Page 35 - 10th Annual International Charles Town Maroon Conference and Festival Magazine

Charles Town Maroon International Conference Magazine June 2018

mother and my Aboriginal family system which Through having to survive the atrocities vested by the
included myself and my nine siblings, who were also state on my people, my family and my self, I learnt to
made state wards and removed from kin and be very resilient throughout my life. I became a person
community, separated in different orphanages and state who fought for the rights of her people by grounding
homes, never to see each other again until later in our myself in cultural understandings and historical untold
lives. Due to the systematic oppression and racism my truths to inform my social work practice.
family experienced I felt a sense of powerlessness. Social
workers of the time were not child friendly or culturally I am guided by my lived and cultural experiences and
safe and respectful towards me and my family. this informs my social work practice, however, the
challenge is to work within mainstream models and at
I often felt that the social workers were supportive of the same time honour Aboriginal culture – cultural
the oppressive welfare system and non-Indigenous clashes of ideologies and systems of oppression still
foster carers, my Aboriginal family’s wishes never impact upon social work practice. Western paradigms
came into their practice concerns. I sensed a strong don’t necessarily fit an Aboriginal model of care and
injustice as a young girl and said to myself that one treatment and often have been the very cause of the
day I would become a social worker and I would be disadvantages my people face. My passion lies at the
different to the social workers involved in my life and heart of promoting, and practicing from, an Aboriginal
I would help children by really listening to them, take world view and how this enhances a social work
notice of their feelings, and be kind to them. model of care. Being connected to earth, culture and

Indigenous philosophy needs to be at the forefront of
I began my higher education at Tranby Aboriginal Indigenous healing and social work practice with my
College at Glebe, Sydney, when I was 17 years old and people.
learnt many things about my people that I had not been
taught at school; the real truth of my past began to My previous social work capacities have been as an
make sense as the veil of racism became exposed. I Indigenous counsellor working in remote and rural
studied welfare at Tranby and my teacher at the time settings and counselling Aboriginal people who have
was a social worker who strongly encouraged me to experienced trans-generational trauma and its impacts
study social work. I enrolled at Newcastle University and ongoing effects of colonisation. I have worked
in the Bachelor of Social Work in 1994.
across various domains and I have continually
Throughout my studies I challenged western theories witnessed the devastating impacts of colonising
and methodologies and offered an Indigenous critique trauma on my people. The lack of cultural resources
and ways of working to address Aboriginal disad- and healing spaces available for my people to be
vantages. The gaps in theory were apparent to me as culturally empowered and strengthened against the
an Aboriginal woman and I identified a need for a impacts of colonisation makes social work practice in
diverse analysis of social work theory and practice. I this area challenging. Throughout my social work
particularly added a depth to Aboriginal women’s career I have naturally chosen to continually advocate
experiences and how feminist theory and theories of, an alternative knowledge base and ways of practicing
for example, loss and grief didn’t expose the realities that incorporate an inclusive Aboriginal world view
of Aboriginal peoples’ culture or lived experiences of and endorse cultural practices within mainstream
racism in Australia. services and models of care. This has not always been

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