An Aboriginal Healing Foundation
In April I was surprised (and very humbled) to be one of 1000 Australians selected to participate in the Prime Minister’s 2020 Summit. In the lead up to the Summit we were all asked to come up with an idea that would help tackle the long term challenges facing the nation.
One of my ideas was an Aboriginal Healing Foundation that would help overcome the intergenerational trauma caused by forced child removal.
Fortunately, a number of other people had the same idea and the Healing Foundation survived the various editing processes of the Summit to remain in the final report.
With a Senate Committee also recently urging its introduction, the Healing Foundation now appears to be firmly on the government agenda.
However, while many people now seem to be calling for a Healing Foundation, there is less agreement on precisely what this will do. Some have even suggested fund dental and primary health care services. For an example, see the extract from a recent ABC Radio PM program below:
SENATOR TRISH CROSSIN: The National Indigenous Healing Fund would concentrate solely on the needs of members of the Stolen Generations, and it doesn’t necessarily mean monetary compensation.
In fact, it could mean quite a range of other services that are provide to the Stolen Generation that will assist and support them as they get older and progress through years when they most need reliance on services governments can provide.
BARBARA MILLER: The Committee suggests family and housing services, medical, dental and funeral costs could be covered by the fund.
When I spoke in favour of a Healing Foundation at the 2020 Summit, I wasn’t suggesting that this provide the kinds of services that citizens should already be entitled to receive from government. Instead, the Healing Foundation should concentrate on programs to overcome the intergenerational trauma caused by forced child removal. These programs would encompass both therapeutic change and cultural renewal. They would be targeted to Stolen Generations survivors as well as other Aboriginal people negatively affected by the practice like children and other family members of survivors.
In public policy terms, what is needed is:
Treatment: Culturally appropriate, preferably Indigenous led therapeutic change programs; ongoing group and individual counseling; targeted programs in prisons aimed at psychological healing and reducing recidivism; programs to facilitate cultural renewal and strengthen cultural identity.
Training and capacity building: Training specialist Aboriginal psychological trauma and healing professionals; Training health workers, teachers social workers and others in how to recognize intergenerational trauma and treat it in a culturally appropriate way; Mental health “first aid” for community members in areas like suicide prevention and how to support people seeking to overcome addictions; alcohol and substance abuse rehabilitation for Aboriginal mental health workers in need of it; debriefing and support for workers dealing with traumatized communities.
Research and public education: To identify, promote and evaluate best practice in Indigenous trauma and healing; to foster a greater understanding in the broader community of the issues confronting the Stolen Generations.
Redefining Social Norms: Support for communities and families seeking to discuss and reintroduce culturally appropriate social norms; Assistance for leaders to reassert appropriate social norms.
Much of this material comes from the work of Gregory Phillips, who summarises what healing should mean in this context:
“… at its heart healing is about restoring balance where wrong has been done – a spiritual process that includes therapeutic change and cultural renewal. It is about protection and care for the victims of violence and abuse, as well as the development of correctional services for perpetrators that are based on healing and change, not stigmatization and shame.”
From Greg’s comments, it’s clear that healing in this context is essential, not just for the Stolen Generations (whose needs are in many respects the greatest), but also for many other Aboriginal communities who suffer from trauma, violence and abuse. (For more info Greg’s chapter in the book Coercive Reconciliation, Arena 2007 is really useful).
There are no guarantees that the Government will proceed with the Healing Foundation, or that it would remain in the form that was proposed at the 2020 Summit. But there are few initiatives that could make more of a real, positive and lasting difference to the lives of Aboriginal people.
Gary Highland is the National Director at ANTaR. Gary is a non-Indigenous contributor who posts information about ANTaR's activities and opinion. Photo credit: James Robertson.
July 12th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I think the Healing Foundation is a wonderfull way to go.
Their certainly is a need for specialisded training in the area of post childhood traumamtic experience. The effects are life long and not only affects the victim of removal from family, but whole generations of family and community.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:58 am
I was very interested to read your vision of the proposed Healing Foundation Gary. In particular, the treatment of kids in prison should be analysed and addressed. The engagement of specialized and culturally aware staff in all prisons, and particularly youth detention centres, I think is urgent. Enough specifically trained staff would allow time for one on one interaction between staff and prisoner. ‘Cultural renewal’ and ‘cultural identity’ seem to be pretty catch phrases, but considering the chaotic, intergenerational dysfunction caused to indigenous families (through the practice of child removal among other perpetuated effects of non-indigenous settlement), it seems to me that security and stability should come first, coupled with facilitation of strong family input while in detention. Though often fragmented, it is extremely important that any family or community connections be encouraged (with any outside negative influence being monitored by staff). Confidence through order would then underpin the building of self-knowledge and cultural renewal. With too few specialized and engaged staff, not only do the kids continue destructive behaviour within the system, but the staff, many of whom are Aboriginal people, also become discouraged and it’s easy to see why they resort to high-handed controlling tactics. Public policy encompassing the treatment of Aboriginal people in our prison system, particularly young Aborigines, is vital to the healing process.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Dear ANTaR,
Congratulations on your Myspace win! I am very happy to have contributed to it and to any other endeavours of ANTaR.
