Finding a path to healing…Loss and Grief support in remote Aboriginal communities….

TRUDY HANSON OAM

National Association for Loss & Grief (NSW) Inc. Australia

NALAG Logo

Where we are….

.Bourke.Dubbo

Macquarie Dictionary definition of Bereavement

…to deprive ruthlessly, especially of hope and joy, to make desolate through loss, to take away by violence…

Original training group

Dot Martin a Ngemba woman and some of her family members

Bourke Healing Days

Flowers floating on Darling River at Bourke

Community sharing following the ceremony

Working creatively with Bourke community

Grief & loss are the predominant themes of this report tenacity and survival are also acknowledged

From ‘Bringing them Home’ Report

Grief and loss are the predominant themes in this report. Tenacity and survival are also acknowledged as most significant, the actions of the past resonate in the present and will continue to do so in the future.

RECOGNISED HISTORICAL LOSSES

CultureLanguageSickness (introduced by Europeans)LandLaws (traditional)Traditional medicinesCeremonies (particularly grieving ceremonies) Deaths by massacres

RECOGNISED CONTEMPORARY LOSSES

Removal of Aboriginal children from their families THE STOLEN GENERATION

The Assimilation Policy for Aboriginals

Assimilation

‘You spend your whole life wondering where you will fit. You’re not white enough to be white and your skin is not black enough to be black either, and it really does come down to that’.

Assimilation

“I remember all we children being herded up like a mob of cattle, and feeling the humiliation of being graded by the colour of our skins for the government records”

Confidential evidence 332 women removed in the 50s Bringing them home

Effects of Separation from Primary Carer (Assimilation Policy)

Depression

Inappropriate choice of partner

Learning difficulties

Parenting difficulties

Antisocial activity

Violence

Suicide(Australian Association of Mental Health submission citing Bowlby 1988

supported by Dr Nick Kowanenko, director of Child and adolescent Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital NSW evidence 740)

UNRECOGNISED EMOTIONAL LOSSES

Loss of one’s sense of identity

Separation anxiety

Loss of a sense of power

Loss of trust

Loss of Confidence

Loss of Self-esteem

“Why me ; why was I taken? It’s like a hole in your heart that can never heal”

Confidential evidence 162 Bringing them home

Stolen Generation

“ My feelings throughout life, of hurt, pain and neglect began as far back as I can remember…I was taken from my family… along with my biological brother”

‘Actually what you see in a lot of us is the shell, and I believe as an Aboriginal person that everything is inside of me to heal me if I know how to use it, if I know how to maintain it, if I know how to bring it out and use it. But sometimes the past is just too hard to look at.’

Bringing them home confidential evidence 284

Stolen Generation

“ I’ve often thought, as old as I am, that it would have been lovely to have known a father and a mother, to know parents even for a little while, just to have had the opportunity of having a mother tuck you into bed and give you a good-night kiss-but it was never to be.”

Bringing them home confidential evidence 65 a child fostered at 2 months

NALAG Intervention

Education

Healing Days

Camps

Ritual

Mentoring young people

GOOD GRIEF CAMPS for Young people

Outdoor structured educational or therapeutic program

Experiential in nature and featuring outdoor settings in the bush

Ropes course

Education about Loss & Grief

Ritual

Camp Theme Symbol

By Aboriginal Artist Lewis Burns

Campfire

Hands of the ancestors

Men

Children

Women

NALAG & Aboriginals

Representing gathering, sharing and healing

TEAM BUILDING

ROPES CHALLENGE, TEAM BUILDING.

THEATRE

SPORTS

Typical Losses for Camp Participants

Parents / Grandparents / SiblingsHomePetsMovingIncarceration of parents and siblingsJob opportunitiesSelf EsteemIdentityAccidental death

What the Young people liked about the Camps

The crazy ‘old people’

The fun activities especially the ropes course

The food

Learning about grief stuff

It’s OK to talk about stuff that hurts

Other kids feel the same as I do

Typical Camp Rules

No weaponsNo put downsNo drugsHave lots of funNo fightingIts OK to cryNo stealingEveryone gets a chance to speak and be heardRespect each other

Finding a path to healing

Conference Paper

AVAILABLE

NALAG WEBSITE

www.nalag.org.au

Conference Paper