The Healing Foundation has today launched its second podcast in its new series on intergenerational trauma and healing.
This latest episode explores what identity means to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing and discusses how connection to culture plays an essential role in healing for young First Nations people and Stolen Generations descendants.
The Healing Foundation CEO Fiona Petersen said the latest Healing Our Way podcast offered a unique perspective from young people on the importance of staying connected to culture and identity.
“The Healing Our Way podcast takes us on a journey with strong young minds as they share their lived experience on their journey to healing,” Ms Petersen said.
“Our people have always had the answers to their own healing. Now we’re asking our young people about their perspectives about what it’s been like to grow up as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person in Australia.
“These stories, our young people’s lived experience, is all part of the truth telling and part of Australia’s past and ongoing narrative.”
Hosted by Jax Compton, formerly of 33 Creative and host of “The Real”, and developed in consultation with The Healing Foundation’s Youth Reference Group, episode two features Matt Doyle, Ryan Donohue Pitt, Karlie Stewart and Libby Brown as they explore the impact identity and culture have played in their healing journeys.
“For more than 60,000 years, our culture and our law have thrived. But since the trauma of colonisation and the Stolen Generations we have not been able to heal in the same way,” Ms Petersen said.
“With colonisation we were denied our knowledge, language, ceremonies and identity – the very things that tell us who are and where we belong.
“By returning to our culture and building strength in our identities we can stop the cycle of trauma and bring about positive intergenerational healing.”
The Healing Our Way podcast touches on sensitive and confronting themes around trauma and gives young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a chance to share their thoughts about intergenerational healing and the concept of truth telling.
You can listen to the first two episodes now at The Healing Foundation website or via Spotify and iTunes. The next episode from this series will be released next week.
The Healing Foundation is a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation that partners with communities to heal trauma caused by the widespread and deliberate disruption of populations, cultures and languages over 230 years. This includes specific actions like the forced removal of children from their families.
Media contact: Ben O’Halloran – 0474 499 911 or ben@healingfoundation.org.au
