ABORIGINAL
Wellbeing
CONFERENCE
Aboriginal People and the Effects of Gambling
ELIZABETH ERVINE
ABORIGINAL HOUSING OFFICE
Service Our Way
Traditional Healing with Art
LYNNE BEAMES & PETER MARKOVIC
SPIRIT DREAMING
Hands-on workshop learning how to use art for healing
Lateral violence is a new word for age old behaviour – a behaviour that has existed since the beginning of time, or at least since more than two human beings began to roam this earth.
Lateral violence is where a person uses destructive behaviours to diminish, manipulate, dominate or control another person. This behaviour is about how the perpetrator is feeling about themselves, rather than anything the victim has said or done. The perpetrator will engage in these behaviours in an attempt to feel more in control of their own feelings or behaviours.
Workshops
Holistic Approach to Alcohol & Drug Addiction and
its Link to Trauma
Dr Keyvan Abak
This workshop will address social and emotional wellbeing as a holistic concept with recognition and importance to land, culture, spirituality, ancestry, family and community. Culture and cultural identity are critical to social and emotional wellbeing.
Alcohol and other Drugs addiction has a direct link to trauma. An evolving pandemic; it has impacted the health, behaviors and well-being of Aboriginal individuals, families and communities for many years. Understanding the impact of colonization which has led to cultural and spiritual disconnection as well as the current social and emotional wellbeing challenges experienced by many communities; we see, how the current generation have been impacted by the past pain experienced by their ancestors which has led a to a profound integrational trauma, quite often addressed and treated by Alcohol and other drugs. In addition, this intergenerational trauma continues to have a psychological and physical impact upon Aboriginal Families to this day
Men’s Mental Health
Tony Kircher
Men are known for bottling things up. But when you’re feeling down, taking action to call in extra support is the responsible thing to do.
Trying to go it alone when you’re feeling down increases the risk of depression or anxiety going unrecognised and untreated. Depression is a high risk factor for suicide, and plays a contributing role to the big difference in suicide rates for men and women.
On average, one in eight men will experience depression and one in five men will experience anxiety at some stage of their lives.
Blokes make up an average seven out of every nine suicides every single day in Australia. The number of men who die by suicide in Australia every year is nearly double the national road toll.
Caring for Loved Ones when they Die
Denis Juelicher
Tender Funerals Mid North Coast is registered charity providing not-for-profit funeral services to communities on the NSW Mid North Coast. Tender was established in response to a need for more affordable funerals, more choice, responsiveness to cultural and individual needs and opportunity for participation in after-death-care. In this workshop you will find out about how Tender is empowering communities to look after their loved ones when they die. We'll also be talking about the importance of pre-planning, knowing your choices and making a will. This is an interactive workshop with opportunities for discussion and questions.
Early Learning within a
Cultural Context
Renee Leslie
Joanne Goulding
The Aboriginal community controlled early learning sector continues to face many challenges, such as inappropriate policy in relation to child care subsidies, which impact on access for children and families; high, complex diverse community needs; isolation; and burdensome administrative tasks, insufficient; and restricted funding and reporting requirements.
Juggling collective, individual and intergenerational trauma’s from within community, and service users, children and families; in addition to ongoing COVID-19 impacts, high proportion of children experiencing high needs; is no surprise we see significant workforce burnout, affecting retention and recruiting of staff for these valuable services.
The services also operate in a western policy environment that does not recognise the value or broad scope of their roles.
THRYVE NSW provide direct support to the workforce valuing Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing. Adding enrichment, developing, growing, nurturing; and protecting its current workforce; by embedding cultural and best practice activities into workforce activities to address sector wellbeing.
The ABC of Assessing
Foster Carers
Michael Riddell
This workshop will explore the concepts and practices behind undertaking Aboriginal Family Assessments by using a culturally safe assessment model which has been specifically design to ensure that assessments are undertaken using cultural safe practices.
