Moving Forward Together in Aboriginal Women's Health: - Theses ...

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellythose with private transport were able to attend the Family Well-being Courseand remain in contact with the Gilles Plains campus. I became the only healthprofessional directly involved with the group, and by default became the linkperson between the Gilles Plains Community Health Service, the AboriginalMum’s Group and the Family Well-being facilitator. I temporarily took therole of co-facilitating transport, food and childcare as a co-located worker,while also being a course participant. This ‘temporary situation’ continued allyear.Being involved in the Family Well-being program provided me with manyopportunities to listen, learn, reflect, challenge ourselves, share and growalongside Aboriginal community women under the guidance of a veryexperienced and compassionate facilitator. I learned about the personal effectsof colonisation, discrimination, exclusion and inequities by listening to thestories of those around me. I learned to listen deeply with my heart as well asmy head, practisingDadirri as described by Judy Atkinson (2002) andUngunmerr (1993). Cultural exchange and cultural permeability (Mataira2003) increased as we come to trust each other and share our experiences andthoughts more deeply. We came to understand each other as women who bothshared and had differing life experiences. In gentle Ganma two-wayknowledge sharing we came to understand more about who we were asindividuals, and in relationship to each other (Gullingingpuy 2007; Pyrch &Castillo 2001).The family well-being facilitator encouraged us to move toward beingpersonally accountable for who we were, and what we chose to do, whilerecognising the complex structures and dynamics in situations that can preventus from taking positive action (Family Well Being Group 1998). I came to seethe health system from a different perspective, as a series of people andorganisations that may enable or exclude people from its services. I grappledwith my own whiteness and the impact of colonisation, coming to understandmore deeply the inherent privilege I hold as a white woman in Australia(Frankenburg 1993; Moreton Robinson 2002). As described by ChristineFranks, I learned not to be the enigmatic all-seeing all-knowing professional.Rather by first listening deeply, while withholding my own cultural baggage, I165