Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
And we will get underway.
Sue Greig:
Thanks, Michelle. Welcome everyone to the third Leading For Wellbeing Seminar in this series of four. The first two seminars have gone exceptionally well and we've received lots of positive feedback. Thank you to those who took the time in providing this feedback as it helps us know whether we're hitting the mark. I'm sure that this seminar will be just as good. And thank you for taking the time out of your day to join us. I'm Sue Greig from the Centre for Workforce Excellence's Workforce Development Team, which is absolutely a mouthful and I'll be opening the seminar. I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land throughout Australia and I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I'd also like to extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today. I'd like to acknowledge victim survivors who may be joining us today.
We keep forefront in our minds all those who are impacted by or who are living with violence and abuse and for whom we undertake this important work. Given the above acknowledgement, I think it's important to recognise that there may be challenging moments in today's content. If you are affected and require support, feel free to take a break or use the support numbers that we are providing in the chat. This seminar, as Michelle said, is on cultural safety and holistic healing. The department recognises that strong models of Aboriginal led healing exist in Victoria and that these include wellbeing models for our First Nations workforces. We know that Aboriginal led holistic healing in Victoria needs to be expanded to respond to the disproportionate impact of family violence on Aboriginal people. We have the 2019 Nargneit Birrang Aboriginal Holistic Healing Framework for family violence. Nargneit Birrang is a Woiwurrung word meaning to see the river.
And this framework guides service design, implementation, evaluation, funding guidelines, and compliance. It furthers our aims around genuine self-determination, which is the cornerstone of everything the department does. It furthers our aims around genuine to self-determination ... Oh, sorry. The framework supports the First Nations workforces to build and share knowledge about the impact of family violence and healing approaches, including through peer support and activities that attend to vicarious trauma. Nargneit Birrang framework includes trauma-informed healing practises and emphasises the need for staff to receive ongoing support and trauma-related training. This is about combining the Western therapeutic modalities with Aboriginal healing modalities to better support Aboriginal people, but is also intended to provide non-Aboriginal workforces with learning and cultural mentoring to enable effective holistic practises.
This seminar is therefore about creating an opportunity for First Nations and non-Aboriginal workforces to share their healing knowledge and build resilience. To help us achieve this, it's my great pleasure to introduce Daphne Yarram, who is an Noongar woman from South West Western Australia, and CEO of Yoowinna Wurnalung Healing Service, a specialist family violence service in Gippsland. Daphne has been involved in Aboriginal affairs since she was 16 years of age and throughout her working life she's been a strong advocate for Victorian Aboriginal people and communities, and we are lucky to have Ivy also join us. She's a clinical men's, women's, children's, and family support worker at the same service as Daphne. Without further ado, I'll hand you over to the host for today's seminar, Daphne and Ivy.
Daphne Yarram:
Thank you, Susan, and thank you for the wonderful introduction and we are feeling very privileged and excited to be here. Firstly, as part of our obligation and protocols, I would like to acknowledge that Ivy and I are on the beautiful lands of the Gunaikurnai peoples. I'd like to pay respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and to acknowledge that land has never been ceded, always was and always will be Aboriginal land. And that's really important for us in looking at our cultural safety, and to all of you, wherever you sit it on Aboriginal land in this country and especially in this state, thank you for acknowledging where you're working, where you're living. And for us it's really important that our recognition and confirmation of Aboriginal people and their sovereignty and their connection to country, more culture, language, and more importantly for us to be a part of a partnership and a recognition in this country that Aboriginal people have been here for 60,000 years plus and to recognise us.
And I will go to my definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, First Nations peoples, just simply because it's the language I used when I'm yarning and having a conversation with people. I'd also acknowledged my sister Ivy who works with us, she's a clinical team leader and I'll let her introduce yourself in a minute. And as a Noongar Aboriginal woman from South West WA, born on a mission quite a few years ago now, I'd like to acknowledge that the work that we do as part of Yoowinna Wurnalung Aboriginal Healing Service, even though our banner is back to front because I don't know how to change the system there, I'd like to confirm that that language used for our title, our service is Gunaikurnai language and it's translated into our safe place, which is really important.
Just very quickly before I introduce Ivy and let her quickly introduce herself, our service covers two catchment areas, Wellington and East Gippsland Shire, a significant geographical region that we cover, and we support Aboriginal communities across five locations in our region and work across our service, provides a range of services including case management, working with the most vulnerable victim survivors as well as people who use violence, men and women.
And we also are privileged to work in a trial to look at how to the impacts of sexual assault and how we support victim survivors and people who use sexual violence as part of their behaviours. And for us, I have been doing this work within this organisation for 17 years from its inception to now. I love what we do and I think that when we talk about our cultural obligation and cultural load and later on when we talk as we had a yarn this morning about what does cultural safety look like? It's really important to recognise that Aboriginal people who work in this space are very much committed, and feel that it's our obligation to do the work as part of our community and safety wellbeing are so important.
So I thank all of you who have turned out, I can't see how many people are here, but I'm very excited to share with Ivy, some insights into the work we do, provide a yarn and a conversation about what does cultural safety and cultural load look like, and how do we support HR managers to look at the needs and aspirations of Aboriginal staff within your organisations? And more importantly, I think the movement forward around how do we put in place a self-determining lens that creates cultural safety within anyone's workplace so that whether an Aboriginal person walks into your service, whether you're an Aboriginal or a non-Aboriginal service, they do feel culturally safe. They have access to the supports and services they need, and for Aboriginal staff specifically, that they are supported, respected, and are main contributors to the aspirations of the organisation. I look forward further yarn with you and I'd just like to, I'll say handover to Ive so she can say hello too.
Ivy:
Thanks, Daph. I would also like to acknowledge the land that we're on, Gunaikurnai people, pay my respects to eldest, past, present, and emerging. Pay my respects to my sister, Daph, sitting next to me here and sharing the floor with me while we have this yarn today. And pay my respects to all of you that are part of this journey with us. And acknowledge your ancestors past, present, and emerging. And because without all of us working together ... With us working together, we make a difference. And it's about the people that we're working to make that difference for about being safe and being able to live their lives free from violence and free from racism and be able to go into a service and get a service that makes them feel safe and is able to support them. I look forward to our next hour and a bit just sitting here having a yarn with you all.
And I encourage you all just to chill and relax. Because Daph and I, that's how we roll. And it would be good for you to just chill, relax. If you have any questions or anything, put it up on the chat because for us it's about helping and sharing what we know so that everybody else can gain some tools and that we're able to support you in what that looks like. I thank you for the opportunity and yeah, look forward to our next hour and a bit. I'll throw it back to Daph.
Daphne Yarram:
I'm going to introduce Michelle in a minute because Michelle's going to help encourage our conversations through the chat as well as conversations to ensure that we are able to respond to some of the curiosity questions around what does it look like to create a culturally safe environment within our organisations? And also we want to talk about the impact of working in this space, especially around family violence for Aboriginal practitioners and frontline workers around what does cultural load look like and how do we as managers, HR and team leaders or supervisors, not only of Aboriginal staff, because I always have this philosophy that if we can do stuff that works for us in our workforce and our communities, it'll work in any setting.
