Held on 4 August each year, Children’s Day has been celebrated across the country since 1988 and is Australia’s largest national day to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
The theme for Children’s Day 2017 is Value Our Rights, Respect Our Culture, Bring Us Home which recognises the 20th anniversary of the Bringing them Home Report and the many benefits our children experience when they are raised with strong connections to family and culture.
The ‘Children’s Day’ website is now open
7 August Victorian Aboriginal Health Education Conference
See above for registration links
12 – 14 September SNAICC National Conference
Includes 2 pre-conference masterclasses, 3 plenaries, 56 concurrent sessions, and a social/cultural program.
Register now!
13 September : Webinar Reducing the mental health impact of Indigenous incarceration on people, communities and services
Developed in consultation with NACCHO and produced by the Mental Health Professionals’ Network a federally funded initiative
Join our interdisciplinary panel as we explore a collaborative approach to reducing the mental health impact of Indigenous incarceration on people, communities and services.
The webinar format will include a facilitated question and answer session between panel members exploring key issues and impacts of incarceration on individuals, families and communities.
The panel will discuss strategies to enhance cultural awareness and develop responsive services for Indigenous communities affected by incarceration. Strategies to increase self-esteem and enhance emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing of individuals will also be explored.
When: Wednesday 13th September, 2017
Time: 4.30pm – 5.45pm (AEST)
Where: Online – via your computer, tablet or mobile
Cost: Free
Panel:
- Dr Mark Wenitong (Medical Advisor based in QLD)
- Dr Marshall Watson (Psychiatrist based in SA)
- Dr Jeffrey Nelson (Clinical Psychologist based in QLD)
- Julie Tongs (OAM) (CEO Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service – Narrabundah ACT)
Facilitator:
- Dr Mary Emeleus (General Practitioner and Psychotherapist based in QLD)
Read more about our panel.
Learning Outcomes:
Through an exploration of incarceration, the webinar will provide participants with the opportunity to:
- Describe key issues and impacts of incarceration on individuals, families and communities
- Develop strategies to enhance culturally aware and responsive services for Indigenous people and communities affected by incarceration
- Identify strategies to increase self-esteem and enhance emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing
Before the webinar:
20-23 September AIDA Conference 2017
The AIDA Conference in 2017 will celebrate 20 years since the inception of AIDA. Through the theme Family. Unity. Success. 20 years strong we will reflect on the successes that have been achieved over the last 20 years by being a family and being united. We will also look to the future for AIDA and consider how being a united family will help us achieve all the work that still needs to be done in growing our Indigenous medical students, doctors, medical academics and specialists and achieving better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
This conference will be an opportunity to bring together our members, guests, speakers and partners from across the sector to share in the reflection on the past and considerations for the future. The conference will also provide a platform to share our individual stories, experiences and achievements in a culturally safe environment.
Conference website
29 Sept : Closing the Prison Gap Focus on the Children Tweed Heads NSW
- Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson and Margaret Hayes will “Focus on the Children”, describing their work with young people excluded from mainstream schools due to their behaviour.
- Leanne Phillips and Cathy Stillwell will talk about “Healing the Womyn Healing the Child”
- Jyi Lawnton and Casey Bird will describe “Indigenous Policy and the Scientific Gaze”
- Chris Lee and Associate Professor Helen Farley discuss “Making the Connection”, the use of technology to address the issues of literacy and numeracy in juvenile justice settings
- Dr Anthea Krieg will talk about her work in Ceduna, South Australia, coordinating services to prevent incarceration of First Nations children.
More info bookings Website
30 Sept : The 2017 Human Rights Photography competition Closes
The 2017 Human Rights Photography competition is now open to children and adults around the country, with a $600 camera prize up for grabs for the most outstanding image!
For almost a decade, the Australian Human Rights Commission has been holding photo competitions every couple of years. Our last competition attracted a record 450 entries.
