Conference Papers
Session IT2.3. IT and Wellbeing Initiatives
1. Samia Goudie and Carolyn Briggs: Widening the circle
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In 2007 Natalie Davey of Pelican Expeditions with the Elders of Hopevale – Bama from the (Guguu Yimidthirr ), invited Samia Goudie to develop a pilot project with the community using digital storytelling to engage the participants in an annual retreat . Through this process the community documented personal stories as well as sea country stories. This project grew in 2008 and worked with the SLQ and the IKC to develop the skills to archive stories made by the youth and elders about their experiences during the retreat. The project also linked to Samia’s research topic exploring how using New media, specifically “digital storytelling “, contributes and facilitates “wellness “for Indigenous communities “. This paper will discuss how the initial project led to the development of a “wellness “project bringing Medical students and Dr’s to share on country and how new media and social networking has continued to be used to broaden the circle, engage community and develop projects for the Pelican Expeditions in their work on sea country with communities, elders and partners on the Cape and in Victoria during the “Two Bays” annual sea country project. Examples of stories made on sea country with youth and Elders will be shown and a brief overview and update given of this work which can then be followed through social Media .The paper will also touch on the issues that arise in developing and maintaining partnerships. The Importance of allowing projects to develop in non linear organic processes and how by doing this we allow creativity and new unexpected aspects to develop and emerge. Note: If possible a young person and / Or Elder will attend to share their experiences; however this may not be possible due to the timing of the conference clashing with the Hopevale –Pelican project in Cape York.
Author bio: Samia is currently an Indigenous visiting researcher with AIATSIS. She has worked within Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, media and community development both in Australia and in the USA. Her current research practice is focused on exploring how using new media to tell stories of “hope and resilience” facilitates “wellness” for Indigenous people(s). Samia has a long connection with saltwater and this has led to her ongoing collaboration with Pelican Expeditions who she has collaborated with in developing digital stories and documenting sea country experiences.
Author bio: Carolyn Briggs is an Elder of the Boonwurrung from Victoria Aunty Carolyn is the Naidoc Elder of the year 2011 for Victoria. She is a Storyteller and cultural custodian and shares her energy and enthusiasm for keeping culture strong with the communities in Victoria and beyond. She has worked with Pelican expeditions for a number of years on the Sea country project “Two Bays” and in 2010 was involved in the digital storytelling aspect of the work for the first time. She will share her experience of this and we will share a small story made during this time as an example.
2. Zoe Dawkins: Connecting young people through digital media
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In 2011, Storyscape and the Koorie Heritage Trust worked together to develop the Blaktraks arts project. Blaktraks is funded by the VicHealth ‘Technology, Arts and Social Connection (TASC) Scheme’. TASC supports creative initiatives that promote participation, health and wellbeing through community engagement in the digital environment. The aim of Blaktraks was to re-engage young people with their own community; and to express their own stories as young urban Indigenous people in a meaningful way. Short film and digital media was used as the medium for social connection; and to record and share urban oral histories. The 8-week project included creating music soundtracks, hip-hop songs, and stencil art. These, together with gaining skills in photography and video production, have facilitated the young people taking part in Blaktraks to create a diverse series of short films. The Koorie Heritage Trust Training Unit helped to deliver training units around the project, so that participants received a Certificate 3 in Arts Administration on completion of the project. Social media has played a big part in creating and sharing experiences throughout the project, as well as distributing the films. Films are online (http://www.youtube.com/blaktraks), and are also being distributed using QR codes (a barcode that uses mobile phone technology to view the films). This paper will be co-presented with one of the participants from Blaktraks, who will talk about their own experience of the project.
Author bio: Zoë is Co-Director of the community arts organisation, Storyscape. Storyscape runs programs and workshops where we work with people to identify a story that's meaningful to them, and then create a short film around that story. Through the process we hope to build skills, confidence and social connections, and also learn a lot from the people we work with. Zoë is also the Team Leader of the Community Development & Social Justice Team at Clear Horizon, a Melbourne-based consulting firm that provides community engagement, planning and evaluation services. She specialises in creative approaches to community consultation, incorporating the use of photography, film and storytelling in her work. Zoë has experience working with communities from across Australia and the Asia Pacific region. She has lived and worked in Asia for over four years, and regularly travels within the region on work assignments.
3. Jack Bulman: Safe Spaces with Proper Way: inter-connecting the generations
Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow
Mibbinbah Limited is a Indigenous Male Health Promotion Charity which seeks to help men take their rightful place in society (whatever that may be) by creating ‘safe’ spaces through ‘Proper Way’. This conference paper will outline the three key aspects of ‘Proper Way’ (Celebrating, Remembering, Anticipating) and the functions that support these aspects. The focus is on working collaboratively in the present to raise and answer questions and concerns through the development of explicit codes of conduct and working agreements that spell out what the men desire to achieve. They do this remembering the triumphs and traumas of the past as well as the great diversity to be found among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. As leaders in their groups, communities and the larger Indigenous and non-Indigenous society’s men are enabled and encouraged to generate realistic and achievable visions of the future in terms of education, employment and engagement of social and emotional well-being issues. A critical aspect of leadership is identifying the potential for various forms of violence (family, lateral, communal) and finding concrete ways of mediating between conflicts. One specific example of men taking leadership is the growing movement to obtain and refurbish relatively new computers with which to train the older members of communities and the Elders so that they have a basic facility with computers and Internet-based emails and social networking tools, as well as basic research using search engines such as Google. The younger men who have been enabled through train-the-trainer programs to support the olders and Elders will be encouraged and assisted to continue to develop their own skills sets at intermediate and advanced levels. This will assist the parents and grandparents to respond to the one laptop per child initiative. This will also help with the transfer of knowledge between generations. Health promotion and other messages are being embedding in the teaching tools, scrolled across screens and developed to accompany various sets of document that the men and the ‘Olders’ and Elders use for the training. Yarning time is also built into the training so that culturally appropriate learning is fostered.
Author bio: Jack Bulman is a descendant of the Muthi Muthi people of South Western NSW. His involvement with sports gave him a keen sense of both competition and care. You had to make a place for yourself; but, you only do that with the help of others who looked after you as a young man. Jack has been involved in a wide variety of community activities through the years and has developed a keen sense of the importance of the family and the extended networks needed to keep people on top of things. His own family has grown up in the surroundings and has benefited from care that they both receive from and give to others. However, this has not isolated them from the very real concerns that young people and their families face daily. Studies at Latrobe University gave Jack a more critical foundation for working in Public Health (Bachelor of Health Sciences) and extended his appreciation for the person developed through his earlier studies in Health Sciences (Remedial Massage). He particularly excelled in the area of community studies where Indigenous Male Health became a passion recognized by others. He was quickly recruited to work in Men’s Health among Indigenous Males in Queensland. Through his various roles he was able to develop networked relationships that created capacity to empower the men. He developed ways to enable men to seek their own aspirations through their involvement in Men’s Spaces. Mibbinbah seeks to help Indigenous Males to take their rightful place, whatever that may be, in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous society as a means of improving their health and the health of those with whom they live, work and play.