Aboriginal Practitioners’ Perspectives on Culturally Informed Practice for Trauma Healing in Australia

Colonisation continues to impact Aboriginal children and families through perpetual cycles of transgenerational trauma. To achieve culturally safe and effective healing, practitioners working with Aboriginal people must be culturally competent, yet existing research suggests culturally informed practice (CIP) is often poorly understood and implemented by many practitioners. Centring Indigenous perspectives, the present study explored how […]
Making Self-Care a regular part of practice: A reflection from one Aboriginal health professional to another

Cultural Safety in Australia

Recommendations from Research into What Aboriginal Students Say Affects Their Social and Emotional Wellbeing While at University

This article will report on the recommendations from a study that investigated what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students said affected their social and emotional wellbeing. The study interviewed students from seven different universities and utilised thematic analysis to determine what the factors where. As a result, a number of strategies became apparent that could […]
Finding our Voice: Supporting social and emotional wellbeing after the referendum

In the leadup to National Sorry Day on Sunday 26 May, Embrace @ Telethon Kids Institute and Kulunga Aboriginal Unit held Finding our Voice: Supporting social and emotional wellbeing after the referendum, a webinar on the impact of last October’s referendum on the Voice to Parliament. Presenters: Embrace Co-Director Professor Helen Milroy AM, Co-Director of […]
Learning from community voices about lateral violence and lateral empowerment: a scoping review of grey literature

Background Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth are vulnerable to racism, trauma and Lateral Violence (LV) where negative feelings and behaviours are directed towards members within their own oppressed group. Conversely, Lateral Empowerment (LE) is the collective prevention and repair of the effects of LV and promotes resilience and strength. There is limited peer reviewed […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors.

The Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors is designed to support supervisors in being culturally safe and responsive in their supervision of Australia’s psychologists, specifically when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This project was led by the Australian Indigenous Psychology Education Project (AIPEP), in collaboration with […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Reflective Journal for Psychology Supervisors.

Welcome to the one of two companion documents to the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors. (hereafter, the Guide). This document is the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Reflective Journal for Psychology Supervisors (hereafter, the Journal). The second companion document is the Listening More Manual of […]
Listening more: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. Manual of Resources for Psychology Supervisors.

Welcome to the one of two companion documents to the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. A Guide for Psychology Supervisors (hereafter, the Guide). This document is the Listening More: Embedding Cultural Safety in Supervision. Manual of Resources which includes a sample of recommended reading and resources to assist psychology supervisors’ learning journeys. The […]
Working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care through a culturally safe framework [Webinar]

Working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care through a culturally safe framework
A theoretical conceptualisation of connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children

Connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children is an important social determinant of health in child development and wellbeing. The current study draws upon the collective knowledge of Australian First Peoples Elders and community leaders to collaboratively develop the first theoretical conceptualisation of connection to culture in Australian First Peoples children. Through participatory action […]
Healing Our Way Podcast

The Healing Our Way podcast was created in close consultation with The Healing Foundation’s Youth Reference Group. Season one explores topics relating to intergenerational trauma, racism, identity, culture, and healing. Season two takes a deep dive into intergenerational healing and the strengths and challenges that many First Nations youth are currently experiencing. The series features […]
Glossary of healing terms

Stolen Generations Resource Kit for Teachers and Students

Timeline of Trauma and Healing in Australia

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ understandings, experiences and impacts of lateral violence within the workplace

Lateral violence is the act of directing one’s dissatisfaction inwards, towards another member of an oppressed group. Lateral violence is believed to be an ongoing and intergenerational consequence of colonisation and oppression for many Indigenous peoples around the world. Within Australian, oppression in the form of racism and negative stereotypes has consequently enabled lateral violence […]
Attachment and the (mis)apprehension of Aboriginal children: epistemic violence in child welfare interventions

Child protection systems in Australia continue to disproportionately investigate Aboriginal families and intervene to remove Aboriginal children, applying non-Indigenous constructs and understandings of child development that contribute to these enduring inequities. Attachment theory is one such prevalent framework with significant applications in child protection. While constructions of attachment have attempted to grapple with diversity, its […]
Having the Hard Conversations: A guide to good practice in Indigenous health and cultural safety education

This ‘Guide to Good Practice’ (the Guide), is one of the major educational resources arising from a National Senior Teaching Fellowship awarded to Professor Dennis McDermott in 2014 by the (then) Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT). The programme of work, Having the Hard Conversations: Strengthening pedagogical effectiveness by working with student and […]
Ngara. Deep listening. Seeing ‘two ways’. What can Indigenous knowledge, mindfulness and observational skills training bring to medical practice?

What can Indigenous knowledge, mindfulness and observational skills training bring to medical practice? This third Slice of LIME Seminar took place on Friday, 12 September 2014 at Flinders University South Australia, facilitated by Prof Dennis McDermott from the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-Being, Flinders University, South Australia, as part of the A.K.A. (Aboriginal […]
Slice of LIME Seminar 2: Having the Hard Conversations

This second Slice of LIME Seminar took place on Tuesday 12 August 2014 at the University of Melbourne, presented by Professor Dennis McDermott and Mr Dave Sjoberg from the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-Being, Flinders University, South Australia. This video recording shows the presentations, along with PowerPoint slides and the chat function used […]
Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples experiencing intergenerational trauma

The need for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Coalition on Climate and Health: Policy position paper

Lowitja Institute has published a policy position paper, Let’s walk together, work together, we’ll be stronger together: The need for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Coalition on Climate and Health, which outlines our recommendation for the Australian Government to fund the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Coalition on Climate and Health.
Indigenizing and Decolonizing the Teaching of Psychology: Reflections on the Role of the Non-Indigenous Ally

Canada’s 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission published 94 Calls to Action including direction to post-secondary institutions “to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms” as well as to “build student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.” In response, Canadian universities have rushed to “Indigenize” and are now competing to hire Indigenous faculty, […]
Development and validation of the Cultural Responsiveness Assessment Measure (CRAM): A self-reflection tool for mental health practitioners when working with First Nations people.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to develop and to validate a measure of cultural responsiveness that would assist mental health practitioners across a range of disciplines, in Australia, to work with Indigenous clients. AIM: The Cultural Responsiveness Assessment Measure (CRAM) was developed to provide a tool for practitioners and students to evaluate their […]
Listen, look & learn: Exploring cultural obligations of Elders and older Aboriginal people

It is likely that young people who are both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and LGBTQA+ would be at increased risk for poor mental health outcomes due to the layered impacts of discrimination they experience; however, there is very little empirical evidence focused on the mental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander […]