The Peter Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to explore Canadian-based approaches empowering women and children to overcome intergenerational trauma

Jane Pedersen has had various roles in Aboriginal community controlled organisations in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, working in policy, research and program design. Jane spent four years at Marninwarntikura Aboriginal Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing and for June Oscar, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, where she was involved in the Wiyi Yani U Thangani, Women’s Voices project. Jane conducted her Churchill Fellowship explorations in 2017, while at Marninwarntikura. She visited organisations across Canada and the USA to explore approaches empowering women and children to overcome intergenerational trauma. Her findings document a range of evidence-based models and approaches to work that can enable the creation of effective and sustainable community interventions to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma. Her report highlights how to take a holistic approach to addressing trauma, and relating harms, such as revitalising practices in health and wellbeing. She concludes that context specific research and design are critical to developing effective community interventions. Jane’s Churchill fellowship continues to be used by Marninwarntikura as a practice guide in its journey to becoming a trauma-informed and healing organisation. Jane continues to work on understanding how trauma-informed practices can be applied in and translated into policy design. Jane’s report highlights the need to take a holistic approach to addressing trauma, and relating harms, and the need to focus on strengths to develop effective healing approaches to work. The report covers 8 central sections based on the extensive findings from her visit to Canada and the USA. It begins by providing the evidence of trauma and its undeniable impact on the brain, biology and society resulting in perpetuating cycles of trauma and disadvantage. The following sections present a range of practices and approaches to engender hope that transforming trauma is possible and real. The seven recommendations which conclude the report are designed as a trauma-informed and healing implementation plan to be used by Indigenous and community-based organisations. The primary intention is for these recommendations to be used by Marninwarntikura as it produces a body of evidenced work to break cycles of intergenerational trauma, and ground its programs and development strategies in empowerment based community-driven approaches.