And I'm really a great advocate around that we have some really great models of practise, models of support, models of service that when we use and we have blended families, so we work with non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal clients, that the way we work with everyone is the same, and what that looks like in practise is that they're really appreciative of the way that we work, which is really important. I do want to shout out to all our Aboriginal brothers and sisters who might be Zooming in with us today, and acknowledge wherever you want and appreciate you spending some time with us this morning as well and encourage you to say hello.
We can't see the chat, but I'm sure that Michelle will keep us up to speed with what that looks like. And I think the other thing that I just wanted to mention because we want to talk about, get some curious questions to encourage you to participate and for us to, as I've said, have this yarn, it's really important for us. One of the things we do as part of our practise, and it's around that setting cultural safety in place besides banner being back to front, but more about in our space when we yarn, and if we're yarning to our staff or clients, it's about the location of where those yarns take place.
And it's really important for us when we talk about acknowledging country, normally what we would do is not we'll be sitting in an environment, may not be in an office setting, but taking our shoes with socks and connect to the land and about building that relationship and connection to nature and also the country that we're on and honouring that and gently walking on that land and acknowledge its history, the people who were first here and for us about connecting to the country that we live and work on and supporting our community and their aspirations. I might introduce Michelle now and say hello again to Michelle too. Let us get off and start talking about why we're here today. And again, thank you for the privilege and honour to sit and yarn with you for the next hour a little bit. Thanks, Michelle.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Thank you, Daphne. And thank you Ivy for that beautiful introduction. And I'll just reinforce Ivy's beautiful invitation that please do put questions in the chat, anything that we are wanting to learn more about today when it comes to that cultural lens to health, safety, and wellbeing, whether it be for our workers, so what can we do as leaders to better support workers through that lens, or whether it is more on the service side for clients that are coming in. I think Daphne and Ivy have said they're happy to play in both spaces and we're happy to have that flexibility in today's yarn. I'll be here keeping an eye on the chat to help nudge Daphne and Ivy with any of the things that you are wanting more on. One thing Daphne, people did want you to know is that for the rest of us, the banner is the right way.
So already winning on that front, I think it's just for you it looks backwards when you see yourselves. And Daphne, you spoke so beautifully then about the need to have our feet on the land, to be connected to the country that we're walking on. I wonder before we dive into the conversation, one of the things we talked about in preparing for today was perhaps wanting to have a few minutes and encourage those who are listening and joining us today, if they wanted to take their shoes and socks off where they were and put their feet on the ground, wherever they are, that that might be something you wanted to lead us through for a few minutes. And I've got my shoes and socks off ready to go. Do you maybe want to start there before we dive into some questions?
Daphne Yarram:
Oh, that'll be really lovely. I thank you for the opportunity, Michelle. I think for us, when we do our work on country, it is about that connection to country, which is really important. And for whether we're working with team members or whether we're working with community, the first obligation we have is to find out where their safe spaces are, where they feel comfortable and safe to have the conversations or to have yarns with us, whether in a supervision model or whether we're seeing clients for the first time and creating an environment that is comfortable and safe for them. By connecting to country and putting your feet on land, and we're [inaudible 00:14:58].
Ivy:
[inaudible 00:14:58].
Daphne Yarram:
... on the first floor in our building, but I take my shoes off and got me stockings and stuff on. But what it does for me, it is about that connection for land and for all of us. When we think about our safe spaces, where we go to holiday, where we go to feel connected to nature and also to connect to places that are significant for us, it helps create not only this sense of comfort, it creates a sense of wellbeing and it creates for me this obligation that I tread lightly because this is not my country, but I've been privileged and accepted in the community which we've lived for since the '70s, so that does show my age.
But it's around being that acceptance and that obligation to know that where we go, our footprint should not leave a mark, but we acknowledge where we are, that we also treat and respect the ancestors, the elders and the community, the traditional owners of country in a respectful and safe way. And for the work we do in the family violence space is to honour that and to honour every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person and make extended families and blended families in a way that we create a safe space for them to feel comfortable and through them being comfortable and safe, hopefully share their story in a way that's meaningful for them and for our staff to have that opportunities.
For some of our staff, especially non-Aboriginal staff, might find it a bit challenging. But once we provide the background story to it to talk about by being on this country, the connection of a language, country, culture, and history of our First Nations people and looking at how do we heal and recover from colonisation, invasion, and also around the historic removals and the acts and that helping us be grounded and centred in our approach to support them, to hear their story in a way that they want to share it with us and for us to feel connected to it as well by putting our feet in the sand or in the water or wherever we are sitting at the moment in time. For us, it's a little bit of what we do as part of our healing service and our approach to mob.
And I will use mob as part of my narrative as well, if that's okay. It is around making sure that we are also providing, I suppose, an education outcome to say that this is why it's important, this is why we do it, and that it also is about our own wellness and wellbeing that as an Aboriginal person, it helps connect us to the place that we live and work. And it's really an opportunity for all of us to think about what that means for us as individuals and as people in this country around the land that we are all living on. Thank you, Michelle.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Oh, Daphne, I think that's such a beautiful description. And since we've been talking in preparation for today, it's become a little daily wellbeing practise for me about just as I sit down each morning about taking my shoes off and having a few minutes of just sort of quiet reflection and thinking about how am I connected to land and how do I want to walk on that land today and what are the footprints or the lack of footprints that I may want to leave? Thank you for already giving us such a beautiful tool to help care for our health, safety, and wellbeing.
Daphne, of course, Sue mentioned in her beautiful introduction and Ivy, so much has been written in terms of frameworks and tools and beautiful research done to help us understand more about trauma informed Aboriginal holistic healing. Can you help us understand though, for those that may not be across some of those frameworks and tools that have come out over the last few years, just what do we mean when we talk about trauma informed Aboriginal holistic healing and how might that help us when it comes to the health, safety, and wellbeing of the staff that we're all leading?
Ivy:
You go [inaudible 00:19:19].
Daphne Yarram:
We're going to tag team. When we talk about trauma informed healing and recovery, we talk about history and part of that, and we'll talk about culture led later, it's around this recognition that for all of us as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or First Nations peoples, that colonisation was only a couple of generations ago. And the impact of invasion and colonisation still is part of our lived memory because we're an oral people and oral traditions and stories are passed out from generation to generation. And for us is that when we work in this space and we talk about someone sharing their story, I'm being mindful of the vicarious trauma or that I've noted even in my own personal life, having worked in a space for a long time, my mom who we have blessed to still have a life, she's 85 years old and still is really active in our community and she was in this lifetime, a part of the acts and the legislation that impacted on Aboriginal peoples movements, Aboriginal peoples identity or lack of access to services and supports for many years.
And then was impacted by the removal of children in the '30s to '70s where some of our relatives were actually removed and mom was living on a mission when events happened that occurred and that's a part of her lived experience. And from her lived experience, she shared those stories with her children and her siblings. And what that did, I suppose around this trauma is about informing us in the way that she shared it with us, she got really distressed. Because mom's distressed, we were getting distressed too and I think for me it was about we took on board her story and her trauma and I have now adult children who are just gorgeous and I made sure that I share those stories, sitting with my mom and mom retelling it, getting distress. And so my kids also heard the stories in a way that it was framed and got really emotional and connected to it.
