David Clark

05/12/2018

The Arrival of Mrs Elliot at Carrolup

In my last blog, I wrote how Michael Liu and I found a ‘letter’ written by Carrolup artist Revel Cooper in 1960, which described how the children were ‘running wild’ at Carrolup Native Settlement during the first half of the 1940s. Revel went on to say: After the […]
04/12/2018

Recovery from trauma – Judith Herman

Judith Herman’s book Trauma and Recovery is a classic. Judith starts the recovery part of her book, in a chapter entitled ‘A Healing Relationship’, with some important insights into recovery and healing. ‘The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the […]
03/12/2018

Running Wild – Revel Cooper’s Memories of Carrolup

When close friend and filmmaker Michael Liu and I were researching the life of Carrolup artist Revel Cooper, we came across an important ‘letter’ he wrote that was in the Doreen Trainor Collection at Battye Library. Revel wrote his memories of Carrolup Native Settlement from the time he […]
01/12/2018

Learn the Signs and Symptoms of PTSD – Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

Bessel van der Kolk is one of the world’s leading experts on trauma and the healing of trauma. His book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, is a classic in the field, one of the best non-fiction books I have […]
30/11/2018

Farewell Albany & Project Importance

Good morning. Today, John and I head back to Perth this morning after a very enjoyable week staying with Tony Davis in Albany. We’ll drop into The Kodja Place in Kojunup to meet John Benn, who as a youngster was taken to Carrolup by his mother, a local teacher. […]
29/11/2018

Adventures in the South West

On Monday, John and I travelled down to Albany to stay with my good friend Tony Davis. We stopped at The Woolshed in Williams,  where John ate a tasty savoury muffin and I gorged on a lamb and rosemary pie.  John reflected on how he had stopped at […]
28/11/2018

Keeping Up With the Jones’s

Before I moved to Australia at the end of 2008, I lived in a beautiful area of South Wales (UK) for 16 years. In Wales, the most common surname is Jones. I didn’t know any Jones’s! Since starting to investigate the Carrolup Story, Jones’s have started ‘appearing’ in […]
26/11/2018

Fulfilling Trauma’s Hidden Promise – James Gordon

Here is a wonderful talk by James Gordon, Founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in the US. The Center for Mind-Body Medicine creates communities of hope and healing. It has the world’s largest, most effective evidence-based program for healing population-wide psychological trauma and stress. It brings together a […]
25/11/2018

Launching ‘The Carrolup Story’

I’ve just got back from a couple of days chilling out in the bush, with no internet or phone. It was very restful.  It has been 15 days since we officially launched The Carrolup Story website, so I thought I’d write a little about the launch. We decided […]
22/11/2018

Intergenerational, or Historical, Trauma Revisited

I was pleased that Wazza Jones blogged on Tuesday about the impact of intergenerational trauma on his family. His statement was deeply moving. The Healing Foundation film, made for the Foundation for Indigenous Sustainable Health, was well done and impactful. If you haven’t visited already, please check out […]
19/11/2018

Noelene White on the Children of Carrolup

We launched The Carrolup Story on the 10th November 2018, the 85th birthday of Noelene White. Noelene is the daughter of Carrolup schoolteachers Noel and Lily White. I have known Noelene for two years, a far shorter time than the 30-plus years that John and Noelene have been […]
17/11/2018

Addiction and Psychological Pain

During the many years I spent working in the addiction and mental health field, first as a neuroscientist and later helping empower people to facilitate their recovery (healing), I rarely heard the word ‘trauma’ being used. I would often visit addiction treatment services in the UK and very […]
16/11/2018

‘Never Ever Beaten’: Carrolup Football Team

Aboriginal boys at Carrolup Native Settlement weren’t just wonderful artists, they also had a fantastic football team. They played local schools and won very easily. For example, in 1949 they beat Katanning School by 21.19 to 1.2 and Wagin School by 18.7 to 0.3. In September that year, they were […]
14/11/2018

Developing ‘The Carrolup Story’

This must be the tenth website I’ve developed for my work over the past 18 years, most of which have been done with web developer Ash Whitney, a close friend from Neath in South Wales (UK). I’m often asked how long does it take to build a website? […]
14/11/2018

The Value of Deep Listening: The Aboriginal Gift to the Nation – Judy Atkinson

I was inspired into the field of trauma healing by a remarkable woman, Judy Atkinson. Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson is a Jiman (central west Queensland) and Bundjalung (northern New South Wales) woman, with Anglo-Celtic and German heritage. She lives in Goolmangar, New South Wales. Judy manages the remarkable initiative, […]
09/11/2018

Welcome

Welcome to our new Storytelling, Education and Healing online resource. My name is David Clark and I am one of three co-Founders of The Carrolup Story. My colleagues in this venture are John Stanton, like me from Perth, Western Australia, and web developer Ash Whitney from Neath in South Wales. Forty-two years ago, […]
09/11/2018

Colonisation

The colonisation of Australia by Europeans had a massive negative impact on a peoples and culture that has existed for over 50,000 years. The first settlers brought diseases that wiped out large numbers of Aboriginal people, as they had no immunity to European diseases. Many of the survivors existed […]
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