Reflective Journal On Yarning Circle Experience

On 26th of February, the class went outdoors and had our first attempt of doing a yarning circle. It was very hot outside, so we were unable to make a full circle. Steve explained what a yarning circle is and what are the purpose of it, which they are used for Aboriginal culture. He also explained the role of an Elder. Steve explained that, the Elder’s responsibility is to manage the people’s emotions in the yarning circle, in order to work as a mediator of managing people’s emotions in the circle and also managing the conversations. Steve also discussed the benefits of having de-escalation skills when being the Elder of a yarning circle. I remember the hand signals that Steve showed us to check the people whilst conducting a yarning circle. I also remember how useful that skill could be in these situations. We all then briefly described why we choose to do Social Work and discussed which domains of work situations may be beneficial when conducting yarning circles as Social Workers. I stated that, I thought a yarning circle could be beneficial if you were working at the prison by doing family yarning circles.

I found this experience interesting. I was intrigued by the Elders role and try to understand how much responsibility they had to manage people’s emotions and the conversations in the yarning circle. A few classes later, we all went outside again and did another yarning circle. This time the whole class was able to sit in a circle, the topic, that was discussed, was considering the barriers that Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people may experience when accessing the health care services. I found this topic very intriguing and I learnt a great deal from this experience. The connection I felt to the conversations were much deeper, when we were all sitting in a cultural respectable safe place. I remember thinking how having an Elder gives a sense of security to being able to express myself in a safe way. It allowed me to think of how other people may experience this feeling when participating in a yarning circle, as the circle creates an invisible safe space, by how each person takes their turns in speaking, where everybody speak respectfully to each other and the elder checks the process of interaction by communicating with the people. I also considered how the yarning circle could be potentially very useful in family therapy. I realised that, the yarning circles is advantageous as it provides an opportunity to the professionals and the social workers to create harmonious and collaborative way of communication to encourage the people, respectfully and honestly so that the participants can also be able to build trust and loyalty among the social workers and this activities further help to foster accountability and provide safe place pf getting efficient services from the social workers successfully. Hereby, the participation can be improved through the yearning circle while working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Yarning circles can be a benefit to the health care professionals and the social workers, as it is possible to resolve the communication barriers exist with language issues and medical jargon (Lin, Green, & Bessarab, 2016). It can build the relationship with clients and enhance the outcome of the event. These factors can contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients feeling valued when accessing the services, therefore this knowledge contributes to my belief about the benefit of yarning circle. Yarning circles can be a way of discussing important matters and changing the narrative for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when working with non-indigenous workers (Lin, Green, & Bessarab, 2016). Yarning can be a cultural communication style to transfer stories or information to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples while working with the local people (Lin, Green, & Bessarab, 2016). Deep listening is a skill that is beneficial when participating in a yarn or a yarning circle, as it provides a scope of connecting the person through silent communication nuances.

Considering yarning circles can be a great starting point to connect and discuss issues with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I do believe it is important that I have a deeper understanding of cultural healing if I need to utilise yarning circles in the future. Healing in cultural terms can relate to having a strong mind and body and connecting to spirit (Bacon, 2013). Utilising a strengths-based approach to improve a person’s self-esteem and overall well-being can support the healing process (Bacon, 2013). It is important for me to create personal and professional values by maintaining the ethics of social work by implementing the existing rules and legislations for supporting the community, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Through the Yarning circle, it is possible to communicate with the local people and acknowledge their perception and needs of health care service so that it is possible for the social workers to carte values for them. Cooperation and collaboration need to be improved through the yarning circle and it is possible for me to interact with all the people positively with respect and honesty so that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can feel safe and secured while accessing the health care services.

On 02/04/2019, the class attended the AIATSIS building for an excursion. At the start of the excursion, the class watched a video on the stolen generation and the video was quite sad and confronting. I looked at my two friends who have aboriginal heritage to check if they were ok or not. I asked one of them if they were crying? Or if they were ok?

