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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet KellyJo also said there are other people out there who care; we thought it was onlyyou.This comment highlighted for me the position that many Aboriginal womenhold within our society. Although I know for a fact that many people do care,this was not obvious for Jo.And then she reflected; there are other ways to get your point of view across.Other powerful ways, not just anger and conflict.We discussed our learning in the Family Well-being course, about movingfrom conflict to negotiation, to spirit centred approaches. Our collaborativeactivity had enabled Jo to experience this in new ways.Many of Jo’s comments were reinforced by the other two women who attendedthe conference during the next two days. They too noted that there were similarexperiences for Indigenous peoples internationally, that there were many otherpeople around the nation and world who did care about others, and that thereare very powerful and non conflicting ways to get one’s point of view across.Time + Respect = TrustRose had psyched herself up to co-present and asked if she could co-present atthe next conference. The group all agreed, and she came with me to thePrimary Health Care Conference. Once again we negotiated the timing of ourpresentation to enable us to get back in time to pick up children from school.Rose was nervous at first, but once she began talking, she spoke powerfullyfrom the heart. Together we spoke of time, respect and trust, using our ownrelationship as an example (rather than talking negatively of campus events).Once again I refer to my journal.When Rose began to talk from the heart, she spoke about theimportance of relationships between people. We shared our relationshipbuilding journey with the audience, allowing them to understand theyears of work that we had both put into our now very positiverelationship. Rose then said that while some relationships build up overtime, sometimes people also have an immediate liking or disliking forsomeone. She explained the importance of this in health care – that193