 23:45:17 PDT

Objectives: To develop culturally appropriate and effective strategies to reduce the risk from pandemic influenza (H1N109) in rural and remote Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Methods: Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach that enabled communities and researchers to work together to develop understanding and take action to reduce risk.

Results: The H1N109 pandemic raised deep concerns and serious issues in all of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities involved in this project. The participants expressed distrust and scepticism in relation to current Australian health policies on containment and told the researchers that specific plans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were needed. Respondents indicated that policies and plans had been developed without respectful engagement with communities. The strong and recurring themes that emerged from the PAR cycles were: the importance of family; ways of life and realities of living in response to influenza; and key messages to government and health services to focus on communication, understanding and respect.

Conclusion: The essential work of reducing risk of pandemic influenza with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is not straightforward, but this project has highlighted a number of useful pathways to continue to journey along with communities. A number of strategies to reduce the spread of pandemic influenza in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were identified. These strategies would make a good starting point for conversations with communities and health services. In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities the environment, community structures and traditions vary. Respectful engagement with communities is needed to develop effective policy.

Drug use in the family: impacts and implications

Sharon Dawe et al. — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:43:02 PDT

Trauma trails, recreating song lines: the transgenerational effects of trauma in indigenous Australia

Judy Atkinson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:28:12 PDT

Providing a ground-breaking answer to the questions of how to solve the problems of cross-generational trauma, Trauma Trails moves beyond the rhetoric of victimhood, and provides inspiration for anyone concerned about Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities today.

Intimate partner abuse and Indigenous peoples

Judy Atkinson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:28:03 PDT

The extent of violence in Indigenous Australia, and similarities in the experiences of violence in the indigenous nations of Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada are discussed. The chapter looks at public health approaches to violence, the causes of violence in Indigenous communities, the effects of violence on victims and their families, an Indigenous new public health and educational approach to Indigenous needs, and the model of 'educaring', a health and healing response to intimate partner violence.