Later another friend came up to me and told me that, they have been offended by these actions and some other statements, I have said in class. My friend explained that, the girls feel as though I am signalling them out. I was very shocked, upset and defensive by this incident. I began crying, I had a hundred questions going through my head. How could I have offended them when I thought I was being a compassionate friend. I also began thinking how I am going to be able to work as a practitioner with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people if this is how I am making my friends feel when I thought I was being caring. It was my approach to them for developing proper interaction and collaboration so that it is possible to enhance my social work practice which needs proper communication, improving engagement and building trust and loyalty. There is nothing wrong in building strong relationship while providing the social work to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, however, I was shocked about the incidents happens where the girl’s perception was that, I was signalling them out which is embarrassing for me to treat them fairly and improve my social work practice due to such perception of the girls about my actions and behaviour.

I decided to speak to the lecturer, I debriefed with her and explained the whole situation. I was quite vulnerable and cried whilst explaining what had happened on the excursion. The three main points she stated was give the situation some breathing space to clear your head and look at the situation with proper perspective without emotion, take it as a learning experience and try not let it deter you from practising with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and also the importance of reflection in this situation. When the lecturer explained that, unintentionally my behaviours may have felt that the spotlight was on the girls, I could understand their perspective and how I may have made them feel different. The lecturer also explained, how this subject can bring up a lot of emotion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are still trying to sort their own identity out and have unresolved questions and feelings of their heritage, therefore it is easy for the people to be very sensitive with this topic and unit.

Going forward, I hope to keep that information in mind and remain sensitive when working Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Reflecting on my behaviours I understand how whiteness theory played out in my behaviours.

Whiteness theory identifies how white people can be blind to their privilege and their positions in society therefore their behaviours can be discriminatory to other unconsciously. I then thought about my position in the society and how I may be seen as having white privilege as I am a white Caucasian woman, I am studying at a tertiary level, I am older than the girls who were involved in the emotional incident, I have a higher paying job which they are aware of and I do not have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background which is recognised as marginalised group within the society (Pease, 2010). I considered how white privilege as never occurred to me until this situation. I considered how emotionally strenuous it may be not knowing your family background and how going through their whole life they have listened an heard comments similar what I had said and done which can build and impact on the girls sensitivity to the situation (Calma & Priday, 2011).

This experience allowed me to recognise an unconscious bias as I was not aware of how my language or actions may affect others (Mcintosh, 1998). The teachings from this is to consider my own values and how they are being played out in my personal and professional life. I have furthered my knowledge of the theories that impacted my behaviours and I resonated with the implications that may affect my practise in and how I am going to work very hard to avoid the impact of “difference blindness” practise (Wilson et al., 2015; Jens Korff, 2018). from my learning experience, I have gathered the knowledge that it is necessity to develop clear and in-depth communication while interacting with the girls among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that the girls can feel valued and safe while accessing the social work. this experience further help me a lot to gather experience about their behaviour and perception on particular behavioural changes and communicative ways and from which I have gathered the knowledge that it is important to let the girls understand about my behaviour, honesty and integrity towards them through my actions so that I would not face such embarrassing moments in future while working the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Hereby, through this experience, I can improve my social work practice while working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people where I try to be interactive and create safe place for all the people where they can also feel free to share their experience during accessing the health care service.

Steve attended the university on many occasions, although there was on experience that stood out to me and challenged my thinking. We watched a video of an elderly woman who thought she was having a panic attack; she attended the hospital with her granddaughter. Whilst the grandmother was in the waiting room, she said to her granddaughter, I do not like hospitals as the doctors took us away from our mum when we were kids and went to a hospital. The nurse then met them and assessed the grandmother, the grandmother was not having a heart attack, she was having an anxiety attack due to looking at old photos of when she was a child. The granddaughter was quite abrupt to the nurse and doctor, although they were open and honest and apologised in a roundabout way to the granddaughter. After watching this, the class then unpacked all of the emotions that could have been going on for the grandmother and also the granddaughter. I learnt a lot out of this process. The emotions that were discussed in the class were the fears of the grandmother going to a hospital due to historical factors.

