Speaking the same language?
Building relationships between non-Aboriginal and
Nyoongar peoples to decolonize mainstream spaces
Aunty Margaret Culbong
Tiana Culbong
Rosemary Walley
Tanya Jones
Marg O’Connell
Aunty Margaret…
40 years in Aboriginal health
Champion for Aboriginal rights
Advocate for culturally appropriate
health services to Aboriginal peoples
Elders:
• Custodians of Nyoongar lore and
culture (protocols, kinship, Country)
• Portal into community, connecting
families, histories, and more
• Pivotal to legitimatize the work
• Not beholden to ‘the system’
How can nonAboriginal peoples
take up an adaptation
role?
Working with cultural protocols,
Nyoongar way
Working within dynamics of the
community, Nyoongar way
What does this tell us about
new ways of working?
How do we weave these
contemporary dynamics with
traditional knowledge?
Learning about culture…
• open to new ways of knowing, being and
doing (seeing, listening, feeling)
• open to new ways of learning
• open to being changed
• being vulnerable (and feeling held)
• tolerating uncertainty (or ‘dwelling in
unknowing’)
• experiential / immersive - multisensory
Non-Aboriginal peoples’
experiences of working
respectfully with Nyoongar
peoples…
How does understanding
Nyoongar lore and culture
help non-Aboriginal peoples
to connect and develop a
shared understanding of
working together?
Change journey…
Begins with individual
Interactions and collective reflection –
weaving the stories
Agents of change –
deconstructing/restructuring
Decolonizing?
Deconstructing
Reframing
Restructuring
Retelling
How do we deepen this
‘language’ of working
together?
How do we weave the
strands together?
With thanks to . . .
Nyoongar Elders (southeast metro and Kwinana areas) and their
communities
Participating mental health and drug and alcohol support services
Our partners, Ruah Community Services
Centre for Research Excellence in Aboriginal Health & Wellbeing,
Telethon Kids Institute, UWA
Lotterywest
Mental Health Commission WA
Curtin University
Dr Michael Wright & Danny Ford
The Looking Forward Project team
Contact | tanya.jones@telethonkids.org.au
08 9489 7760
A project that brings together the Nyoongar community in the south-east
metropolitan corridor of Perth with mental health and drug and alcohol
support services, to develop new ways of working to provide more
culturally secure care to Nyoongar families.
Location
Minditj Kaart-Moorditj Kaart Engagement Framework:
Learning Outcomes (how to work) & Practical Outcomes (what to work on)
Djilba
Makuru
Conception
Fertility
Motivation
Continuous
weaving
Kambarang
Birth
Staying
connected
Commitment
Worldview
of Nyoongar
Nation
Djeran
Adulthood
Status
“Culture is
healing”
Being
teachable
Being
present
Birak
Bunuru
Childhood
Adolescence
Held in cultural way
symbolized by six
Nyoongar seasons