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WARAJA NGARLU WANDUNA: One Spirit, One Feeling, One Mind, All Working Together
Working with Ngarlu:
by Joe (Nipper) Roe Northwest Mental Health Services, Broome Joe Roe, (Purungu by skin name), is a Karajarri/Yawru man. His people are also from the Broome and Bidyadanga area. He completed a Bachelor of Applied Science in Indigenous Community Health (Mental Health Counselling Specialisation) in 1996. Joe has been working in the area of Indigenous Mental Health for over ten years including working with the Aboriginal Visitors Scheme, Pinikarra Aboriginal Counselling Service and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council. Joe currently is working as the Psych/Social Rehabilitation worker with Northwest Mental Health Services in Broome. INTRODUCTION Mental health is the emotional, spiritual, physical and social well being of people. When people’s emotional, spiritual, physical and social needs are met, then they are in a good state of mental health. When one or more of these needs are not met, people’s mental health deteriorates. Poor mental health can result from this wider psych/social problem’s which affects one’s Ngarlu. NGARLU Ngarlu is the Karajarri word for defining the place of the inner spirit. This place in our stomach is the centre of our emotions and well being. When a group makes a decision there is a sense of group Ngarlu; their feeling and thinking is the same. This is known as ‘Waraja Ngarlu’. Which is to agree to be of one stomach and to be of one mind. There is a similar term to Ngarlu in many language groups in Australia. Contained within our Ngarlu are our Bilyurr and Rai. Bilyurr is our spirit from within, which is in oneness with the physical body. After death the Bilyurr goes on its journey to a special place. Rai is our spirit from the country. The father dreams or see ‘’child spirit’ that wandered away from the group dwelling place which is called Yadungal. He’s now aware that his wife is or will be pregnant and the child’s spiritual connection in a form of an animal, fish, plant or a particular area in the land, that will coincide during pregnancy, be his/her Rai. The physical and spiritual conceptual place of birth becomes the central part of the identity of that person and he also becomes a protector/custodian. When we pass away our Rai (spirit from the country) goes back to the country where it pre-existed and becomes a "child spirit" again and remains in the group at the Yadangal awaiting another spiritual rebirth. WORKING WITH NGARLU Ngarlu has been weakened by the colonisation process, which has led to things like changed lifestyles, dispossession, disempowerment, alcohol and drugs. Ngarlu was what kept people strong and healthy. Ngarlu gave a strong sense of self, where the spirit came from, 'if you feel no good here, (pointing to the gut or stomach) then you feel sad or weak'. Ngarlu is more than an intuitive or gut feeling; an Aboriginal person can will himself or herself to die when the Ngarlu has been broken or weakened and is very sorrowful. Some of the older ones know and understand this. They can connect with and work with it. For the young ones it is part of a cultural loss; they have to be taught it. A traditional person may say 'not feel too good here', and point to the stomach, referring to Ngarlu. Often this may get misinterpreted as a bellyache when in fact it is indication of a spiritual or emotional problem. We thought it important to base our workshop on healing – to strengthen the Ngarlu or 'lian' that has been weakened through disempowerment, to make that strong again. This is what has kept the people strong. This is put in a cultural context with young people. Worldwide, young people have lost their spiritual beliefs and they have nothing to hold on to. We point out to young people to be aware of your Ngarlu – why is it sad, question why you are feeling low, angry. We suppress a lot of feelings, and keep anger and shame down there. We have to get it out, because that has been the Aboriginal way. It is important to work on healing our Ngarlu. The effect of the stolen generations and our historical experiences is what has contributed to weakening our Ngarlu. To start to heal it is important to start in our own Ngarlu, which will help us to deal with our bitterness, anger and sadness. In Aboriginal culture before, if a person felt bad about another person, they would approach them, express their feelings and get it out, instead of suppressing it. They would clear their Ngarlu. This used to be their strong point when the culture was strong. In Law time before, the boys would be taken for initiation. If one had a bad feeling for another person he would approach that person and talk to him, even if it meant having a fight. It was important to clear one's Ngarlu before going into that ceremony. Aboriginal people had ways of clearing. If Ngarlu was sore, one should not keep it for too long. White man's way is the other way – take it, tight lipped, keep it down. Our way is to get rid of it quick or it will kill you. It will kill your spirit. We are trying to work towards this way of healing. Some communities are working with trying to strengthen these cultural ways. Our approach is about keeping the spirit strong. If one is drinking too much, for example, the spirit falls away, dragging the person away from culture, and cultural responsibility to family, community and country. Other Aboriginal people are independently coming up with awareness of the need for this type of approach: 'Hey