And a mate of mind had, not long ago, which is really surprising that I've been carrying this around a lot, was that we can't own a story of nan, mom. We can appreciate what happened, but throughout our life, all of our communities have had similar experiences of removal or racism or trauma or discrimination and they share it with their family members. And when you share those emotive responses and that, we carry some of that and our obligation is to carry it so we don't forget it. And therefore when we talk about intergenerational and transgenerational trauma, it impacts on all of us. When we talk about in today's setting, we already know that we have to be really conscious of hearing the stories in a way that we are a little bit independent of it so that we don't become emotional in it, and add to the sadness and or not being able to respond in a way that we have some impartiality, but acceptance of, we have an understanding. Anything you'd like to add, Ive?
Ivy:
No, that was good. [inaudible 00:23:01] when we look at our staff, you'll find that-
PART 1 OF 4 ENDS [00:23:04]
Ivy:
So when we look at our staff, you'll find that all Aboriginal people have been affected and do carry a bit of trauma in what that means throughout their family history and legacies that have been passed down. And it's about how and as Daphne was saying when telling of the yarns and telling of the story and sharing that is about how then do supervisors and managers look after their staff if something has happened within the community or within their family? Because anything that happens in the community affects all of Aboriginal people. When we look at trauma informed practise and what that looks like to working with, on the ground with community, it's about the whole person and it's about enabling them to tell the story and acknowledging that story. But don't... Try not to carry that story with you because this is their journey and they need you to be the one to hold sometimes that story for them so that they're able to work through whatever it is that they need to work through and that you are able to hold that and walk beside them.
Because a lot of our communities and some of our staff sometimes lose hope about has society really changed for us because are we moving forward because of things that still happen within our community? And it's about managers, team leaders, understanding what's happening out in the community and supporting the staff. It's about making sure you have a really good relationship with the Aboriginal staff member so that you can tell if something's going on and being open to what they might need to help their community.
Because we don't work nine to five. Community members. We're 24/7. And trauma... I mean, I was just thinking when Deb was talking that in 1967, we were both around there. Prior to that we were both flora and fauna. So when people say, but that was history you still... People still know Aboriginal people that have been affected and still have issues that have been passed down through legislation and policies and it still carries today some of those in which is not letting community lead what that should look like. It's still being not quite as badly dictated to us. It's best for the community and that's not what we need at the moment.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Ivey, you were talking beautifully again in preparation for some of today's conversation around then. Well how as leaders and team leaders do we support our First Nation staff members when it comes to health, safety and wellbeing? And as you were describing then that need to understand what's happened, yes, inter-generationally, but also the double dose of trauma that can be occurring here and now because that connection to culture and country and community is so important to the holistic healing through that cultural lens. And how then as team leaders, supervisors who don't have an Aboriginal background, how do we unlearn some of those perceptions that we might hold or misunderstandings we might have so that we can actually show up with more curiosity and understanding and how we best support. Can you help us maybe understand a bit more about the double dose of trauma that Aboriginal staff members may be experiencing? But also how do those of us who don't come from an Aboriginal background like myself, how do we unlearn what we need to unlearn to be a better support for the wellbeing of our Aboriginal team members?
Ivy:
That's really good question.
And I love when you asked that question.
Do you want me to just...?
Daphne Yarram:
You can lead it.
Ivy:
Okay. For me and you're right Michelle, because we live in two worlds and we have to survive in the two worlds. And it's really hard because sometimes in the non-Aboriginal world that some of the decisions and some of the things within the workplace, if they don't work by Aboriginal organisations being mainstream services go against the grain of what it is or goes against cultural beliefs or goes against... There might be backlash for this Aboriginal worker if they follow processes and policies that the organisation say this is what you have to do. It's so we... That's just our way of life and there's pressure in that because we live in our communities that we have obligations and commitments and protocols that we have to follow and that's who we are. That's culturally is so important that because that's our existence as Aboriginal people. But having to live the wider community again brings its own issues and stuff that we have to play ball in that court as well.
To unlearn for me when I talk to my staff is about they had come with some preconceived perceptions or views that this is what they learned in at school or they've worked in other states and this is what worked for Northern Territory, WA, New South Wales and trying to say, but it's not the same as in Victoria and that each Aboriginal person is an individual.
So what might work or support me might not necessarily work and support death. And it's the unlearning to be open to hearing the true history, unlearning to take into account trauma and other factors that come into play with Aboriginal people and not coming in... Because sometimes people come in with their own values or privileges and views and ideas and think well in family violence, well why don't you just leave? It's not that simple.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Yeah.
Ivy:
It's about being prepared to be the student.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Yeah.
Ivy:
And it's about being prepared to really put yourself in a vulnerable position to understand what's really going on and look at who you are as a person and so that you are able to then get a sense and have that empathy for the staff member or the community that you're working with.
I don't know if I answered that. I think...
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
No, I think that was beautiful Ivey. And it's again reminding me as we've, I've had the great pleasure and privilege of getting to know you both over the last few weeks a little in these early conversations. You also both gifted me with two beautiful tools. I've been experimenting with Ivey to try to unlearn some of those things that I need to. And one Daphne, you spoke to so beautifully and I'm wondering if you can share if you're happy to with everyone on the call around the power of a cup of tea moment and then the second Ivey, you have taught so beautifully and we shared a beautiful video that you provided on deep listening. So maybe Daphne, can you talk to the cup of tea moment if you're happy to do that or take that anywhere else you want to go? And then it'd be beautiful also to hear some of that wisdom around deep listening and how do we be present, Ivey, to your point, to unlearn what we previously perhaps thought we knew.
Daphne Yarram:
Thanks Michelle. And thanks Ivey. I suppose it's around, there are some frameworks and resources that we hope to continue to share with both you Ivey and Sue around some of our work experiences. And some of that goes to when we look at working in two worlds and how we find that sometimes it's really challenging, as I've said, that the systems that we operate in may not have a cultural lens over it and that is a Western model of practise. And so we are seeing there's a movement to have in place Aboriginal learning and Aboriginal perspectives across curriculums, whether it's in social work psychology and also just in management practises within organisations. And that the Nanny Bram framework and also there's a self-determination framework through the state. And there's also the Aboriginal cultural safety framework that has a cultural safety continuum. Tools that help challenge our perspectives on how we operate as a workforce working to support Aboriginal aspirations and Aboriginal clients and Aboriginal staff.
And in it asks us to be self-reflective of what that looks like and to look at our conscious and unconscious bias to look at the unlearning of some of the philosophical and historic concepts that we've had around First Nations people and our vulnerabilities and the stereotyping and not looking to our strengths and our resilience and our continual survival and revival and connection to place, country, community, language and culture. And I think for me, as we're we are today and we unpack that a little bit, it'll be great. And part of that conversation is about this area, about creating safe spaces and the cup of tea moments where we can encourage our non-Aboriginal ally staff supporters, friends and workers around asking some really controversial questions of curiosity that may come across as being maybe discriminatory or racist or very naive.
