Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future: Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families

This online training outlines the skills and strategies needed to identify and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families experiencing complex trauma. It reflects the strengths, resilience and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This online course will develop your understandings of the historical and contextual factors that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; the impacts of intergenerational trauma; and the key principles for fostering safety in perinatal care. It will also outline essential pre-requisites and practical skills for talking with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents about complex trauma in the perinatal setting.

This course has been designed for non-Indigenous perinatal care providers working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families experiencing complex trauma. This includes those practitioners working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled or mainstream services, and those working in private practice.

This course has been developed by Emerging Minds in partnership with Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future, a project under Onemda, the Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander Health, Wellbeing, Equity and Healing unit, within the University of Melbourne.

This participatory co-design project, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Lowitja Institute, is led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners and researchers from the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Southern Cross University, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, We Al-li Pty Ltd, Monash University, Flinders University, the Aboriginal Medical Service Alliance Northern Territory, Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia, Orygen, VACCHO, Congress, Women and Children Health Network SA, Charles Darwin University, and Moorondi Aboriginal Community Controlled Health service, in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.