The Development and Services of the Hunter Aboriginal
Cultural Hub
Pettina Slade
This is an exciting time for the new Hunter Aboriginal Cultural Hub where for the first time three program areas have come together to keep Aboriginal families together and to create further opportunities for children and families, Community, Key stakeholder’s and DCJ Caseworkers. The three areas consist of: Intensive Family Based Service (IFBS), Prenatal Program: including the development and implementation of Prenatal preservation program, Cultural Program which includes the development and implementation of the Aboriginal Practice Panel
My Story Through Talking Tiles
Jo Kelly
We all have a story. Some are better than others, some are sadder than others, some are more adventurous than others, but they are all unique to us as individuals. Participants will have a yarn about what's important to them and why, while creating their story on a tile for them to take home.
Collective Approach to managing COVID
Ro Stirling-Kelly
Tyson Ferguson
Their story is of the evolution of COVID Care in the Community as an example of the partnership approach between an Aboriginal Medical Service and the Local Health District to provide care and support to Aboriginal people during the global pandemic. It shows how connection to culture was maintained, supported and interwoven into the provision of clinical care.
Family Group Conferencing - Thinking Outside the Box
Mel Brown
"A Family Group Conference empowers families to make their own decisions for their children.
Statistically families are more likely to stick to a plan made by themselves than a plan that has been made for them".
For a long time FGC's have been used in the area of child protection, but have we limited it's ability to be just as successful in other areas of family decision making?
This workshop will explore the benefits of FGC's to support families in making decisions in other important area's such as health, justice , education and child care.
Hoarding & Squalor
Tony Kirchner
Abstract To Follow
MORE WORKSHOPS
YET TO BE
ANNOUNCED
Reconciliation - The small steps to big change
Tarina Perry
Rebecca Dedreceny
Key Assets explores embedding and deepening culture in everyday Practice/business; How do we reconcile the historical traumas, the ongoing overrepresentation of First Nations children in OOHC, legislative frameworks, and many more considerations alongside our commitment to strive for excellence and change? How do we walk in partnership with First Nations communities when at times we are contributing to the traumas first nations peoples have already experienced and why is this so important? With every small step we move closer to our goal. When our workforce is primarily nonindigenous Australians and European ex-pats, how do we encourage our workforce to take steps to engage and walk with First Nations families and communities when often they are faced with conflicting opinions and multiple decision makers. How do we as an agency implement meaningful change everyday to achieve lasting outcomes.
Using Art as Therapy
Joyce Graham
Expressive Art Therapy is a psychotherapy that uses art as a way to journey within to find your pathway to healing. It allows for expression through art, movement and words.
Through creating and discussing art with a therapist, it can help understand intense yet jumbled feelings more clearly. It also allows for sharing emotions which can be described as "negative" but which we may all experience from time to time, including anger, sadness, grief and emotional pain.
Out Of Home Care &
Finding Family
Barry McGrady
Connecting Families is a way of reconnecting kids back with family and culture when coming in Out of Home Care System. This workshop will focus on key areas of how of to talk with the young person and family members that have been involved in the OOHC System. Family finding is a strength-based practice that’s supports family inclusive practices for services working with families that have been disconnected from family, their children and culture.
Adapted from the works of Kevin Campbells ‘Family Finding Model’ and formed from the partnership Allambi Care holds with Mike Mertz and Bob Friend from SENECA California, this presentation will give insight to the 4day connecting families training that Allambi care offers.
I will present a number of case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of connecting families for Aboriginal Young people.
Creative Strategies for Engaging Children & Young People
Karen Dixon
We all know it is important for children and young people to participate in decisions around their lives and have a voice in their own experiences. But how can we provide meaningful opportunities for children to participate and how can we engage with children in ways that appeal to them?
This workshop will briefly cover WHY it is important to include children and young people in decision-making and explore ideas about HOW we can approach this in our practice.
This will be an interactive workshop, where together we will explore some creative and fun strategies to encourage participation in children and young people of all backgrounds, abilities and ages.
We will wrap up with a creative brainstorming session to share our own strategies among the group, so we can all take away some great, fresh ideas to improve our engagement with children and young people.