“Heeeeey, Rob… I, I, I a Abbb-or-ig-in-oool!” he says proudly.
And off he runs again. A few moments later he’s back with a soft toy.
“And it,” he says pointing at his soft cuddly animal, “it, it my t… t… – who it Mum?”
“Totem mate,” says Anna softly, smiling at him.
“Yeah, it my toeeee-tum.” He grins and off he runs again to get his new gumboots to show Robyn, his Take Two clinician on the Zoom video call.
Continue reading “Supporting minds & spirits with cultural connections”By Kim Bradford, Aboriginal Consultant, Berry Street Take Two.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of the babies, children and young people referred to Berry Street’s Take Two service are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
Yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children make up less than 2% of all Victorian children (Productivity Commission 2020).
Continue reading “Celebrating our Elders of tomorrow”How many babies who experience serious hardships in their first year of life have delayed communication skills?
The Berry Street Take Two team based in Bendigo in the Loddon region of Victoria were worried about this. They welcomed a speech pathologist to work with them for more than a year, as part of Take Two’s Communication Project to help understand the scale of the problem.
Continue reading “Childhood communications delays – a pilot project”
Berry Street’s Take Two service is working to reduce the impacts of developmental and intergenerational trauma with some of our most vulnerable children.
Belinda Blundell is a member of Take Two’s Aboriginal Team and works with children in East Gippsland.
By Jen Willis, Communications Consultant, Berry Street – Take Two
Lots of 7-years-olds wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a moth and a butterfly. But Jay can.
Jay is an Aboriginal child going to a local primary school in suburban Melbourne. But unlike the others in his class, he has only just started talking.
Continue reading “How culture helped a child find his voice”
Professor Muriel Bamblett AM, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), covered issues facing Aboriginal children in today’s society.
And, the stats were shocking.
Aboriginal children today are twenty times more likely to be homeless, receive over 30% less financial support, face a life expectancy 20 years lower than that of non-Aboriginal children, and they are more likely to experience disability, ill health, and a reduced quality of life.
Despite all of that, Muriel reminded us that this data doesn’t tell us about the good things happening in Aboriginal communities and spoke of the successes in culture and sport of indigenous people like singer Jessica Mauboy, AFL star Buddy Franklin & NRL star Jonathan Thurston.
Muriel shared that building Aboriginal culture into everything VACCA do is crucial, and that after their safety, the most important thing to establish in an Aboriginal child’s life is culture and cultural safety.
How can we help provide an environment which respects that culture around us?
Post written by a youth blogger from SYN Media.
In 2007, Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle – or the Little Children Are Sacred Report – exposed the complexity and shame of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory.
Constant media focus on child abuse in the NT followed. Daily reports in The Australian newspaper and nightly stories on ABC’s Lateline.
They covered, paedophile rings, chronic neglect, kids sniffing petrol, kids roaming the streets day and night and the sexual abuse of kids, including kids abusing other kids. All fueled by a daily diet of pornography and alcohol.
Shocking, awful stuff. Hard to digest, hard to think about and harder to know where to start. But, in time, easy to ignore.
With the 2007 Federal Election looming, the NT intervention was announced in response to this ‘national emergency’.
Just after another election, it’s a good time to ask – has childhood improved for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children?
I’m not sure.
Media stories of neglect and abuse continue. Negative images of Aboriginal kids and families dominate.
Take a look at this photo of a two year old Aboriginal girl from NT in a News.com.au article.
What’s your first thought when you look at it?
At first glance it’s hard not to think she’s been punched.
I had to ask myself, why was that my first thought?
Are we getting any better at providing kids like this with a good childhood?
