Trauma-informed care is often poorly defined in Australia’s healthcare field and is even less defined when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Our program, Damulgurra – the Larrakia word for ‘heart’ – seeks to address some missing elements of trauma-informed care in Australia through a process for knowing, being and doing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Through safety in relationship with our team of facilitators, Damulgurra seeks to support the decolonising aspect of ‘knowing’ the accurate history of Australia. The program supports learning about how systemic, intergenerational and collective trauma affects the nervous system, impacts on culture and influences the social determinants of health. Damulgurra gently encourages transformation through self-reflection on ‘being’ and action planning for ‘doing’. The hope is that trauma-informed care becomes a central practice in working with our people and is integrated at all levels of organisations and systems that service the community.
The information contained on this website has been sourced by the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project (AIPEP) and AIPEP 2. The first AIPEP was funded by the Australian Government Office of Teaching and Learning. AIPEP 2 is part of the Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing Project, funded by the Million Minds Mission Grant. The views expressed in this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office of Teaching and Learning or the Million Minds Mission Grant.
Several of the images used throughout this website are credited to Chris Lewis