And for us to hold ourself responsible to provide a response and an action and an explanation of why it might sit uncomfortable for us or think about a different way of approaching that subject or that conversation, whether it's team member or an Aboriginal person in the organisation. Because when we talk also about our cultural load, the expectation and the demand should not be that the Aboriginal person employed in any organisation is the only expert. And...
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
How do we balance that, Daphne? I love, and you've been and Ivey so open with me as we've been preparing for today to say, ask me anything, you won't offend me. And I'm like, well that's such an amazing gift to give me. And I'm also aware of, I have a responsibility to educate myself and to know more things.
So when we think about, one of the ways you described that cup of tea moment, was to me was sort of like when we can see perhaps one of our team members is struggling a little bit or they don't look their usual kind of selves, how do we just take the time to sit down over a cup and say, tell me what's happening. But then I'm also mindful, Daphne, I'm guessing it may be a question for other leaders on the call as well, how to know to that generous invitation you're making about it's okay to ask versus I'm adding to your cultural load and what's enough. And I'm guessing it's a little case by case, person by person here. So feel free to say that any guidance you've got on that is so helpful I think for all of us.
Daphne Yarram:
Absolutely. I think, and I'm for years, our little service that we have developed and are working to enhance our cultural safety framework. We do activities that look at how do we build our cultural knowledge within our service to support our non-Aboriginal ally workers and we do case management and all sorts of things to look at if they are struggling to work with a client or find some challenges that they utilise Aboriginal clinicians and set up meetings to organise that to be respectful to the load that our Aboriginal staff have. The other part of that, and I think Michelle made is about this perception that we are the authors and are obliged to do it because we're employed in the organisation. And I think that is false. I think it's my expectation is that everybody has an obligation as part of their personal development to be curious to go and educate themselves and be supported to do that in a way that it helps them have a better understanding and also enhances the way they do work in the workplace.
I love learning, I think training and the opportunity to participate in activities that even what you walk away with is something new that you can put into the workplace and or a part of your own personal development. And I think for me, that history has shown, and I've worked this place a long time, is that the demand that Aboriginal staff have imposed on them to provide the nadoic activities, to do the reconciliation week response because people feel a bit uncomfortable because it's an Aboriginal event.
Let's do away with that fallacy. Let's recognise it as all citizens of this country. Let us celebrate our First nations people and honour and be respectful to participation in a process so that we learn collectively a little bit more about our shared history and our being uncomfortable in the space is, okay. I welcome people being uncomfortable, a bit nervous because we don't know. And part of our obligation as part of today is to encourage you all to be curious and ask questions. And even if you get a response that might feel a bit uncomfortable, that's okay. Because what you've done is taken that first step to look at how do I look for me as a practitioner or a manager or supervisor or a frontline worker. How can I, in my uncomfortableness be think about why I'm uncomfortable and what do I need to do to help me move forward?
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
And I think that's so important, Daphne, in a beautiful segue, Ivey, to the deep listening skills. Do you want to talk to us a little bit about the beautiful video from Miriam that we shared as pre-work for today? And we'll send it back out with today's recording for those that want to look at it. But I think... I know For myself that I can be really curious, but when I hit that uncomfortable moment, Daphne, that's my sign to listen more deeply. Ivey, so can you help us understand how can we use this deep listening skill better?
Ivy:
Okay. Oh, before I just get onto that, Michelle, I just wanted to just add on from Daphne about the unlearn little bit. And we have a lot of non-Aboriginal staff that work in our space that bring amazing, amazing skills and it's about... So it's a learning both ways for us. And so when I work with them and around the cultural lens, I also have to think about where they're coming from and their experiences and their background and influences. Because when we employed them, we saw that they were special, that we felt safe with them, and we thought that by feeling safe with them, we thought our community would be safe with them. And they bring a wealth of skills and knowledge that we hadn't...I hadn't used in my practise. So it's about us joining it together from what they bring and tweaking it so it fits into the cultural work lens that we do within our community.
So we have to be mindful when working, especially in our space because we have a number of non-Aboriginal people that we have to still... It's not all our way and our learning because what they bring is some skills, but it's how we do that together. And as long as they can understand and bring that lens and work with our community in a safe way so community feels safe with them, then that's an amazing gift that we both... They end up with and we end up with, if that makes sense.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Absolutely. So Ivey, I'm hearing the deep listening goes both ways.
Ivy:
Yes. You could say that. It's that deep listening about being comfortable in the silence of listening to what's going on. It's about... Because a lot of people aren't comfortable in the silence. If you're with doing something with a staff member and they're trying to work something out. If the staff member is working it through processing, a lot of people are not comfortable in that and will start to talk or ask more questions and make the situation worse than what it should be.
It's about going back into yourself and being reflective. If everyone had watched the video. It's about when she spoke about the river and the current and it's deep underneath that current, that is so important. And that's when we are deep listening and we are listening to the river and we're listening to everything else around it, it's what's underneath that's so important that we might miss if we're too busy interrupting or throwing our point of view because we want to know this or we think we're helping that person, but we're not really, because we are not sharing and connecting with whoever that person is. That deep listening is so important and it's an important skill because when people talk to you, they'll give you subtle hints of what's going on with them. And you have to be ready to pick up those hints that some people don't feel safe or comfortable with team leaders or managers. And so if you are bringing them and you're talking to them, it's about making them feel safe and listening for those little red flags that might come up and hold them. Don't go straight into fixing them.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Get it done.
Ivy:
And go by the pace of the person that's sitting in front of you.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
I loved Ivey in Miriam's video that invitation. That to know me is to breathe with me.
Ivy:
Yes.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
And to breathe with me is to listen deeply and to listen deeply is to connect. And so when you are encouraging us there to sit in the silence, I'm thinking about Daphne, some of those cup of tea moments where perhaps we might notice for one of our team members, maybe just something's going on there and so can we sit down for a yarn or a conversation? And Ivey, your encouragement that some of that might be as much about the silence as anything that is actually said in that moment. And I loved Miriam's reminder, Ivey as you were talking to there, that we cannot hurry the river. We need to move with the currents and understand its way. And that always reminds me, what is the energy that we each bring?
And sometimes, yep, we are ready to flow forth and learn new things and try new things together. And other times we actually just need to sit beside each other in what we're feeling in that moment. And that can be the greatest gift and the greatest piece of the healing that we need. And Ivey, I know you've been thinking about how then do you apply that as a leader yourself in supervision experiences with your team? Can you talk about then, for the leaders listening today, how do those simple practises translate through into the way that you supervise through that cultural lens?
Ivy:
Well, I was going to ask Daphne to go first.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Daphne, pass it over.
Ivy:
With the exec level to share from because I've worked with the practitioners on the ground. So I thought it would be good for Daphne to go there.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Go Daphne. Be amazing.
Daphne Yarram:
Oh, but my sibling is my older sister, so definitely concede that if she's telling me to go first, I will. But I think for me, besides the, what's really integral to the deep listening is also about giving time. Privileging that person with you and you invested in the conversation you're going to have with them and not leave the room and be distracted by phones, emails, people knocking on the door. Part of our respect and responsibility is to ensure that if we're going to do supervision or support with our...
