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My name is Sarah.
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I am an Aboriginal Practice Lead with the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency.
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I'm a proud Yorta Yorta woman.
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Prior to working with VACCA, I worked with another
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Aboriginal organisation in an administration role.
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I ended up doing a Diploma of Community Services over three years.
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I had two babies within the mix of that and worked
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part time for two of those years with VACCA as well.
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So an Aboriginal Practice Lead key role is to support
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Aboriginal practice within an Orange Door space.
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My day looks very different each day.
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It could be supporting a client
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depending on their needs with either
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a risk assessment and family violence supports.
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It could also be engaging in child wellbeing
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assessments and referring into child wellbeing services.
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It's also around supporting and educating my colleagues and building their lens
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for working with Aboriginal people.
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Aboriginal people are best to work with Aboriginal clients.
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We understand the intergenerational traumas, the past history.
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We have our own lived experience that we can bring to the table.
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Any mainstream practitioner
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that is working with an Aboriginal client
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can access a consult with myself where I provide a cultural lens
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and support on how to work with that client.
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Many clients, they can find comfort within that that, you know,
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they're working with somebody who gets it.
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To lead cultural understanding within an organisation
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we provide cultural reflective practice and as part of that
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I use these great Aboriginal milestone cards
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and on these cards it shows a number of different milestones
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that are significant to the Aboriginal community and talks
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to some of the impacts on our mob.
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I have a passion for my community.
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Working with children and families to not enter that
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service system any further.
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We can see it from not just a professional lens, it's
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also a personal lens and the cultural lens that we're bringing to this space.
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It's about giving agency back to each of the clients in line
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with their own self-determination as well.
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