When:  Thursday 10th July, 5:30 – 7:30pm

Where: The offices of the Australian Psychological Society;  Level 13, 257 Collins St, Melbourne.

Light refreshment will be provided.

Register your attendance at: http://www.trybooking.com/FFWB 

Enquiries:   Lin Oke   lin@weenthunga.com.au

We’d like to share with you the background of the two speakers who will lead our discussion on Thursday 10th July when we consider why it is important to ask THE question “Are you or your child of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage?”

Terori Hareko-Samios is a Salt Water Woman with Melanesian and Polynesian heritage, with a strong Islander identity. Her mobs from the western islanders (Boigu and Saibai) in the Torres Strait Islands, Coastal Gulf Province in PNG and Samoa.

Terori has many years of experience  in project management and direct service in both the community welfare and health sectors. She is a passionate advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s rights to equitable health care, health literacy and culturally appropriate health promotion. She is also a passionate advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Liaison Officers aspirations into high education, career and education progression.

Terori has recently resigned from her role as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Hospital Liaison Officer at the Royal Women’s Hospital, to take up her new role as team leader of the ATSILO Team at CoHealth. She is also an acclaimed Melbourne based artist and a busy mum of two.

Associate Professor John Whyte, Deputy Dean, Critical Human Services, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University has been involved with urban and rural community efforts, internationally, for more than twenty years.  The last twelve years he has worked with North American Ottawa and Chippewa communities in the Great Lakes region and with Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Victoria and Central Australia.

His research into social work professional practices with Indigenous communities, and later membership in an Australian Association of Social Workers working group,  contributed to the creation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum content that is now required of all Social Work qualifying courses in Australia. 

He was also the Convenor of the working group that created the Indigenous Specialisation program at RMIT University and, most recently, was a co-developer of the ‘Stepping Up’ initiative that facilitates entry and transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into higher education programs.