I was not aware of the historical trauma that hospitals inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout history, therefore I had never considered the impacts or barriers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples accessing hospitals or health services. Hearing and providing thoughts of what may be there emotions at the time saddened me but also gave me a feeling of drive to want to consider, identify and work with the gaps in the system. This allowed me to consider what I could do as a future practitioner to identify and help bridge the gaps for clients accessing the services with these fears, I thought about how I would communicate these barriers with the clients in the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community. To further my learning, we then did a role play whilst being in groups of three, we had to play out initiating yarning with the grandmother and I was the doctor, I found this a bit uncomfortable at the start and I was using therapeutic jargon.

Steve then started the conversation again with me and I explained in simpler terms what an ECG is and what we can do to help the woman on the day, I also validated her emotions of how difficult it could have been to see photos that brought up traumatic memories. On this role play, I felt I really stepped into my “role” and was able to empathise with the grandmother’s situation which is important to develop engagement with the lady as well as give them freedom to choose the service as per their preferences so that she can overcome her trauma. I learnt from the lecturer’s feedback of keeping the language simple and not using therapeutic jargon. I also learnt from Steve’s feedback of allowing silence and going around the issue before addressing it straight away, practising cultural responsiveness where I try to understand the situation of the grandmother as well as communicate with her positively by showing respect and integrity and this is effective for me to develop string bond with her and improve trust and loyalty. Reflecting on the literature and learnings from class stood out to me the importance of considering all the factors and the underneath emotions that may happens for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples before working with a practitioner (Zubrzycki, 2014).

Also, I believe understanding trauma theory has given me a deeper understanding to why and how people are affected which came to the surface when watching the video. Trauma can be explained as a deeply distressing or disturbing experience which can affect the people or communities in different ways (Bessarab & Crawford, 2013). Historical trauma can be a subjective experience by having triggering memories of the past, these emotions and memories can be passed through generations (Bessarab & Crawford, 2013). I believe these reasons still affect the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accessing health care services. This certainly did occur for the case of grandmother.

This experience pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to consider how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may be out of their comfort zone when attempting to access health care services. In this situation, I try to improve my social work practice and understand the effects of trauma among the people of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community where I try to explain the health care service and the treatment and support provided in the hospital so that the grandmother can overcome her fear to come to the hospital for accessing proper care service according to her health needs and personal preferences. Moreover, it is necessary for me to empower her in the care plan and discuss the consequences in her life, her behaviour and culture, values and ethics in her life as well as social and economic determinants of health so that it is possible for me to understand her perception and communicate positively to create safe environment where she can feel free to share her experience and valued after accessing the quality care service.

This unit has allowed me to consider the organisations within the social work practise, and how they work within a culturally responsive framework or the gaps that are still occurring with the health care services. I have been able to reflect on my current placement organisation and consider how they do not advocate for cultural responsiveness and the impacts it may have on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples being a mainstream service. Cultural responsiveness is working with people by allowing their cultural traditions or practises to be the centre of their working relationship (IAHA, 2019). “Cultural Responsiveness is also considered as having the services that are appropriate, acceptable and provides high- quality care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples “(IAHA, 2019).

The service is a mainstream service therefore there is minimum Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples who access this service. I believe what constitutes it as mainstream is there is only two the Aboriginal workers within the whole service. The liaison officers are time poor, as I have tried to create a meeting time to have a discussion with them about how they include cultural responsiveness into their practise, and they have not had time. This made me wonder whether they had the resources to provide an effort to people who have Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds so that they can access the services. The organisation does not connect with the public to encourage the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples so that they can have proper access to the service. I conducted an interview with a number of workers within the service and asked about their culturally responsive practises. I could not align their understandings or knowledge to what I have learnt in the class.

I believe that, there is a room for improvement on a structural and individual level when consolidating cultural responsiveness practises. Cultural responsiveness discussions fortnightly facilitated by the Aboriginal Liaison Officer that could be beneficial for the workers to collaborate and improve their knowledge and skills on how they are initiating culturally responsive practises, it would also provide a space for reflection. It is important for the social workers to empower the people who have Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background in the care settings so that it is posisbel to improve the culturally responsive practice. Through arranging general meeting and group discussion, it is possible to develop proper interaction which in turn helps to enhance communication with the people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture so that it is easy from the social workers to understand the perspective of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people as well as acknowledge the needs of the people in their society.