PART 2 OF 4 ENDS [00:46:04]
Daphne Yarram:
If we're going to do supervisional support with our colleagues, our allies, aboriginal staff, whoever we are making time for that we commit to that time and not leave them feeling that it's a procedure, it's a process that we have to do because we're obliged to do it as part of our organisation responsibilities. I think to me, supervision is about that cup tea moment, that relationship that you have with that individual and setting it up in a way that they are the focus and the centre to that moment and time with you and it is all about them. For me, in the supervision I do with our managers and management within our organisation, it is setting time aside, booking it in and then looking at a location that they feel safe, that they want to do it. We don't have to do it in my office while they're [inaudible 00:46:58] office now doing. We could go and have a coffee because I love coffee. [Inaudible 00:47:02] an organisation or go and get a takeaway and sit somewhere that is comforting, that is on country to sit.
And then, the conversations about providing the opportunity for them to talk about... When we talk about supervision, there's a whole lot of templates and a whole lot of processes and procedures that go to making sure they address their work plan, how are they travelling, what does that look like? For me, it's more about that person, and how they're travelling, whether it's their personal and family life as well as their relationships within our organisation, what their workload looks like, what do I do to support it? Do they need support around training other challenges that they have? It is more of a conversation piece and it is more about the relationship that they have with me.
I see myself as a support person to them in the workplace. I did a lot of back in house as a CEO, but my investment in our organisation is the staff. They are the connectors to our community to create safety for our [inaudible 00:48:13]. For me, it has always been privileged to work with them to say what is it that you need to do the things that you need to to support our community. It goes to that definitely deep listening, definitely finding a place that they are excited about to go and have coffee with me and they identify it and then I just come. That conversation piece about then how you're travelling, what does it look like? How can I support you? What are some of the challenges that you're facing within the workplace? What are some of the work that I've allocated that you've had to do? How is that track? What does that look like for you at the moment? Is there other resources or supports or staff that I can get to support you?
It is not about ticking the box and responding to a process, it is about my cup of tea moments, sitting and yarning with them and looking at the person holistically, looking at everything that's going on for that staff member because I don't know what happened to them last night. I don't know what's going on in their family life. And if they're aboriginal staff, there's a lot of stuff going on in our family life. Later on, a little bit later we talk about what cultural load and the impact of that impacting on our workforce is really significant. For me, it is around those yarns and those stories about making sure their family and they're okay, looking at moments where we can have family days and do things with the whole family, so they get to see their family, what our workers do in the workplace. I think about that work life relationship is so important.
The last thing I want to say about that before I hand it back to Ive, is around being mindful of what's going on for them. I know at some stage, I talked to Sue about this and looking at supervision for staff and it's about my sitting in the tree moment. I knows all about this about if I'm sitting in a situation and we talk about not so much for a curious trauma, but if we're uncomfortable in listening to what someone is saying to us and what's going on for them, I always think about myself, removing myself and sitting up in my drink and looking at how I'm behaving and why am I feeling this uncomfortableness with my staff member in what they're saying to me and what do I need to do about my behaviour and why I'm feeling this anxiety or anxiousness to think about, well, what is it that is posing this challenge for me to address and respond to.
When I do that, I'm able to have a better picture of what's going on in the room. And I think that's a great tool and I know that when I do that and I've shared it with my sister, I get a twiggle or a branch and have it on my desk because it just reminds me that if I feel that whatever the setting is, if I feel a bit uncomfortable or I'm a bit anxious that I need to not physically but psychologically relocate myself to have a look at what's going on. I use that as a tool for our supervision and our staff if we needed a mediation or conflicts and stuff like that. I gift it to our staff as well to say, think about this and when you're holding this in your hand, think about if you were sitting up looking at our conversation, what was it about it that we need to have certain conversations about.
I think utilising some of those tools, being really mindful of giving space and time for that person and respecting and supporting their journey in the work that they do with us.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Can I just add, Ivy, before we come over to you, there was so much richness in that, so thank you, Daphne. I love the sitting in a tree moment. I'm going to need a twig on my desk or a branch before the end of today. I'm going to add that to my leadership toolkit. But I also love, Daphne, the fact that you acknowledge that staff are our connectors to our community. I think so often, it's easy to miss that importance then that for us as leaders. It is our job to help look after the wellbeing of our staff because our staff at the end of the day, the people out there connecting to community, so thank you for that. Ivy, let me pass it over to you.
Ivy:
I think for me, in regards to around supervision, it's about building the relationship with the staff so that they feel safe in being able to come and sit and I'm able to get the truth from them, that they're not scared to tell me everything that's going on. It's about knowing a lot of time, a lot of managers will come in and get them into emails, get on their phones and not say hello to their team, doesn't know the names of everybody, doesn't know their interests. It's important to make yourself known to the staff members so that if they have to come to you, they feel safe in doing that. They know that you're the manager, but they know that you have an interest in them. Everyone at our service, it's an open door policy and I have team members coming in and they'll sit around and we'll yarn and it's like, "I have so much work to do, please get out," but it's nice for them to come in and feel safe to do that.
When I do supervision, it's easy to do with them. We look at our job roles here, we have a title, but everyone chips in when something has to be done. We have the CEO that's either cooking on a barbecue or at reception because other staff are doing something else. They see that management is getting down and dirty with everybody else, which is a wonderful thing because it then builds that relationship and that connection so that they then feel safe to know that they can go to Daph's door and come and have a yarn with Daph and they do that.
If we know that staff are having issues throughout our service, we've had staff that have been worried about pets. We've had a lamb in the backyard for the [inaudible 00:54:26], we've had birds, because they weren't well. They had a wing thing or something. We've had a goat, we've had puppies. It's because Daph's view as the CEO is that if they come to work and they know that whoever their little baby is crook and they can give them the medication, we get the best out of them. If they come to work and we're worried about what's going on, there's no point in being there. It's about supporting them and other organisations think we're a bit strange because we have those.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
I think you're as always ahead of the times, lots of good science trying to catch up with you on the benefits of animals in the workplace and what they do. But also, as you're speaking to so beautifully there that it helps us to stay present while we're at work because the things we care about are around us as well.
Ivy:
Exactly. The supervision is their time. It's not my time. It's their journey about what's going through, what's working for them, what's not working for them. It's about their caseload, what they're struggling with. If there's issues out there with the community, it is all about them. It has nothing to do with me. Most of the time, we're sitting on the river when we do it or we're sitting at the beach or we're sitting... I hardly do supervision in the office because it's...
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
I think that in itself is a good tool to give everybody today. Maybe supervision should not be happening in the office, but by the river or the beach or under the tree or whatever connection to country might be available to us.
Ivy:
Then it's just you and that person. You don't have the interruptions of anybody else and you give them 100% of you which is so important.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
One of the other things you've both been speaking to me about in these past few weeks is the importance of letting people own their stories, that we are our own knowledge holders. Can you speak to some of that for us? Because I think part of that listening, Ivy and Daphne, that you are describing so beautifully is that acknowledgement that people are the knowledge holders of their own lives and how do we, as leaders, help support them in both surfacing that and having confidence in actually what they know as their truth?
