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“To us, health is about so much more than simply not being sick. It’s about getting a balance between physical, mental, emotional, cultural and spiritual health. Health and healing are interwoven, which means that one can’t be separated from the other.”

- Dr Tamara Maclean, Australia's First Female Aboriginal Doctor

Aboriginal Cultural Supervision Yarning is one of a number of support structures to assist our Aboriginal workforce to negotiate walking and working in two worlds.

Aboriginal Cultural Supervision Yarning has been identified as a need for Aboriginal workers across the health sector.

Aboriginal Cultural Supervision Yarning holds justice and human rights at its core in recognition of the need for all people to have equity.

What is Cultural Supervision Yarning?

What is Cultural Supervision Yarning?

  • A collaborative and professional relationship that is developed with trust and cultural safety.
  • Encompasses Aboriginal worldviews and cultural values as a support structure for Aboriginal people working in various areas of health across the District
  • Supports learning and development; is a platform to support quality patient care and improve health outcomes for Aboriginal people and communities
  • Support to develop Non Aboriginal peoples skills and understandings when  working with Aboriginal people and communities
  • Provided by Aboriginal supervisors, the framework compliments other staff support structures
  • One of a number of support structures

Cultural Supervision is not:

  • Is not for managing, for performance monitoring or for developing knowledge about Aboriginal cultures
  • Does not replace Respecting the Difference training

Purpose of Cultural Supervision:

  • Having a space to be heard, to reflect, to set and work toward goals, to develop strategies that assist to address issues and challenges and to develop skills and expertise.
  • To recognise and respond to the impacts of vicarious trauma
  • To focus on the wellbeing and safety of Aboriginal people including staff and clients and communities
  • To focus on the strengths of culture, community and connections
  • To enable self-led processes to support wellness, empowerment and excellence in the work we do

Roles of Cultural Supervision - A collaborative partnership between all three:

  • Supervisees
  • Supervisors
  • Line Managers

Benefits of Cultural Supervision:

  • Amplify cultural knowledge and ways of working
  • Considers our cultural responsibilities in the work and in community
  • Reflect on practice and outcomes with our clients and stakeholders
  • Supports self-care
  • Increases confidence
  • Recognises and responds to vicarious trauma
  • Develops our skills & knowledge
  • Plans approaches to address workplace challenges

Who will be Cultural Supervisors?

  • Aboriginal people with strong sense of cultural connection and knowledge
  • Who have relevant professional experience and knowledge
  • Who values Excellence and our Core Values of collaboration, openness, respect and empowerment
  • Who have the skills and capacity to support others
  • Who naturally prioritise the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people including Aboriginal staff

What does Cultural Supervision look like?

  • Confidential scheduled catch-up in group or individual
  • Generally once per month in a culturally safe space or ad hoc if required
  • Yarning enabling a self-led process, guiding discussion to be reflective and goal focused
  • Face to face or via telehealth modes
  • Is voluntary with supervisors generally chosen by the supervisees. It is a relationship built on trust and confidentiality
  • Supervision agreement - what is to be achieved and structure
  • Agreed escalation pathway
  • Agenda and action plan aiming to build knowledge, skills, strengths & resilience

Training:

  • Spirit Dreaming – Mel Brown engaged as Trainer/Facilitator of Aboriginal Cultural Supervision Yarning
  • Cultural Supervision Yarning Supervisor training is a 2 day training course
  • No cost to employee undertaking the training except for possible travel and release of staff
  • Resources and Modules to support Supervisors will be available via the intranet page
  • The training package includes face to face and online elements
  • Long term sustainability will be via a Train the Trainer Package

Expectation of managers?

  • The Executive Leadership Team requires Managers support in Cultural Supervision
  • Gain familiarity with the Cultural Supervision Framework and actively engage in supporting your Aboriginal staff to be supervised
  • Embed the Cultural Supervision Framework into orientation and Excellence Tools such as rounding
  • Managers to release Aboriginal employees to become supervisors

Videos

Tools to enable Cultural Supervision

  1. Contractual agreement
  2. Agendas and Goals
  3. Aboriginal Cultural Supervision Yarning Log
  4. Aboriginal Cultural Supervisor Yarning Profiles

Expression of Interest to Participate in Program

  1. Expression of Interest to be a Supervisor
  2. Expression of Interest to Participate in Cultural Supervision

About the Trainer

Mel Brown  - Spirit Dreaming

Melinda Brown is an Australian Aboriginal Ngunnawal woman.

She has a Masters in Aboriginal Healing and Trauma.

Mel embraced her clairvoyant skills many years ago and embarked on a journey to understand her spiritual beliefs were not just limited to her Aboriginal culture, but shared throughout cultures.

Mel’s Aboriginal culture understands that spirituality belongs to the individual and embraces many different understandings of life and creation.

Our spiritual needs can be met by many belief systems.

The melding of cultures and spiritual beliefs lead Mel to create a range of Aboriginal Oracles cards which are increasingly recognised across the world as a medium to express our spirit.

Mel is always working on the “next” deck, embracing her creativity as a therapeutic way to understand our spirituality is individually unique for each and all of our Brothers and Sisters across the Universe.

CORPORATE IDENTITY

Mel started her career in child protection and has 10 years’ experience in the field, including managing the Aboriginal Child Protection Unit in ACT.

Mel Brown is the Director of Spirit Dreaming Education and Training Solutions and Australian Family Group Conferencing.

Mel Brown is an experienced Family Group Conferencing Facilitator , and Aboriginal Cultural Trainer and Lateral Violence Expert and develops and delivers workshops for government, non-government organisations and corporate businesses.

As a professional Speaker, Mel Brown presents workshops and papers in relation to Family Group Conferencing. Aboriginal cultural competency, lateral violence and well-being programs at conferences and Training Workshops Nationally and Internationally.

Mel Brown was recognised for her work in the area of service provision for Aboriginal families, and was awarded an ACT Public Service Award for the “Most Improved Services to Aboriginal Children and Families in the ACT”, by the ACT Chief Minister, and in 2011, NSW Industry & Investment recognised Mel as one of the top 3 Aboriginal business women in NSW.