I agree that the healing needs to come from and go to every quarter of Australian Indigenous society. I find it so hard to believe that so many politicians and white citizens in general, cannot see that unless the healing, rehabilitation and reparation processes grow out of Indigenous minds, then there is little progress. Mind you, I also believe that one of the main reasons for binge-drinking and depression in white culture is its failure to practise in profound self-examination, but that’s another story.
Power comes from within each individual and when the needs become clearer to extrapolate and be expressed, then the rational and bureaucratic minds can understand and act accordingly.
I am with you all the way.
Love and strength to all.
Geraldine Bate
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I was excited to read about the Aboriginal Healing Foundation initiative. So needed. So timely. So much work to be done.
As a Psychologist and a Psychotherapist, I am primarily concerned with the issues of Spirit and Soul. I see the sorry state of some aspects of the indigenous community mainly as a consequence of “loss of Spirit” suffered through many different damaging aspects of colonization. Working mainly with non-indigenous people, I also see the sorry spiritual state of non-indigenous Australians. And, I see the connection between the two.
Yes, we need the healing in Aboriginal communities. And the non-indigenous Australians, descendants of settlers who were perpetrators, as well as all of us who are indirect “beneficiaries” of those acts of perpetration - need healing. The Soul of the nation needs healing. Transgenerational effects of colonization continue for the colonized and the colonizers alike.
We all suffer when disconnected from the Spirit and from our own past. From our individualistic blindness, it is difficult for us to conceive that we continue to pay for the wrongdoings of our ancestors through our own unhappiness and that of our children (Australia has one of the world’s highest rates of youth suicide, for example).
And there are things that can be done and should be done. We need to revisit the past in a healing way. ”Sorry” was a big step in that direction.
In my work, I focus on restoring the connection with the Spirit, with our respective cultural and spiritual roots, and with our ancestors. I also work with respect to the Laws of Life, which are very much like those described in Tjukurpa, and I do my work through Dadirri – a form of quiet awareness and deep listening practiced by Aboriginal people.
There is a wealth of healing knowledge in the traditions of Aboriginal culture. We, non-indigenous people, can draw on that. And, maybe, indigenous people can benefit from some of our expertise in restoring their traditions.
There are also methods of healing which work directly on reconciliation, and contribute to the healing on a level of a nation. These could be some of the tasks worthy of Foundation’s attention and support. I’d be more than happy to put some of my energy towards this goal. What’s the next step?
All the best
Alemka Dauskardt
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I am very dissappointed by this healing foundation notion.
In Qld., where I live, Aboriginal wages were stolen from workers and put into the Aboriginal welfare fund, which sounds to me very much like the healing foundation idea.
The healing foundation is the cosmetic and tokenistic option to avoid paying proper compensation to victims of crime. Aboriginal people stolen from their families and their descendents who have secondarily suffered because of the original crime should be paid compensation in the same way that white victims of crime should be paid - dollars in the pocket.
The Aboriginal welfare fund took Aboriginal peoples money and spent it on things that white citizens take for granted such as public services, paid by the tax payer.
The Qld government, in its response to stolen wages and the millions that were left in the Aboriginal welfare fund, is to set up another Aboriginal welfare fund and has ruled out proper compensation as white victims of crime get.
The proposal for a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the NT involved a $12.000.000 “payment” to traditional owners - to be put in a fund to pay for health, education and roads projects - again things that the taxpayer gives to white communities. White land owners involved in real estate deals get profits - dollars in the pocket - for such dealings, but ABorigines get another Aboriginal welfare fund.
Many mining companies who, if there was a real native title framework, would be paying percentage of profit to traditional owners as capitalists with land assetts, but instead mining companies give community halls, schools, roads etc. - as a tax deduction to the mining company, and no profits to traditional owners.
I am dissapointed that ANTAR can endorse such a thing. Justice is justice, cosmetic tokenism is cosmetic tokenism and the healing foundation idea is just another Aborigines Welfare Fund..
August 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Many people now seem to be calling for a Healing Foundation, there is less agreement on precisely what this will do.The Aboriginal welfare fund took Aboriginal peoples money and spent it on things that white citizens take for granted such as public services, paid by the tax payer. The proposal for a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty in the NT involved a $12.000.000 “payment” to traditional owners - to be put in a fund to pay for health, education and roads projects - again things that the taxpayer gives to white communities.
Mack