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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kellyincluding health services 57 . This was done without taking away their need towork through things themselves (HS I5). Often the Aboriginal educationworker or Aboriginal education teacher would sit with them and talk throughstrategies and ideas. One non-Aboriginal teacher expressed confusion aboutwhy as mature, capable young women they didn’t just go out there and do it.She wondered if;connection and talking about it with an older woman first was a culturalthing or if it was generational, linked to generation after generation ofnot being heard, valued or lifted up (HS I5).She said that she had recently seen a program on television about the lostwages and ongoing fights for compensation, and wondered whether this andsimilar issues might be impacting on young women as they prepared to enterthe work force. Although she did not name these specifically as colonisation ordiscrimination practices, she recognised that inequities were involved.Another participant specifically named discrimination as a major contributingfactor impacting on young Aboriginal women. She said;They are growing up in a society that is basically discriminating. Whetherany of us like it or not, it is there. The young Aboriginal women don’t getmany opportunities to talk about it; in fact it becomes so much the normthat they don’t even know when they are dealing with it a lot of the time.So there develops this underlying belief that they are not quite goodenough, or they are not OK. It becomes a thread running through whattheir experience is (HS I2).This teacher indicated that repeated exposure to discrimination and derogatorycomments by others undermined the young women’s self esteem, negativelyaffecting their ability to spontaneously study and enter the work force as someother students did. She identified a unique role of the Aboriginal educationworker and other supportive staff members to help the young women embraceopportunities available to them.57 Windsor Gardens Vocational College has a focus on preparing students for further study andthe workplace.268