Photography is a powerful medium with a long history in the promotion and advancement of human rights around the world. Photos foster empathy for the suffering and experience of others, community engagement and positive social change. No one can forget the impact of photos such as Nick Ut’s famous photo The Terror of War of child Kim Phuc after a napalm attack during the Vietnam War.
Our focus for this year’s competition will be the experiences of people at home. The theme for the 2017 competition is Home, inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous quote “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home…”
The shortlisted and winning photos to be displayed at the 2017 Human Rights Awards on 8 December in Sydney.
So, what are you waiting for?
About the competition
- Enter at https://photocompetition.humanrights.gov.au/
- There will be two categories for entries: Under 18 and 18 & over.
- Overall winners will receive their prizes at the 2017 Human Rights Awards on December 8 in Sydney. A selection of photos from the Competition will also be on display.
- Main prizes worth $600.
- The competition will close on 30 September 2017.
If you have a query about the competition, please email photocomp@humanrights.gov.au
Photo Credit: Nimboi’s Bat by Sean Spencer, from the 2011 competition.
10 October CATSINAM Professional Development Conference Gold Coast
Contact info for CATSINAM
18 -20 October 35th Annual CRANAplus Conference Broome
We are pleased to announce the 35th Annual CRANAplus Conference will be held at Cable Beach Club Resort and Spa in Broome, Western Australia, from 18 to 20 October 2017.
THE FUTURE OF REMOTE HEALTH AND THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY
Since the organisation’s inception in 1982 this event has served to create an opportunity for likeminded remote and isolated health individuals who can network, connect and share.
It serves as both a professional and social resource for the Remote and Isolated Health Workforce of Australia.
We aim to offer an environment that will foster new ideas, promote collegiate relationships, provide opportunities for professional development and celebrate remote health practice.
Conference Website
26-27 October Diabetes and cardiovascular research, stroke and maternal and child health issues.
‘Translation at the Centre’ An educational symposium
Alice Springs Convention Centre, Alice Springs
This year the Symposium will look at research translation as well as the latest on diabetes and cardiovascular research, stroke and maternal and child health issues. The event will be run over a day and a half.
The Educational Symposium will feature a combination of relevant plenary presentations from renowned scientists and clinicians plus practical workshops.
Registration is free but essential.
Please contact the symposium coordinator on 1300 728 900 (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm) or via email at events@baker.edu.au
30 October –2 Nov NACCHO AGM Members Meeting Canberra
We welcome you to attend the 2017 NACCHO Annual Members’ Conference.
On the new NACCHO Conference Website you find links to
1.Registrations now open
2. Booking Your Accommodation
3. Book Your Flights
4. Expressions of Interest Speakers, case studies and table top presentations Close
5. Social Program
6.Conferences Partnership Sponsorship Opportunities
7.NACCHO Conference HELP Contacts
The NACCHO Members’ Conference and AGM provides a forum for the Aboriginal community controlled health services workforce, bureaucrats, educators, suppliers and consumers to:
- Present on innovative local economic development solutions to issues that can be applied to address similar issues nationally and across disciplines
- Have input and influence from the ‘grassroots’ into national and state health policy and service delivery
- Demonstrate leadership in workforce and service delivery innovation
- Promote continuing education and professional development activities essential to the Aboriginal community controlled health services in urban, rural and remote Australia
- Promote Aboriginal health research by professionals who practice in these areas and the presentation of research findings
- Develop supportive networks
- Promote good health and well-being through the delivery of health services to and by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people throughout Australia.
Where :Hyatt Hotel Canberra
Dates : Members’ Conference: 31 October – 1 November 2017
Annual General Meeting: 2 November 2017
27-30 November Indigenous Allied Health Australia : IAHA Conference Perth
Abstracts for the IAHA 2017 National Conference are now open!