As the service is related to drug and alcohol counselling service, I believe there is constraints on the extent the Social Workers can advocate for Individuals. these domains for individuals being able to connect with the social emotional and cultural determinants of health and wellbeing (IAHA, 2015). After doing this unit, I can understand the importance of these factors for working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person and I see how the service I am doing placement does not advocate for peoples Social, Emotional and Cultural determinants of Health (IAHA,2015). I see how the service is not meeting the criteria of culturally responsive practises. An important part of cultural responsiveness is also self-reflection and after interviewing 6 people within the service I realised that they do not have the knowledge of culturally safe practises to be able to critically reflect in these areas, which I believe identifies another gap in the service( IAHA, 2015). In order to incorporate culturally responsive practice in the social care service, I understand that, it is necessary to include the people from the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture for improving my understanding about the social and economic as well as cultural determinants of health among the people. In this regard, proper planning by incorporating the people, enhancing values and principles of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture as well as enhance family participation so that proper social service can be provided after acknowledging the actual needs and preferences of the people.

Studying this unit whilst doing my placement has allowed me to slowly build my knowledge and my own practise framework and this includes learning about a person’s culture and protocols before working with them, always referring to the AASW culturally responsive framework as a guide of introducing myself in a culturally respectfully way such as where are you from?, who is your mob?, utilising deep listening and healing practises into my sessions, participating in self-reflection and any trainings, and articulate the connection to the country’s importance, historical impacts of culture (if client is willing) and discuss race as potential barriers with the client. In the future, I will be able to recognise services that practise is in culturally responsive ways and hope to work within those services or use my skills and knowledge I have gained to educate other regarding the culturally responsive practises. In future, I will try to enhance knowledge exchange through improving communication and collaboration as well as building engagement with the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community so that it is posisbel for me to develop culturally responsive practice and empower the people belongs to the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community in developing proper care plan for accessing the social care service according to their needs and preferences.

References

• Bacon, V (2013). Yarning and listening: Yarning and learning through stories. In B Bennett., S, Green., S,. Gilbert., D. Bessarab (Eds.) Our Voices: Aboiginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work. (p136-162). Palgrave Macmillan: South Yarra.
• Bessarab, D. Crawford, F. (2013). Trauma, grief and loss: the vulnerability of Aboriginal families in the child protection system. In Bennett. S. Green., S. Gilbert., D. Bessarab (Eds.), Our Voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work (pp. 93-113). South Yarra, Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Calma, T. & Priday, E. (2011). Putting indigenous human rights into social work practice. Australian Social Work, 64(2), 147–155. doi:10.1080/0312407X.2011.575920.
• Indigenous Allied Health Australia (2015). Cultural Responsiveness Framework. Retrieved from: http://iaha.com.au/wpcontent/uploads/2015-IAHA-Cultural-ResponsivenessFramework-Australia.
• Jens Korff, C. (2018). Racism in Aboriginal Australia. Retrieved from:https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/racism-in-aboriginal-australia
• Lin, I., Green, C., & Bessarab, D. (2016). ‘Yarn with me’: applying clinical yarning to improve clinician–patient communication in Aboriginal health care. Australian Journal Of Primary Health, 22(5), 377. doi: 10.1071/py16051.
• McIntosh, P. (1998). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies. [Working Paper]. Retrieved from: http://www.odec.umd.edu/CD/GENDER/MCKIN.PDF.
• Pease, B. (2010). Undoing privilege: Unearned advantage in a divided world. London, UK: Zed Books.
• Wilson, A. M., Magarey, A., Jones., M., O’Donnell, K., Kelly, J. (2015). Attitudes and characteristics of health professional in Aboriginal health. Rural and Remote Health 15:2739
• Zubrzycki, J., Crawford, F. (2013). Collaboration and relationship building in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work. Chapter 9 (pp.181-203) In B. Bennett., S. Green, S., Gilbert, S., Bessarab, D. (Eds.) Our Voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan.