The starting point: Investment in relationships

Relationships and connections are central to any engagement within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. A professional and personal commitment to learning and building relationships is the most important and fundamental step in engaging and working respectfully and effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.

An investment in relationships is not always at the forefront of hierarchical mainstream systems or professional university degrees. The expectation that practitioners reach a degree of proficiency or expertness means that they are often seen as ‘central’ to any interaction with children and families. This manifests in professional assessment, investigation or diagnosis of the presenting issues.

This use of ‘expertise’ can be an obstacle when it comes to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients. It can reinforce a history of marginalisation and can deny Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to tell their stories. Without understanding the ways their expertise can affect their ability to develop relationships, non-Indigenous practitioners can unwittingly adopt a position of contempt for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.

One Aboriginal practitioner noted that professionals should ‘park [their] qualification at the door’ if they want to build strong relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities. A ‘de-centered and influential’ position with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people means that the practitioner consciously sets aside their expertness, in favour of a position of curiosity which recognises they have much to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. This involves taking opportunities to pursue individual learning about the history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will want to know you as a person. The kinds of things they may be considering about you are:

• Is this someone who will respect me and the different cultural understanding I bring?
• Is this someone who will advocate and support me without judgment?
• Is this someone who values my contribution to this relationship?

Take a look at this clip from documentary Paul Kelly – Stories of Me then reflect about the reciprocal relationship that was formed between Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly. What does this story highlight about what is important, such as the ideas of:

• honesty as being important to relationship-building and reconciliation
• collective efforts and co-constructive narratives being significant to shaping ‘bigger’ or stronger voices and actions of reconciliation
• reconciliation being a movement – as an active, ongoing process that continues to have currency; and
• the need to put time and patience into reconciliation processes?

This video is copyright Shark Island Productions and used with permission. ABC archival/library footage is licensed by Shark Island Productions for inclusion in the feature documentary Paul Kelly – Stories of Me.

This video was produced by Shark Island Productions for Reconciliation Australia. An accompanying professional learning resource for the film can be accessed via Reconciliation Australia’s Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Education platform. 

The preferred terminology used by Emerging Minds in our resources is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, as guided by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social and Emotional Wellbeing National Consultancy Group.