We are calling for abstracts for concurrent oral presentations and workshops under the following streams:
– Care
– Cultures
– Connection
For abstract more information visit the IAHA Conference website at: https://iahaconference.com.au/call-for-abstracts/
Makarrata the map to reconciliation: over to you, leaders
We have come to a time in our nation’s history when the Australian people have an opportunity to decide whether or not to deal with the relationship between my people and those that came after us and changed our way of life. Either a real process of settlement, or makarrata, will now start, or the nation will turn its back on these issues, leaving these challenges for the next generation.
The starting point for this makarrata process was arrived at by the Aboriginal leadership at Uluru and is given voice in the Uluru Statement. The Uluru Statement has now set out the issues for assessment. As it should, the statement goes further than constitutional recognition and takes us into the heart of the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the rest of the nation. This gives us a process where we can now get serious and look to a proper settlement. All of us, as Australians, are part of this process.
The principles of makarrata have guided Yolngu people in North East Arnhem Land through difficult disputes for centuries and they are useful as a guide to the current challenge.
First, the disputing parties must be brought together. Then, each party, led by their elders, must speak carefully and calmly about the dispute. They must put the facts on the table and air their grievances. If a person speaks wildly, or out of turn, he or she is sent away and shall not be included any further in the process. Those who come for vengeance, or for other purposes, will also be sent away, for they can only disrupt the process.
The leaders must always seek a full understanding of the dispute: what lies behind it; who is responsible; what each party wants, and all things that are normal to peacemaking efforts. When that understanding is arrived at, then a settlement can be agreed upon. This settlement is also a symbolic reckoning — an action that says to the world that from now on and forever the dispute is settled; that the dispute no longer exists, it is finished. And from the honesty of the process and the submission of both parties to finding the truth, then the dispute is ended. In past times a leader came forward and accepted a punishment and this leader once punished was then immediately taken into the heart of the aggrieved clan. The leader’s wounds were healed by the men and women of the aggrieved clan, and the leader was given gifts and shown respect — and this former foe, who had caused pain and suffering to people, would live with those that had been harmed and the peace was made — not just for them but for future generations.
In this way the parties were able to come together, to trade, to marry, to work together and make their lives together. The dispute was over and peace and harmony were achieved.
The same thing is happening now. We know we are a part of this nation — we want to be a part of this nation — but we want to have our grievances settled in a calm and proper way. We want our wounds healed, our injuries tended to and to be given an equal shot at the prosperity of this nation. We want unity and togetherness — a shared future.
This is the work of the Referendum Council and all the delegates who came together at Uluru.
The words that have come out of Uluru are truthful as is required by makarrata and so the process has now started. The aggrieved party has just called the other to come forward and meet with it. And like in the old days when the elders would send a gift of cycad bread to the other group to request the meeting in a peaceful way, so too is the final Referendum Council report a sign of friendship.
Now, in the spirit of makarrata Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have invited the Prime Minister to Gulkula to meet with us. The Prime Minister, should he come, will be treated with the greatest of respect, for he is Her Majesty’s elected representative, and the leader of the Australian people. He is the right person to come and the right person to treat with us. He and the Leader of the Opposition are the right people to work with us, along with, in time, the leaders of each of the states and territories.
There is a difficult task here. It is the same issue that was faced by my father, by old man Birrikitji, his brother Buwatpuy, and the others when they stood on the sand at Birany Birany and sought to make the peace between disputing clans. They were all hard men, peacekeepers, and peacemakers. They agreed the words that made the peace. They agreed to the form of the settlement. What they agreed was then put forward and was accepted. Our task is much greater, and much more complicated, but, as I see it, the principles are the same.
The words from Uluru are clear, but they are a position from one party, not the final settlement. What I see as required now is the true partnership of the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition to take the settlement process forward and to a conclusion. We have before us a simple proposal that can be understood by all Australians — with genuine leadership, we can make it a reality.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu is Gumatj clan leader, Yothu Yindi Foundation chairman and Australian of the Year 1978