Daphne Yarram:
I suppose it's that holistic model of health that we use and there's a couple of wheels and diagrams that talk to that about that person holds the power of their safety and wellbeing and the decision that they need to support their journey, whether it's of recovery or in the workplace. For us, it's about it's the ownership and the response that we provide is to support their journey and their story.
When we talk about doing any work or whether it's in supervision, it's about providing that opportunity, the cup of tea, sitting on the river with their feet in the water for that staff member to hopefully feel comfortable enough to share what's going on for them and their ownership of that because there's no way that, well, I'll just say for me, that I'm not going to be respectful and accept that this is what's happening for them. I might be curious about what they might need to support them, but as they privileged me with their story and what's going on for them and their little family all in the workplace and what's going on for them, it's about honouring that they are telling us their story.
I can't come in with preconceived concepts or I cannot come in and or listen to not so much gossip or get feedback from wherever and use that bias as part of my supervision with this person. I need to be able to absolutely be impartial and be curious and just ask the question about how they're travelling and what's going on for them and respect and honour what they're telling me. There are times that I have issues with some of my own views about what that might look like because I might think I know everything, but I acknowledge and I keep being gently reminded, not only in my workplace but through the work that we do with our mob, is that it is their story, it is their journey and it's their responsibility to work out what options and solutions that they need to help them move forward.
I'm a resource for them to support them as part of whatever that looks like. It is so privileging to, as I've said to know our workers around their family and their story because you get to see the humanness, the person who they are and how they do their work and how their contributions and their tools and skills and resources and lived in life experience help enhance our servers. If they're frontline workers, whether it's our receptionist or whether it's our prevention education team or if it's our clinical team, getting to know the person as that individual and the human that they're helps us look at how we provide services to our [inaudible 00:59:50] in a much more informed way and for them to be safe in their journey of work as much as it is for clients of our service.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
I was like, "Yep, we're there."
One of the other tools that you have been speaking to me about that you use in your service is around the power of mentoring and the observer shadow piece. Can you help our other team members listening and watching today, can you help them understand how you use that?
Daphne Yarram:
I think I'll use I as my example. Where we have new clinicians, whether they're first nations or our allies, part of our induction process is that they cannot see clients will use the clinical team as an example first. They cannot go out and see our clients unless they're either shadowed or supported by I or our practitioner as well, just to build that relationship, the connection to clients, that safety for clients being introduced so that there's a protocol around making sure that the client or other staff members are feeling comfortable with this arrangement to be supported. That's one example of it. For our clinical team who may come from other organisations as well, it is around being supported by our aboriginal practitioners or myself around what is the background knowledge that they need to do, what are some of the own self education and learning that they need to do that we resource them with and provide a whole lot of videos.
We have a, what do you call it, SharePoint. As part of their induction, they look at a lot of information, they've provided reading materials, and then they become curious and come and ask us stuff. And then we look at, well, how do we put processes into practise? That's where they might go out with I to see one of Ivy's clients and with permission from the client that we invite this practitioner and then, they observe and shadow what their communication, the relationship looks like, what practise and ideas that I've had to work with that client around their goals and their journey map about what they hope to do, listen to if there's any conflicts or any challenges that person has so that our other worker who's sitting there shadowing or listening is learning from that experience. Learning around the communication and the language used, learning around how Ive and Billy or myself are setting up the arrangement for the meeting so they can see how we do it and why we do it.
The other part of that is that on the way home, if we're driving to our location, all the curiosity is able to be responded to because they might say, "Why did you do that? How did that happen?" For us, it helps knowing their practise helps them to have a better understanding of what it looks like in our space. Even for aboriginal practitioners, it's about there new ways of doing work in our space and being more community minded or culturally responsive because they may not be from countries, so being mindful of traditional [inaudible 01:03:12] stuff and protocols that we need to be mindful of.
The other part of it is about in mentoring do as I've said, we have an open door policy, so staff will come in and if they talk about, there might be a client that they'd be really challenged with about engaging and supporting and not sure if they do come back and have yarn with us about what that looks like and then, we do stuff within our organisation like PD days to say that we're going to talk about journey mapping and what are some tools that you guys can use as resources for when you engage with our clients. We do that in house. And we might do it over lunch and people can then yarn with us and talk about it.
In the mentoring and observing and shadowing, it is really important to give them, build their confidence, build their skill knowledge, build their connection into the community and having them demonstrate through their own self-learning how they're going to implement stuff into practise. Because we have all these frameworks and strategies and processes that we have implemented in our organisation, we hope that that is an enabler for them so that they feel much more confident when they go out into the community first time.
We had a mission down here towards Aboriginal Trust on wonderful location and space with gorgeous community and around making sure that if we're going out there, we do the right thing: we bring them up, we ask the protocol, we make sure that we are advising people that we're coming and talk about our intention and where we're going to be located and what support. Those protocols and practises are learned by shadowing or mentoring or observing and they're not part of our induction because their actual processes and practises that we have in place. For us, the opportunity to create that space and process for our staff is really important.
Ivy:
I was just going to add that when you start going to a lot of other organisations, they don't get to shadow. They get to go in the deep end and hit the ground running and that's what they do. We won't do that because we want our community to be safe. When I've taken teams out and met with the community, they know they have to take either a cake or biscuits because you need food, any food, and fruit or whatever to go to whoever house they're going to so that they get an invitation in. They sit and have the cup of tea and they have that time.
But it's an example I can give is we did an activity in all Boston. We had four new clinical team members. We went down, all of us, only just started I think that week. They started that week. I said, "Come on, we head down there so they can meet the community." We get there and they said, "What do we do?" And I said, "You go, you talk, you sit with the community." If you see anybody that needs help, you help them. That's all I want you to do but I want you to connect with the community. I said, "Go. Be free, butterflies. Go and do your thing and let me know what that looks like." They struggled with that and I couldn't understand why because it's just about talking to people and that's it. All we want people to do is to engage. Yeah, so I still do that. I still throw them in a deep end there. I throw the life jacket out there but it's about helping them understand that there's protocols that we have to follow. That's what I take to come and sit with me when I'm working with clients.
If I think that they're comfortable and the client's comfortable with them, I ask them to contribute because they might see something that I've missed and it's important that we cover everything about that client. I give them an opportunity to say, "What do you think? Is this good or Have you got any other suggestions, or is there anything you want to add?" It helps them to feel safe in doing that because they're not going to say anything disrespectful or anything but it gives them an opportunity to actually have the courage to talk to a community member or the client and feel safe in doing that. As they've said on the way home, it's this nick and nick and nick about everything that happened and what was good, what was bad, what was ugly.
Yeah, it's so important to do that I believe, because it works for us. We can give to the community and say yeah. When the community rings up and needs support, we can say, "Yeah, we're sending Joe and he's a good man. You can trust him," and community then have our recommendation. And so, they'll give Joe a chance when Joe goes out by himself. It's so important to help staff working within Aboriginal organisations to work out in the community because staff are so open to it and just need a little bit of guidance. And once they've got it, they're good to go. They're really good and they can work anywhere.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
A mindful, Ivy, in what you're describing, there's the process piece of the...
