Working with our communities
Supporting and encouraging local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderiginal and Torres Strait Islander people to develop linkages between men's and women's groups and community organisations
Mibbinbah has demonstrated that enhancing and strengthening the capacity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is a vital first step in promoting awareness of health-related issues and encouraging people to seek assistance.
Upskilling Local mob. Provide training in Leadership,communication and media, computer skills and other relevant skills provides a mechnism to support Our people to become leaders within their communities
Providing an opportunity for yarning and for people to tell their story is a key component in developing a safe space so we can talk about our concerns and issues
Supporting Champions, Mentors and CEO's and Directors of Indigenous organisations, to support and encourage local mob to become leaders and act as positive role models and mentors
The Journeying Together workshop is run with the goal of establishing a foundation of agreed values and honouring the local culture’s identified proper way for engaging and creating safe space - to then explore themes that the community deems important.
Three aspects provide a focus for our work with community empowerment: voice, vision and action.
Firstly, we encourage communities find a voice for their concerns through yarning. Yarning is an important part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. However, many practices of the dominant culture disallowed public yarning. Mibbinbah seeks to create a safe space for the yarning that expresses a yearning for change.
Secondly, we support communities as they find new ways to celebrate the good things that are happening in their midst. So much of the focus of the media is on the negatives. We have almost come to expect this. Yet, we can create our own vision by celebrating and sharing the good things with the larger society.
Finally, we assist communities to take action by doing the small things well and the bigger things with enthusiasm. As with all of our workshops; resources and their use is a key concern. Specifically, we help people develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they require to best gain and use resources to achieve their aspirations. We work with models of how people, organisations and communities often work to enhance knowledge. Skills are further honed in the area of communicating with diverse audiences, facilitating activities with various stakeholders and collaborating with groups with different perspectives and agendas.
Finally, we support people as they explore critical attitudes such as taking a strengths-based approach rather than using a deficit model, persistently moving from smaller gains to larger gains through time and letting others be strong as well (inclusivity).
Mibbinbah Mentoring
Over the years, Mibbinbah has gained an insight into what enables people to tell their stories and to rebuild their lives and communities. 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 we all come from. We also share a vision of the future where strong leadership provides hope and an elimination of lateral violence and other issues. We call this “Mibbinbah Proper Way”.
Mibbinbah can assist communities to enable groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women to mentor the next generation. We learn the tools of visual storytelling and ways of engaging our younger ones. Then, they are skilled-up to teach the younger generation to listen to and explore the stories associated with language, lore and land while engaging in activities that make learning both interesting and transformative. Finally, they are enabled to pass on the skills required for transferring knowledge to the wider community through a variety of communication techniques.
National Gatherings
Mibbinbah National Camps
After much discussion with lads from around Australia, we decided that camps would be important. They would provide a way of engaging supporting and celebrating what the men
were doing well. The men considered this the best way of creating culturally friendly environments. The camps provided occasions for lads to share in traditional Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander cultural activities. Workshops included storytelling, spear-making, stone-knapping, visiting cultural sites, and boomerang and didgeridoo sessions. There were
other workshops on media and music, ultimate Frisbee, and business governance. While the main purpose of the camps was to deliver health awareness and education, there were other benefits. They helped create strong relationships and a supportive network. This perspective recognises the contribution made by all participants to the groups and
workshops. It draws upon the wisdom and experience of Mibbinbah associates to deliver activities in ‘the proper way’ through cultural activities in tandem with additional depression and anxiety related learning. Therefore, it provides an opportunity for participants to identify their own skills and contribute to the learning of others. This also provides a chance for natural mentoring to flourish and helps to build community resilience, develops community capacity and fosters ownership.
