Our Voice

eNews

events

These events are designed for Weenthunga members and/or the general public where noted. Please head over to the Nyarrn-gakgo mangkie Program and VAHENonline pages for information on events designed for First Nations young womxn and VAHENonline members.

Upcoming Events

There are currently no upcoming events. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter!
Image

Racism in the Classroom

- a VAHENonline Webinar
Image

Reconciliation Week Webinar 2020

Click here to view the webinar recording
Image

Decolonising Solidarity and White Privilege 2018

Community recognition and participation

Image

Tya Fry

Former President

Indigenous Allied Health Professional of the Year Award 2021

Image

GLENN MILLIKEN

Committee Member

Image

SAM PAXTON (CEO)

IAHA Local Allied Health Champion Award 2020

Member Canada and Australia Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Committee

Ashley Paxton

ASHLEY PAXTON (VAHENONLINE PROGRAM LEADER)

Ricci Marks Award Winner

Member - Monash University Turner Institute Community Reference Council

Annual Reports and Publications

WEENTHUNGA HEALTH NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023

Evaluation Girls Resilience Program 2015

Key Language

Language is important. Weenthunga uses the following language intentionally throughout the website and in our work.

FIRST NATIONS

Weenthunga uses the term ‘First Nations’ as a collective term for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. We back the right of people to express their identity as they choose.

YOUNG WOMEN

Weenthunga is a space for female identifying, trans-women, gender-fluid and non-binary mob. We use the term First Nations young women and are here for all sistas; not just cis-ters.

SETTLER AUSTRALIAN

Weenthunga uses the term ‘Settler Australian’ as a collective term for non-First Nations people in recognition of their identity as settlers from countries outside so-called ‘Australia’. We do so recognizing the violent and ongoing nature of colonisation, and informed by the discourse of some First Nations academics on the use of this terminology.

ALLIES

Settler Australians who participate in ongoing anti-racist work, educate themselves, hold themselves and others accountable and examine their own privilege on a regular basis. Allies can be anyone in the community committed to anti-racism and justice. Allies and acts of allyship are identified as such by First Nations people.

DECOLONISING

To embed First Nation ways of being and doing. Using knowledge of Elders, community and Country in all processes and practice to consciously and pro-actively shift the focus from a Western and Eurocentric worldview, to a First Nations worldview that centers culture, ways of knowing and aspirations.

Cultural Safety

“Cultural safety is about acknowledging the barriers to clinical effectiveness arising from the inherent power imbalance between provider and patient. In contrast to cultural competency, the focus of cultural safety moves to the culture of the clinician or the clinical environment rather than the culture of the ‘exotic other’ patient."​ (Curtis et al., 2019, p. 13).

Critical Consciousness

Involves critical self-reflection, that is “stepping back to understand one’s own assumptions, biases, and values, and a shifting of one’s gaze from self to others and conditions of injustice in the world.” (Kumagai & Lypson, 2009, p.783)

Cultural Humility

A life-long process of self-reflection and self-critique to understand personal biases and to develop mutually respectful partnerships based on mutual trust. “To be culturally humble means I am willing to learn” - First Nations Health Authority British Colombia.

RACISM

An organised system based on an ideology of inferiority that labels some ethnic/racial groups as inferior to others and differentially allocates desirable societal resources to the superior ethnic/racial groups (Bonilla-Silva 1997).

ANTI-RACISM

“Actively expressing the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing, and proactively supporting policy that reduces racial inequity” (Kendi, 2019, p. 24).

NYARRN-GAKGO MANGKIE

means to “hear within” in Woiwurrung, language of the Wurundjeri Peoples of the Kulin Nation.

WEENTHUNGA

means “hear/understand” in Woiwurrung, language of the Wurundjeri Peoples of the Kulin Nation