PART 3 OF 4 ENDS [01:09:04]
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
In what you are describing, there's the process piece of the work that your team are doing. That's the more formal sort of task piece. But it's that again, more holistic nature of the Aboriginal approach around culture, country and community. Not just the task part. And that culture, country and community piece can't be contained in a document as much as we try. It's a lived experience and it's passed one person to the next person through the beautiful mentoring and shadowing that you're doing. And I'm also mindful both of you spoke so beautifully then around a word that kept coming up for the safety and wellbeing of your staff and that's the safe part right? And that makes sense. I think so much given the first nation's history in our country and that intergenerational trauma, Daphne that you spoke to at the very beginning, the dual trauma that can be going on in real time for your staff between what's happening in community in their mob at large as well as then what they're having to navigate for themselves.
And so I do think for wellbeing for all of us just because the way our brains tend to be wired, safety is such the foundational place where wellbeing begins. And you've spoken a lot throughout today about that. Daphne, I know also from your role you have to think about the safety from the HR perspective, that kind of bigger picture of leave and adios and how do we also have fun together? Because I often, there's a beautiful quote I love that sort of says "laughter is the best sound of safety", because we don't laugh if we're not safe together. Can you maybe talk to us a little bit through that HR lens for those of us who are leaders in those roles about how do you bring that need for safety into your work?
Daphne Yarram:
Oh, thanks Michelle. And I suppose I just want to add one more point towards something which relates to HR is that we do have a really interesting induction process and the template to say tick off to make sure we meet all these requirements and our induction actually goes for a month, say instead of the week or however those people use. But because we have four site locations, because we cover two LGAs, our staff, that might be based on one end, don't get to see the other staff because they're based in one of the LGAs and therefore they don't have that engagement.
So for me it's really important about as part of that process, they get invited to each site location, have a buddy who we are organising that they will be there if they don't have their manager or HR to do it, that someone else a part of our team who's been in our organisation a while can be that person that staff member contacts just it might be for personal staff around their, what do they call it? Salary packaging or their leave requests or whatever it might be that they know that they can go to that person to be the buddy to just ask a question and not feel embarrassed if they can't reach anybody else. The other part is about the site visits, the requirement is that their supervisor will travel with them, introduce them to each location. We do the SharePoint where we say "Welcome Daph the new CEO of our organisation. She'll be doing visits to each site to meet everybody, maybe a cup of tea moment down there, make sure you feed her", or whatever.
So across the site where we've got new staff, we put in a process that they are invited out with their supervisor in a timely way within that month because we know we can't do it all in the week. And they go and visit the sites and meet with all our staff at each location and be invited to ask each staff member what they do, whether it's back of house, whether it's prevention, education. And in our clinical space too because a number of our practitioners have significant roles and different programme areas that they're responsible for. So that's the other part. And then we have our cultural induction and that goes to speak to the points that Ivy talked about more importantly about getting an understanding of trauma, getting an understanding of our cultural protocols within our organisation, having an understanding of acknowledgement and welcome to country that each of our events have significant protocols and symbolism of what we need to do.
Making sure that if it is a practitioner that's coming to work with us, that they're provided the opportunity to shadow, make sure that they have an understanding and working within our space be invited to meet with other aboriginal practitioners in other organisations and set up networks. So it is quite comprehensive but what it does is that it helps, I suppose for in their first month of operation that it provides them with some background information and resource support to hopefully make them feel comfortable and be accepted into the organisation instead of not in an ad hoc way but more inclusive and that they become a part of the team in not so much a quick way but a more, I say holistic way so that they feel that they have a knowledge of whoever's in their understanding of roles be supported as part of their journey into this new role.
And a lot of aboriginal organisations, we do operate very differently to some of the mainstream ones. We do have unique practises and processes that we have in place. So we weren't there because they have wanted to work with us and we're really happy to have them. We want to make sure that their first entry point, their first experience is welcoming, supportive and safe and that they have the opportunity to learn in a reasonably quick time to be supported to get out there to do the work that they need to do. So that's our first one. And by saying that, we also know that for our staff that we work in family violence, we have all of our team across our programme areas, sexual assault, men's behaviour change, in terms of case management, trauma informed counselling and support therapeutic care.
So in all the work we do, all of our staff are impacted. As I've said, I could be doing a home visit with one of our clinical team to go and make sure I do a wellness check on a client. I could be manning reception because somebody's had to go off to backfill somebody else. Or I could be doing clinical work as part of my own personal background and work. And so for us it's about making sure that we create spaces where staff feel valued. And how we do that is every three months we have a staff event where different members of different teams of our service, so our operations teams, our prevention and education team and our clinical team work out who are going to be a part of a team to do the next all of organisation event. So we shut down our organisation for the day, but all our clients know, send out notices to say that we're doing team PD day today and it could be anything and we're open to all of it.
I'm not open to going on the water because I can't swim. But our team think about what that might be to do team building and support so that they are supported around that. And that is something that we've embedded into the organisation and we do days, like we do, it's really... I'm trying to increase the number of days that we celebrate our First Nations people. It doesn't have to be just reconciliation week and Zach, even though we had a public holiday NAIDOC week, International Day of Indigenous People, children's day, harmony day. So we try to look at how do we create awareness and support for our staff to sort of have and put on them other opportunities to learn and have a better understanding of First Nations people. And the other part for me more importantly is that encouraging our staff to take the time off that they need to. I'm not a very good example so [inaudible 01:17:36]
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
I was going to say Daphne, how do you look after your wellbeing as the leader of all of these things? But I do know you've just had a week off and your family took the computer away so that you couldn't log on.
Daphne Yarram:
Exactly, lovely. And that's the first time in three and a half years. And so I have accumulated quite a debt of audios and working really long hours as part of our accreditation this year to do till. And so our board really got a bit cross with me [inaudible 01:18:06]
Reinforce for me and our HR business to look at our legal liabilities, encourage the managers of all our staff who have significant RBOs and annual leave to take leave. It is absolutely a work cover or health and work risk. And because we work in this space, I'm very conscious of ensuring people try to do their self-care, encourage them to have the leave that they need to. We just this week gifted Monday off for staff who work on Mondays to have a longer weekend and we had a small crew to be on call to cover Monday. So it's looking at your workforce and your workloads and getting feedback from your staff, which is really critical to the success of this because it's not about me saying what we're going to need. It's about being curious and asking them and getting their feedback on things that they think would be a value for us as an organisation, as a whole team.
And we do stuff not only for our staff but we also look at engaging with our board and our governance so that our staff have this relationship to feed the commitment of their management and governance. And I think for me it's really important. And the other part is about, like I say, some of our team are thinking about going on a boat [inaudible 01:19:27]
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
And that's why I was laughing before because I know you've been working your way up to get on the boat. So I was going to ask how are we going in terms of the boat?
Daphne Yarram:
Ginger will help me but it will be part of my, I don't know what that's going to be called, but it'll be an aspiration for me to try to get to that point and we'll see what that looks like. But it's also about that connection socially through recreation because health and wellbeing is really important about our environment and doing stuff collectively as a team and the cultural activities where we're connecting with traditional owner groups or others who are bringing in and talking to us about country or taking us to sites of significant which we're really privileged about and telling the stories of the community and all of those things is about enhancing and improving our self-worth but more importantly our health and wellbeing.