that's the thing I'm talkin' about, I'm not the only one talking about it. I can understand better now'. All different groups are coming from the same perspective. If we deliver this program in a workshop, we focus on Ngarlu. For example if we are working with stolen generation people, we also focus on Ngarlu – on hate, anger and shame. WORKING WITH MEN: MENTAL HEALTH My role with NorthWest Mental Health Services is to work with men in their recovery from a major psychiatric illness. We are at the stage where we are just starting to implement rehabilitation programs to help instill some practical life skills and assist them in taking responsibility for their illness. An underlying issue is that society no longer provides Aboriginal men a role to play in the wider community. I run one session for the Kimberley Offenders program for men in prison. This is intended to help them realise that drugs and alcohol are killing our culture; and to talk about taking responsibility, and strengthening our Ngarlu. The aim of the workshop is to ask: 'If your generation, that is you, are in gaol, who is going to talk to the young kids'. It is hard to get them to look inside their problem. This is very hard even with people in general, but it is especially so with people in prison. They are often at the blaming stage and it is hard to get them to take responsibility. They tend to blame everyone around, but not themselves. They are angry; it is directed outwards. We trace the process from colonisation, how the violence was internalised, and how it shows now in anger, rage, suicide or taking it out on others, particularly those close to you. It is hard to get men to talk about their problems. Instead, Aboriginal men often blame their partners. They keep their feelings down rather than express them. They prefer to not talk about it; when it comes out they explode. When visited in prison by support agencies, they usually don't want to talk about what they've done and how they feel, and when they are released, these feelings all explode out, often against their partners. This program tries to get them to reflect, to look at themselves, and to accept part of the responsibility. With these types of programs facilitated by senior Aboriginal men, they can be appropriately challenged. Whereas when these types of programs are facilitated by female workers this can be considered culturally inappropriate because they tend to push their views aside stating that it is not a woman’s place to challenge their behaviour, especially if the men have been through traditional law. Part of the empowerment process in supporting men to take back responsibility for their behaviour requires men to facilitate that process. This could be seen as ‘men’s business’ and by utilising male Aboriginal workers to deliver these programs will enhance program outcomes. When culture was strong, young uninitiated men never lived with girls as husband and wife; that wasn’t Aboriginal culture. When a young fella turns adolescent, at 13-14 years old, he begins to go through Law. That is his learning time - his initiation - and he is taught about country. Then there is more Law. By the time they take their partners they are nearly 20 years old; that was the proper way. We see young people today doing the reverse, living together, having two to three kids. Often they can't cope any more, and there is domestic violence, substance abuse, and psychological/social problems that can lead to suicide. Also, in the old times, the Skin system controlled who married whom and directed responsibility that was collectively shared by the tribe. The skin system worked well. When there is a break down of the skin system, they can just go with anyone, and this causes more problems. In the program we go into regional skin systems, where each person fits, and the personal and collective responsibilities entailed in this. One should not marry into one's mother's or father's skin group. This protected communities from the effects of genetic closeness. Today with the influence of modern society, especially with the influence of alcohol, people don't care, even to not observing protocols about not talking to one's mother-in-law. In the proper way culturally, most girls were promised at 14-15 years old to older men. Controls were in place and younger men had to wait. In that time there might be fights for women. Young man supposed to take a wife may be made to wait while an old man may have three to four wives. That is when trouble can begin. He might start running around with others, fighting and so on. The social controls have broken down even in remote communities. In other communities, the Law may be strong, and some have held and been carried through. CULTURE AND COMMUNITY: DIVERSITY Mental health workers have to be sensitive to the diversity within the Aboriginal culture and to the people they are working with. Some communities have just about completely lost their culture in the sense of traditional values and practices. It is in those communities one finds more problems for example family violence, substance abuse, elder abuse and child abuse. In those communities the people are so disempowered and feel so hopeless that they just don't seem to care any more. In other communities there won't be so much of these problems because their culture is a little stronger. It is important that even the professionals have to be aware of the sort of community they are dealing with. Because of different impacts of colonisation and the influence of imposed religions, which disregard