“As you take your next step, please remember the Nyungar/Noongar people who first walked this Boodja.”
Whadjuk/Ballardong Elder
Uncle Patrick Egan
Aboriginal culture is the blood that fuels Wungening’s beating koort (heart).
It pumps through the healing programs that we provide to mob struggling under the weight of intergenerational trauma.
It fuels the research we do to ensure our programs get moorditj results.
And it sits safely within every yarn we have with the community we serve, our Elders, our supporters and stakeholders.
This doesn’t happen by accident. We take our promise to deliver culturally safe services at Wungening seriously.
How we build Cultural Awareness at Wungening
It starts with our moorditj staff. New staff are gifted a day-long Cultural Awareness Training session, delivered by our Cultural Awareness Lead, soon after starting with us.
This historic truth-telling session covers the treatment of Aboriginal people from early colonisation through to the Stolen Generations and today, providing powerful insight into the intergenerational trauma borne by mob.
It’s a pivotal moment for many as they prepare to start helping to heal community.
Our Cultural Awareness Lead also:
- Has influence and oversight over much of our communications, from social media posts, to website content, newsletters and articles.
- Revives Noongar language by encouraging its widespread use throughout Wungening – and developing our popular Noongar Words weekly series on our socials.
- Conducts Welcome to Country ceremonies and other culturally significant events on Wungening’s behalf.
- Heads into Casuarina and Acacia prisons to teach Cultural Awareness and Aboriginal History to support the Solid Steps AOD program.
- Arranges regular overnight Cultural Awareness camps and day trips to Noongar sites of significance.