One of the stages in realising community healing is to undertake a healing gathering or forum to identify the healing needs and priorities of the community.
Healing forums help communities to identify the issues that are causing disharmony and imbalance in their lives. They provide an opportunity for interested Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to define healing, understand the impacts of colonisation in their local context, discuss their healing needs, share information about healing work in their communities and develop healing strategies.
The contributions from forum participants help the Healing Foundation to better understand healing needs across Australia so we can target programs appropriately.
Over the last seven years we have supported four healing forums in Alice Springs and the Torres Strait. Since 2011 we have supported four healing forums, these can be viewed below.
In 2018, Aboriginal Affairs and the Healing Foundation rolled-out six OCHRE Healing Forums across NSW. Healing Forums are an opportunity for communities to engage directly with government and non-government agencies to:
- Increase understanding of intergenerational trauma and healing.
- Identify localised or regional issues and opportunities to improve the way government works with communities.
- Build local partnerships and support for healing.
- Inform a principles based policy approach for government to understand why and how agencies can adopt healing informed approaches into their business.
The NSW Healing Forum reports can be found via our resources section.
