Chapter – Page 2

Addressing individual and community transgenerational trauma

This chapter provides a focus on trauma as cause and effect which, when untreated, can compound within and across generations. The result is physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social distress for individuals and broader social groups. While the experiences and transfer of trauma are not limited to members of specific racial or cultural groups, religions, […]

Family Violence: Pathways Forward

This chapter briefly examines the context in which various types of violence occurs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. In particular, it explores how they define and contextualise the violence they or their family members are experiencing. This context is important in determining pathways forward for healing for the victim, the offender, their families […]

Mental Disorder and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System

This chapter examines what is known about the prevalence of mental disorder and cognitive disability amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in contact with the criminal justice system and how these issues impact on individuals, families and communities. The literature in this area is reviewed; there is now a considerable body of evidence supporting […]

Seven phases to integrating loss and grief

This chapter describes an innovative and unique loss and grief model—the ‘Seven Phases to Integrating Loss and Grief ’—to ‘work with’ major challenges impacting on the social and emotional wellbeing and mental health in Aboriginal communities. Incorporating 25 years of personal and professional experiences, the Seven Phases model comprises a comprehensive process addressing many of […]

Red Dust Healing: Acknowledging the past, changing the future

This chapter provides a view from a new angle. It briefly describes a critical perspective on how a history of dispossession, rejection and powerlessness negatively affected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family structures and individual development and behaviour, and gave rise to the intergenerational transmission of trauma. However, it is important to note that conveying […]

The Marumali Program: healing for Stolen Generations

There are an estimated 10,625 people who directly experienced the trauma generated by forcible removal, an estimated 25,844 children (second generation) who have been living with parents affected by forcible removal, and an estimated 40,612 grandchildren who continue to experience the effects of their grandparents’ removal.1 Two models developed by Aboriginal people have been evaluated […]

Community life and development programs: pathways to healing

This chapter provides an overarching framework for understanding the components of healthy communities through a healing and community life development approach. The chapter explores three major themes covering the nature of the trauma that has occurred over many generations and continues to be experienced in the present. These are: – the extreme sense of powerlessness […]

Aboriginal offender rehabilitation programs

This chapter highlights the ongoing over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the criminal justice system and emphasises an urgent need for the development of appropriate responses to this problem. A key response to this issue is through the provision of culturally secure, relevant and effective rehabilitation programs for Aboriginal people within the […]

Preventing suicide among Aboriginal Australians

This chapter begins with an overview of the recent epidemiological trends in suicide and attempted suicide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal Australians and how this compares with the situation in other post-colonial English speaking nations such as Canada and New Zealand. It then reviews studies exploring the historical and social aetiology of […]

Hidden obstacles to reconciliation in Australia: the persistence of stereotypes

The reconciliation movement in Australia aims to build mutually respectful relationships between indigenous and other Australians by eliminating ‘gaps’ in health and well-being, educating about Indigenous history and culture and addressing social disadvantages based on false beliefs and stereotypes. Psychological literature has much to offer to the last aim, with a wealth of research documenting […]

Indigenous and ‘settler’ relationships, episodic and structural violence

In this chapter, the various phases of the occupation and colonisation of Australia will be discussed, with a focus on the direct and structural violence perpetrated against Aboriginal people over more than two centuries. It will be suggested that this history has resulted in a set of formal and institutionalised structures, and individual and collective […]

Community psychology, critical theory, and community development in Indigenous empowerment

In this chapter, we argue that community, liberation and peace psychology and the psychology of oppression share a common concern with issues of social exclusion, social inequality and peacebuilding. This shared concern is reflected in a commitment to developing theories and modes of practice that can address problems of structural violence and that can contribute […]

Changing the lens: Indigenous perspectives on psychological literacy

An essential form of psychological literacy that is required in all psychology courses is an understanding of and ability to work with the many cultural groups that make up a given society. Psychology as a profession is part of a society that is shaped and directed by the history, values, norms and biases that characterise […]

The health, social and emotional well being of Aboriginal women

A framework for decolonization intervention: broadening the focus for improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities

Colonization has spread around the world and inexorably affected millions of people over the last few centuries. There have been many scattered intervention strategies to overcome some of the long-term effects of colonization, especially for health, education, and employment. With respect to the inequalities and discriminations that have remained after centuries, however, it is less […]