Thread by @CroakeyNews

Back for the next session at @CATSINaM's #BackToTheFire conference event on Gadigal country - up first is Wiradjuri researcher/academic Professor Juanita Sherwood @CharlesSturtUni on:

Researching us back to life: decolonising our ways back to good health and wellbeing

#BackToTheFire: @WestRoianne welcomes Professor Juanita Sherwood, "close friend, colleague, mentor, warrior" - a nurse, teacher, lecturer, researcher, began in the 1980s at St Vincent's Hospital during the HIV/AIDS crisis

Professor Sherwood says she was at 2002 @CATSINaM meeting that was addressed on Cultural Safety by Maori nurse Dr Irihapeti Ramsden - "decolonisation been a part of everything I've done from that time on"

Decolonisation is about us "taking back our power, exercising our ways of knowing, being and doing, which is vital to our healthcare," says Prof Sherwood #BackToTheFire

Research has had a bad name in our communities for a very long time - Professor Sherwood on how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers/orgs/communities making monumental change now, influencing health settings/academy - "we do hold power here" #BackToTheFire

"People get hurt by not being heard. We need to listen. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been taught to listen...we hold the expertise, the way our people want to do business". Prof Sherwood #BackToTheFire

Professor Sherwood talking about a research project she did: "when you put a mother into prison, you disadvantage a whole extended family". #BackToTheFire

80pc of Aboriginal women in prison have children under 18: "the taking away of their motherhood was so devastated and led to further incarceration": Professor Sherwood #BackToTheFire @MegBastard

Research in our hands take longer because we do it properly, says Prof Sherwood talking about need for safe methods, focus on relationships. Her project demonstrated how ongoing colonisation contributed to every woman's incarceration

"Our organisations do provide the safety and respect - working with our people in prisons": Prof Sherwood #BackToTheFire

Acknowledging that you don't know something "is vital to being able to do research in a decolonising space", says Prof Sherwood.

"If your mind is busy thinking of the next question to ask, you're not listening deeply". #BackToTheFire

Seeking to be 'objective' violates Aboriginal ethics of reciprocal relationships: Prof Sherwood #BackToTheFire

Shift to 'knowledge seeker and knowledge holder' relationship versus 'coloniser and colonised': Prof Sherwood #BackToTheFire

#BacktotheFire

"Make sure you provide info back to community in a way they can access and utilise further down the track," says Prof Sherwood, saying academic papers not the outcome most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are looking to from research! #BackToTheFire

#BackToTheFire @WestRoianne with Prof Juanita Sherwood

"Oral history has to be recognised," says Aunty Dulcie Flower - "just because a non-Indigenous researcher has not published on it, doesn't mean it didn't happen" #BackToTheFire

Dulcie Flower talking about "horrifying" levels still of children being taken away from mothers - "it's the nurses who are doing it" in some settings #BackToTheFire

Next up at #BackToTheFire: Melanie Briggs, Dharawal, Bidigal, Wodi Wodi Wandandian on Yuin country from @WamindaSthCoast - Bulwul Balaang (strong women)

"To ensure Aboriginal women and their families are living self-determined lives...be at the forefront of truth telling".

. @WamindaSthCoast was chosen under #NHMRC grant with multiple partners to research/evaluate a Birthing on Country model ("the best start in life for our mums and bubs": Melanie Briggs #BackToTheFire waminda.org.au/birthing-on-co…

Many challenges and barriers to Birthing On Country model - major standout barrier for Melanie Briggs is mainstream reluctancy to return practices to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities/expertise - check this journalindigenouswellbeing.com/journal_articl… @WamindaSthCoast #BackToTheFire

@WamindaSthCoast Cultural Safety is foundational, says Mel Briggs: "If it's not in a document, that document is useless for us." Notes that govt/health authorities always talking re clinical risk, but not cultural risk. Here's link to the RISE framework. #BackToTheFire

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31279713/

Mel Briggs talking about racism in mainstream birthing systems/processes, including fear of having children removed/supervised #BackToTheFire

"We're always being led by community," Mel Briggs says of @WamindaSthCoast work, talking about the need to honour the fight of Elders/ancestors, understand identity and culture....#BackToTheFire

Balaang Healing is part of wrap around services at @WamindaSthCoast - "a saviour for many of us and many of our women". Melanie Briggs waminda.org.au/balaang-healin…

Also Dead or Deadly service - @WamindaSthCoast

waminda.org.au/health-and-wel…

"Yes I agree our Culture should be on level terms just as the Clinical aspect of our health system." #BackToTheFire participant

Melanie Briggs says @WamindaSthCoast has "flipped" approaches like @NSWHealth SafeStart - to be strengths based focus on women, what makes them fantastic #BackToTheFire www1.health.nsw.gov.au/pds/ActivePDSD…

"If woman are in a domestic violence situation, try and get accommodation with family because if they go into a safe house, under NSW law they are deemed homeless and face removal of their children into state care." Warning at #BackToTheFire

. @CATSINaM has a range of scholarships to be offered #BackToTheFire - "umpteen in discussion" says Leeona West.....