Picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off Family

Picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off Family wellbeing and loss of identity

Pride in my heritage

A JCU study- the research team • • • Mrs Dorothy Savage Dr Debra Miles Dr Susan Gair Ms Ines Zuchowski Indigenous student support- Mrs Lyn Munns

A research study- purpose • To increase our understanding of the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students on social work and community welfare field placement. • What we found was that students were subject to racism and discrimination in human service organisation.

Findings of that study – Racism- Students’ own experiences in personal life were mirrored in organisations – Blatant, subtle, personal and institutional racism – Student needed to develop survival strategies – Draw on own support networks – Picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off

Student voices NAH - because I’ve been through the miglaloo system. I’ve been through it before and I know it and they will get you. They shift the goal posts and because they hear you, they listen, they know what you are saying -but they always gotta shift the goal posts to prove you’re wrong.

Student voices • I said to her ‘this is completely inappropriate’… and she said things like… ‘You know she is not racist because she has Aboriginal friends’… So I was pretty much on my own.

Student voices – ‘And I believe that they (supervisors) should be screened appropriately … in terms of what their cultural competence is, what their cultural supervision expertise is, and what their cultural knowledge is and just their general outlook on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. ’

Key Outcomes of that study • More culturally appropriate support offered to Indigenous students • A core subject for all social work students is WS 2121

Optimising services for family wellbeing • How do we improve family wellbeing? • More culturally-competent staff in human service organisations • More recognition and respect of the knowledge of their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues • Implementation of Reconciliation Action Plans?

Ernie Grant’s framework • Family Wellbeing- connecting to cultural identity

Loss of identity • Intergenerational trauma/loss of connection to country • Blaming the victim- remain the victim • Recognise strengths and cultural values of individuals within families • Family-centred services means ‘nothing about us without us’

Pride in Identity • Recognition of Traditional Owners • Reconciliation Action Plans • Recognise the TRUE history of this country and the richness of our Culture for the future

Transformative Change If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. Gandhi The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way , so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. John Stuart Mills ‘Poverty is not just a lack of money’ (Amartya Sen) - it is not having the opportunity to realize one’s full potential as a human being.