And so they are the things that we do and would really love to see what other examples through other organisations that they have to be able to have the capacity to do it because it is so important. I can't stipulate and continue to say that we need to nurture and look after all of our staff because they are the frontline. They are the mechanism to help us do the work that we need to do.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Thank you so much. I'm mindful of time and we are coming to that moment to wrap everybody up, I want to just acknowledge and with great gratitude, thank both of you for the amazing array of tools and insights that you shared with us this morning. I'm personally going to try to keep up my practise of putting my bare feet on country each morning to remember that I'm connected to the land. I'm going to be looking for those cup of tea moments where I might be seeing my staff perhaps just needing a moment and practising Ivy, your beautiful deep listening and remembering that the silence is sometimes as important as the yarn and the conversation as we do that.
I love Daphne, thank you so much, your sitting in the tree moment when I'm supervising and knowing what might be my own work to do versus things that I need to be putting on my team and thinking Ivy about when we do have those conversations and we have a largely virtual team, but we could each have our feet in the river wherever we are or be sitting under a tree, like making I think better use of country as part of our thinking about how we support health, safety and wellbeing.
And Ivy, I loved your example of the shadowing, the mentoring, the observing and then letting the butterflies go and see where they go with it and then helping them when they get stuck. But you got to see where people are going to fly. And then I think again, Daphne, your beautiful holistic induction there so that by the time that somebody comes through that induction process, how have we made them feel accepted, not just supported to do the job but accepted to be part of our team and honouring that that takes time. It takes more than a week generally to get to know somebody and help them get to know us and to feel accepted in that and to make the space to do it. And your beautifully quarterly staff event days, rotating that around people and having the chance to tell the stories of the community. Yeah, Ivy, go for it.
Ivy:
I was going to say it gives them a sense of belonging.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Yeah, absolutely which is the key, right? [inaudible 01:22:54] That's where safety comes from.
Ivy:
Exactly.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
So much for each of us.
Ivy:
[Inaudible 01:22:57] that's so important.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Yeah. So I'm mindful I need to do about one minute to just let people know next event and what's happening with a big showcase. Would you like me to do that first and then I'll pass it back to you to close us out?
Daphne Yarram:
I just wanted to check with you Michelle, if there were any really heartfelt questions that might have been in the chat that we weren't able to respond to or provide feedback.? Because I always like people leaving with some tools or information that they invested their time with us today and privileged us with.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Definitely. So I think the only one we haven't answered is vicarious trauma and accepted and valued byproduct of sharing stories and how do we hold space and safety for those stories to be told. So I think Daphne a little bit to the beginning where we were talking about your mom and sharing those intergenerational stories and you were again describing beautifully about how do we, and I think that's part of that deep listening as well, how do we hear, and you were talking about how do we then own what's ours to own and let go of what is not. Does that sound right Daphne?
Daphne Yarram:
Oh, absolutely. And thank you for that. I think it is around that my tree moment is about what is it about what my mom or whoever is talking about and it's her story. I have to be respectful and acknowledge that it's her story, I'm affected by it but I don't own her story and her trauma but she's my mom. So I accept that when we talk about vicarious trauma, it's not then to affect the way we live, we breathe the way we do our work. It is just that acknowledgement that this has had an impact on us and for us to be mindful of it and be conscious of it, about that anxiety or how we feel and own that, not own her story and her trauma but own our response to it. So I think that's really important.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Yeah, thank you so much. And so as we get ready to wrap up, for those who've been listening to this conversation today, if you would like to put any words of appreciation or thanks for Daphne and Ivy in the chat, we will absolutely make sure that those get to them. We have our next leadership seminar, our fourth and final in this series coming up on the 30th of May. So 10 o'clock the 30th of May. I am just going to launch a quick poll on the screen and if you want to help us guide the topic of that, we always said that the last in this series would be your chance to help pull together anything that's been covered. We've been tracking all your comments in the chat over all of the seminars. We've also been getting feedback on some of the evaluation forms and things like that. So I've just launched that poll on screen.
You can choose multiple options is fine. If you do hit other, maybe pop in the chat what those other topics might be to help guide us, but we want to make sure that next session on the 30th of May honours your time and tries to bring together as best we can all the learning that we've been having. And while you are voting on that, I will also let you know and we're going to add a link in the chat for this. We are on the 13th of July at 10:00 AM going to have a showcase for the different pilot sites that have been having some of the wellbeing labs, health safety and wellbeing coaches working hand in hand with them so that they can come back and share the tools that their teams have co-created around the health safety and wellbeing guide for the sector. And that you can steal those tools with pride to help look after your teams as well.
So the 13th of July, there is a link going into the chat now where you can register for that event and we will send that in the follow-up information as well. But this will be a showcase again of just different organisations across the state who have been really intentionally focusing on how to support the health safety and wellbeing of their teams over the last nine months with this help of some coaches. And again, those teams will bring the tools that they've co-created so that you can steal them and use them for your own benefits. And then just lastly, we will also pop into the chat the evaluation form for today. And as always very open to all your feedback. Bethany, I loved your question about how are we travelling And so this evaluation forms a chance to let us all know how are we travelling when it comes to providing these kind of seminars for you. So on that note, Daphne and Ivy, I'm going to pass it back to you to close us out however you would like to at this point.
Daphne Yarram:
Do you want to say something?
Ivy:
I just thank you for the opportunity and to you, Shaun, Amy and Sue, it was great. I didn't think we could talk for an hour and a half, but yes, it was a wonderful opportunity and I hope that we helped and provided tools to people and, if there's any hard questions or anything, contact us because it's about getting it right and we're both willing to share whatever we can to help because it's about making a difference to ensuring safety and support for workers within the organisations and in this space. And I wish you all well stay safe.
Daphne Yarram:
Thank you lovely. And I do want to add my voice to Ivan. Thank you for privileging us with spending this hour and a half in our busy lives. I know what it looks like from HR and supervisors and managers in our space and I do really appreciate the opportunity to share some of our stories and some of our practises and some of our knowledge and wisdom with you all and know that's been appreciated and look forward to further conversations. I know that there is some resources and tools that are really readily available through the department that you can access and have a look at. And I think there's other materials as well and videos that we can share with you outside of this moment.
I look forward to any feedback around what you might have implemented in your organisation from our conversation today because we always welcome looking at how can what we do in our space, create safer environments for our staff, for our clients, and for our community. And I wish you all safe journeys and strength in the work that you continue to do to create a safer community for all of us in Victoria and to all our mob who work in our space, we take great pride and continue to support our aspirations to create a safer community for all of us. So thank you for today. Thank you Michelle, Sue and Evie for your work behind the scenes and creating a safe space for us to sit and yarn with you because yeah, at 09:15 this morning, it was a bit hectic for me, but I've loved our conversation. I thank you Michelle for helping move it along and be inclusive and to everybody who's been a part of today, we want to thank you for the opportunity and look forward to yarning with you sometime in the future.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid:
Thank you so much. Thanks everyone. We'll look forward to seeing you for the next seminar series. Have a safe and well day. Thanks. Take care.
PART 4 OF 4 ENDS [01:30:30]
Updated