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

Moving Forward TogetherJanet Kelly…many Aboriginal kids tended to fight rather than negotiate. Theyimmediately put up a wall and escalate the issues. You can ask them asimple question and have a huge angry response (HS I4).The Aboriginal Education Worker also identified issues related to anger andconflict and spoke of providing a space for students to settle and be calm. Shesaw the need for health and healing, to help people get rid of negative thingsand feelings. She identified that;…many Aboriginal families have issues like welfare and problems thatcarry on through the generations. Link up and finding lost ones is reallyimportant.It is important to look at the issues under the issue. Discrimination isanger based. Anger with white workers is linked to the Stolen Generation.Welfare workers get a reaction; there is still a lot of negativity aboutthem. Police are the other ones. People’s reactions are still scared andhurt. Even little kids run when they see police. There is a lot to workthrough.It is important to sit and talk, to interact and respect each other, to bringculture back, to connect and learn more from the Elders (HS I1).These two responses discuss the same issues from different perspectives. Thefirst a reaction to angry students, and the second by the Aboriginal EducationWorker who perhaps used a Dadirri type process, to seek to understand theissues behind the issues - which she connected to colonising actions such as theremoval of children during the Stolen Generations. She indicated that theramifications of colonising actions continue to play out in the school and widersocial environment today. These were countered by the development offriendships and reconciliation activities.All of those interviewed discussed the importance of friendships within andbeyond Aboriginal groups, and said that the high school took an active role insupporting and encouraging friendships between Young Aboriginal womenand wider inter- cultural friendship circles. Staff members reflected that five toten years ago young Aboriginal women mainly had friendship circles withother young Aboriginal people, but now there were friendship circles that276