About Mibbinbah
Mibbinbah is an Indigenous Health Promotion Charity
We celebrate the great diversity of culture and language represented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Since 2007, Mibbinbah has coordinated a national program of events for men, women and children from our communities, including an annual gathering.
Together with communities we use locally-defined 'proper way' to establish culturally safe spaces for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, women and children to explore and enrich our identity, well-being and skills.
Together we create safe spaces for spirit healing, empowerment, celebration and education & training.
Taking our rightful place
Mibbinbah is committed to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as we take our rightful place in society.
We celebrate our ability to work together in the present to achieve common goals that bring good to our communities. We remember the past with both its triumphs and its traumas, and we recognize the wide diversity of backgrounds that our people come from. We also share a vision of the future where strong leadership provides hope and eliminates lateral violence. We call this the “Mibbinbah Proper Way”.
Culturally Safe Spaces
There is a real sense among workers and researchers that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culturally safe spaces are effective in connecting each other and communities with one another.
Together with community, Mibbinbah creates safe spaces to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to meet and discuss issues of concern to them.
Within a culturally safe envionment and by identifying and addressing common life factors affecting Indigenous people such as racism, trans-generational trauma, loss of culture, identity and land, Mibbinbah seeks to take steps to support participants with their journey.
Involving the facilitation of local groups within the local community, workshops provide opportunities for spirit healing, empowerment, celebration and education & training. This approach builds on earlier work by such people as Dr Mick Adams, Dr Mark Wenitong Professor Kerry Arabena, Professor Megan Williams and Frank Spry. The importance of support is ackowledged by Frank Spry below:
The training and support for frontline workers in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings is frequently inadequate, and staff are at real risk of suicide themselves, with high levels of burnout, blame and vicarious trauma.
They require critical incident debriefing regularly, but as a rule, rarely receive it, despite them being consistently at the coal face. Even when they have finished their daily work, they can be called upon at any time, night or day, due to the high rates of attempted suicides in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The risk for these frontline workers and their families is manifold, as they often live in a community “at risk” and contagion is always a factor. As frontline workers, they may also be exposed to “sorry business”, grief and loss in the most existential way, yet there is no systematic process for post-vention response and self-care guidelines to safeguard them from burnout and vicarious suicide risk.[1]
[1]Frank Spry (1999) stated at Ross River ‘The empowerment of our males is fundamental in raising spiritual well-being, self-esteem, quality of life and health status. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males must take a leading role in improving not only their own health but rather that of their communities. There must be a community approach and consultation which will provide the opportunity for men to assess and take control of the issues that affect them this is important to achieving positive and successful outcomes.’
THE MEANING OF MIBBINBAH
The two words Mibbin meaning Men or Eagle and Bah meaning place come from the Eastern Yugambeh Language of South Eastern Queensland. Therefore placing the two words together gives us Eagle or Men’s place.
