Working Gently on Aboriginal Land

A list of resources for practitioners working on Aboriginal land.

Image via @paolakudacki

How can we work to be actively anti-racist in our offering?

I write this through the lens of a white, cis woman, working and benefitting from moving freely and with ease on Aboriginal land. My intention is to create a list of online resources to assist health practitioners to be more informed on how to be actively anti-racist. In reading this, if you notice something I have missed or in need of review, please let me know.

Below you’ll find a list of questions I am constantly asking myself personally and professionally. It may be useful for you to ask these questions, too. While I’ve curated them with health practitioners in mind, I hope it can assist anyone (and everyone) committed to a deeper appreciation of the diverse range of embodied experiences of race, gender and sexuality.

I will engage with these questions, learn critically and then strategically apply my learnings to the way I practice. I’m taking action and doing the work. I hope you can join me.

• How has my education influenced the way I work with race, gender and sexuality?

• How do I work, live and move on Gadigal Land?

• How does my own experience of race, gender and sexuality inform the way I work?

• How am I being complicit in my privilege?

• What am I actively doing to decolonise health / pleasure?

• How diverse are my teachers / educators?

• How have my teachers informed the way I teach, and what I know?

• How do I respectfully and consistently credit the work of others?

• Is this meant to be said by me?

• Am I the best person for the job?

• How many First Nations, Black and Indigenous and People of Colour are involved in the project or on the panel?

• How am I actively implementing my learnings?

• How can I make my services even more accessible?

• Am I doing the work?

Resources:

This is an ever-growing list of resources – books, podcasts and programs – that have been vital to my understanding and learning. Some were recommended to me, others are on the top of my list. I will continue to add, edit and amend it with the support of others. If you have the energy or will, please get in touch or share resources that have been useful for you. I will add them to our list.

A Directory of Mental Health Support for First Nations, Māori and BIPOC

Here is a community generated directory of mental health practitioners, services and programs, available and suitable for First Nations, Māori and BIPOC. This resource is created by Our Directory.

First Nations: Books

• Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe

• Why Warriors Lie Down and Die: Towards an Understanding of why the Aboriginal People of Arnhem Land Face the Greatest Crisis in Health and Education Since European Contact, by Djambatj Mala

• Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, By Anita Heiss

• Terra Nullius, By Claire G. Coleman

• Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, by Tyson Yunkaportaight

• Am I Black Enough for You?, by Anita Heiss

• Throat, by Ellen van Neerven

• Heat and Light, by Ellen van Neerven

• Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture, By Rebecca Kiddle, Patrick Stewart, Kevin O'Brien

First Nations: Film / Documentaries

• In My Blood it Runs

• Rabbit Proof Fence

• Mabo

• First Australians

• The Sapphires

• The Australian Dream

• Kanyini

• Utopia

First Nations: Resources

• The Aboriginal Sexual Health Podcast (@theashpodcast on Instagram)

• First Nations Resource Directory, further reading and educational resources

• Working with Aboriginal People and Communities

• Trauma Informed Care, Michelle Combo, Way Forward Project: An Indigenous Approach to Wellbeing Project - Metro South Addiction and Mental Health Services

• GEM: Growth and Empowerment Measure Presented by Professor Melissa Haswell, School of Public Health and Social Work, QUT

• Reconciliation Australia

First Nations: Donate

• First Nations Resource Directory, Donate to First Nations Legal Services

• The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance (NATSIWA)

• National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy

• AIME Mentoring

• The Smith Family - Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Programs

• The Healing Foundation

Training and Courses

• Cultural Safety training by AHCWA

• Black Card Training

• Core Cultural Learning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia Foundation Course

• Evolve Communities: Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training Online and Face to Face