Kerri Cleaver, with:
"The power of the Iwi (tribe) Restoring wellbeing to young people exiting the foster care system"                                                                                                                                                                                  Candice Butler, with: "Working towards better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children and families through budling a strong, sustainable and capable sector"" />
Kerri Cleaver, with:
"The power of the Iwi (tribe) Restoring wellbeing to young people exiting the foster care system"                                                                                                                                                                                  Candice Butler, with: "Working towards better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children and families through budling a strong, sustainable and capable sector"" />
ALTA 2017 Utveksling/Exchange 11-14 June

Workshop - Everyone can make a difference. The power of indigenous voices.

Session moderator: Eva C. Shjetne 


Gunhild B. Sara and Lucas Sayori, with:
"Indigenous to indigenous - everyone can make a difference"

Kerri Cleaver, with:
"The power of the Iwi (tribe) Restoring wellbeing to young people exiting the foster care system"                                                                                                                                                                                  Candice Butler, with: "Working towards better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children and families through budling a strong, sustainable and capable sector"




Session Nr.1: "Indigenous to indigenous - everyone can make a difference"

Nelson Mandela has said "Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world." (Nelson Mandela during an Address at the Planetarium, Johannesburg, South Africa, 16 July 2003). I have always believed in this and during my work with the Maasai People for the past 12 years, we have seen the many children and youth changing and getting  higher Education after Mama Sara org. Sponsorship, which ends at Form VI. In 2017 we have about 16 Children with Special needs (handicapped) in different Schools and 50 ordinary students. After the termination of the cooperation with Kidupo, we lost about 30 sponsors, unfortunately.

All the Board memebers and Mama Sara work voluntarily, no one gets paid, the biggest obstacle.

  • I will talk about how and why we started this Co-operation with the Maasai Organization KIDUPO in Loliondo, Tanzania.
  • We started with sponsoring the Children and The request for School building came as addition to the project only after one month
  • The Norad (Government) funding, challenges and failures and setbacks
  •  Support by the Sami people in alll levels, from kindergartens, Schools and organizations and individuals
  • Support from the Sami Parliament on International cooperations
  •  Termination of the cooperation with KIDUPO, treats, stalking and arrests
  • Support the by the Maasai people and the Community, determination of not giving up
  • 2017, the completion of a fully furnished Primary School Building, Mama Sara Lopolun Primary School, Teachers house, kitchen and lunch room for 340 children and a small Health post.
  • Continuation?

Request from other Maasai villages for Mama Sara Education Fundation for Maasai children to buld classrooms


Session Nr.2: "The power of the Iwi (Tribe) Restoring wellbeing to young people exiting the foster care system"

This presentation will provide a critical analysis of the structural benefits of connecting up foster care youth and adults with their culture and identity. It is interwoven in my personal story of being Ngai Tahu/ Maori (South island indigenous tribe in New Zealand) and a foster care system survivor. I will explore the way in which indigenous knowledge can heal and restore foster care survivors who have been separated from their culture and identity through state colonising systems.

 

Indigenous foster care survivors fair very poorly in statisitics and in life. The complexities of how families intergenerationally end up in state care systems requires a look at colonisaton and the intergenerational transmission of trauma as well as ongoing issues with placing indigenous children outside of their culture. My story is both personal but also pertinent to the needs of our indigenous foster care population and equally applicable to other indigenous populations whom have experienced dislocation from traditional care systems and collective support structures found in indigenous cultures



Session Nr.3: "Working towards better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families through building a strong, sustainable and capable sector"

A range of individual, family, systemic and historical factors affect the capacity of families to provide a safe, secure, nurturing and culturally supportive home for their children.  However, the mix of these factors and how they affect each child and family varies.  This is their storyline, their story of how they came to this situation.  Understanding their story and journey is fundamental to changing it and establishing a new story.  A shared understanding of the child’s and family’s storyline is developed and strategies are put in place to reduce their vulnerability and strengthen their capacity to protect and care for their children.  In this way, the child and family establish a new storyline.

Underpinning this approach is the sharing of knowledge and learning by children, family, community members and service providers.

This presentation will discuss how the concept of storylines assisted the Practice Development Team of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak Limited (QATSICPP) to develop a suite of practice resources to assist frontline practitioners throughout Queensland.  These tools and a further conversation of storylines will be discussed during this presentation