22/03/2021

Recovery Stories

I’ve recently spent a good amount of time working on my Recovery Stories website, in preparation for the publishing of my new eBook Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction on 9th April 2021. I first launched the Recovery Stories website in May 2013, with the aim […]
17/03/2021

Creating a New Normal: Sir Ken Robinson

The educationist Sir Ken Robinson inspired me greatly. Sir Ken was a great proponent of the encouragement of creativity amongst children. His TED talk ‘Do schools kill creativity’ is the most viewed TED talk ever, with 70 million views. Sir Ken was an excellent speaker—and I loved his […]
11/03/2021

Addiction Recovery

In my last blog post, I wrote about one of the key factors underlying recovery from addiction—hope. The section was taken from my forthcoming new eBook, Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction. But what is recovery from addiction? Here is a section from my book which […]
02/03/2021

Hope

Late this month, I will release my new eBook, Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction. The book tells the stories of 15 people who have overcome problems associated with drugs and alcohol. Some of the stories are about family members of a person with a […]
27/01/2021

My Trip to Nauiyu, Daly River, 2015

Yesterday, I posted a blog to celebrate Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, Senior Australian of the Year 2021. I mentioned that I had visited Miriam-Rose’s Aboriginal community of Nauiyu on the Daly River in the Northern Territory. I did so, along with 17 others (adults and children), as part of […]
26/01/2021

Senior Australian of the Year: Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann

I was absolutely thrilled to see that Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann was made Senior Australian of the Year 2021. Miriam Rose has done so much for Aboriginal peoples around Australia, as well as for society as a whole. Her Award is thoroughly deserved. I was fortunate enough to meet […]
20/01/2021

Key Factors Facilitating Indigenous Healing

When I first developed the educational healing resource Sharing Culture back in 2014, I did a great deal of reading about the healing of trauma and intergenerational trauma. I summarised what I considered to be 12 principles of healing, which are relevant to Aboriginal people here in Australia […]
03/11/2020

Key Steps in Healing: Judy Atkinson

As some of you know, I was inspired to work in the healing trauma field in large part by Judy Atkinson’s wonderful book Trauma Trails: Recreating Song Lines – The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia. I was reminded of Judy’s book when I was interviewed about […]
13/10/2020

Shocking History Impacts on Health & Wellbeing

As I wandered around York this weekend, on a weekend away, I was constantly reminded of the film project that my good friend Mike Liu and I conducted with Professor Marion Kickett, Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University. Marion, Mike and I spent a day […]
14/09/2020

Life-saving Optimism

Here is an by intriguing article by Chigozie Obioma entitled Life-saving optimism: what the west can learn from Africa from the Guardian online in 2018.  ‘Nigeria, like most African nations, has been taught and dictated to since its independence, largely seen by the rest of the world as a receptacle for […]
03/08/2020

About Healing

Here are some important words about healing in the Social Justice Report 2008, a document by the Australian Human Rights Commission. ‘Indigenous concepts of healing are based on addressing the relationship between the spiritual, emotional and physical in a holistic manner. An essential element of Indigenous healing is recognising the […]
15/07/2020

Judy Atkinson’s Fireside Yarns

Some of you will know that Judy Atkinson and her wonderful book Trauma Trails – Recreating Song Lines: The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia inspired me to start working in the healing trauma field. Now, Judy has taken over my Friday mid-afternoons with her Fireside Yarns, organised […]
18/06/2020

Key Elements Underlying the Healing of Trauma

In our forthcoming book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, I have written two appendices, one reflecting on The Trauma and the other on The Healing. In my last blog, I provided a section of the first Appendix, The Trauma: Reflections. Here, I include the first part of […]
10/06/2020

The Impact of Removing Children From Their Families

At its heart, the story of Carrolup is about the innate emotional needs of human beings, like feeling a sense of belonging. What happens if these needs are not satisfied? And what can happen if satisfaction of these needs is restored? In our forthcoming book Connection: Aboriginal Child […]
04/06/2020

The Journey of Health and Wellbeing

I watched an excellent animated video on YouTube last week, The Journey of Health and Wellbeing, which was launched in conjunction with National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week. The 10-minute animation helps to promote understanding of Aboriginal people’s experience from colonisation to the present day. It shows how […]