Healing services for Indigenous people

The release of the Bringing Them Home report in 1997 (National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, 1997) added impetus to calls for programs and services to address the healing needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Since then, numerous reports, articles, discussion papers and policy frameworks at both the State and Commonwealth level have recognised the need for a holistic approach to tackle the root causes, rather than just the symptoms, of Indigenous suffering and disadvantage. But what does "healing" in this context entail and what implications might the "healing movement" have for services working with Indigenous families and communities? On 13 February 2009, the first anniversary of the delivery of the former Prime Minister\u27s Apology to Australia\u27s Indigenous Peoples (Rudd, 2008), the Australian Government announced the establishment of a foundation to promote "the provision of culturally-appropriate healing services to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to begin the process of recovering from trauma" (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation Development Team, 2009, p. xi). The strategy of promoting and funding a diverse range of Indigenous-centric services, to help "heal" the social and emotional legacy of colonisation, is gaining ground internationally, and has proven effective in Canada. From the perspective of mainstream Australia, however, it remains largely an area of innovation. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the need for adequately funded services that are informed by Indigenous concepts of wellbeing, that address physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural and community needs, and that recognise the forces of history and the collective experience, has long been recognised (Ober, Peeters, Archer, & Kelly, 2000). Those on their own healing path have already done much work in Indigenous communities to develop and deliver healing and cultural renewal programs across a number of sectors (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, 2008; Wilczynski, Reed-Gilbert, Milward, Fear, & Schwartzkoff, 2007). This paper provides an overview of the literature regarding the emergence of a movement to effect therapeutic healing in Indigenous Australia and the diverse range of practices, including traditional healing practices, this term encompasses