culture, it appears that where there tends to be the greatest culture loss, there is the highest level of other serious problems. With others where the language and culture has found some way of being maintained, the situation tends to not be so difficult. All sorts of psychosocial problems are very complexed. Mental illness, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse and sexual abuse are the end results from the on going effects of the colonisation process. TRADITIONAL HEALERS Sometimes traditional healers can play a significant and at times even a main role in working with patients with mental illness. When this is so, people will generally request it. It can be important to know who is requesting it. Sometimes if it is somebody who has very little actual knowledge of their own culture - someone that lost their culture - it can be a sign that this person may be quite mentally ill. However within that they may be saying something quite significant that is important for a deeper understanding of their mental and emotional state. In comparison, for the very traditional person from very traditional communities, it's a living part of their belief. Whether the person comes from an urbanised background is not necessarily an indicator, as sometime urban Aboriginal people can have strong cultural beliefs. To understand properly we need to take more notice of the cultural background of that client. We need to involve the family so we can work it out together. Practitioners need to be aware of the diversity of Aboriginal people and this needs to be included in the assessment. Acknowledging that some people may ask for a Traditional Healer needs to be included in the initial treatment process. What is appropriate for Practitioners to do in this situation is not to feel that the western way is the only way, but to try to work along with this other cultural alternative as well, to work together. Practitioners should contact someone appropriate in the community about it, to seek advice about where they should go from there. Have a talk about it, try to find out and get a bigger picture to work on; the mental state examination can be very narrow, sometimes through not understanding the cultural ways and not including the spiritual concepts of health. It's best to consult with the team you are working with, including your or the service's cultural reference group. Rather than make an individual decision, discuss it as part of case management. If necessary, an appropriate cultural person will maybe arrange for a Mabarn man [traditional healer] to have a look at the patient. Sometimes this is a request from the family who may look for other cultural alternatives before they are satisfied that the person is really mentally ill. Consulting a Mabarn can be an aid to confirming diagnosis, especially in determining whether it is a traditional matter or not. They can be a useful part of the process. More traditional people have a world-view of Aboriginal things happening to them, but today in this contemporary way, young Aboriginal kids are not knowing this culture. With them it could be a non-cultural issue such as alcohol and drug related psychosis. Since the 1970s, '80s and '90's there has been more involvement with alcohol and drugs and we are getting more young people with mental illness. There are other things, but drugs are there as well. Without these drugs before, there was not this level of mental illness; maybe excessive drug use has tipped them off the other side. However, additionally a lot of other things may also be happening, like family violence and child abuse. It is very rarely that we use a Mabarn, but do so if it is to satisfy a client or the client's family. Use them first or in partnership with a psychiatrist and medication. I don't think medication alone is appropriate without considering both the possibility of cultural matters and also that a traumatic thing might have happened to that person. Many traumatic things have happened to Aboriginal people. Some Mabarn men are born with this healing power. There are two ways, healing doesn't always have to be by a Mabarn man. An Elder Law man [Purrku] who has gain advance traditional knowledge can use his Law powers to heal people as well. People have to be careful of that as well, to heal in some ways one doesn't have to be a Mabarn man, and it's important not to call this other one Mabarn. Either the Aboriginal mental health worker or the family will organise these matters, not the Practitioner. An appropriate indigenous person will manage it. The NWMHS team includes a range of mental health professionals, Psychiatrists, a Community Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers, Psychologists, Aboriginal Emotional/Social/Spiritual Wellbeing Workers and Community Drug Service Workers. COUNSELLING AND NGARLU Pinikarra Counselling Service was started here because there was only the Aboriginal Visitors Scheme, which was only for people in prison and the lockup. Yet these were the same people who were attempting suicide and getting into distress on the outside as well. We don't get too many men coming to these services, because to them they are not the ones who have psychosocial problems such as domestic violence, drugs and alcohol. To them it doesn't matter. If it does, they don't know where to start. Looking at the drug and alcohol problem, they need to find out what is causing them to be in that state all the time. They need to find out whether there is something they don't want to remember, or whether they have given up so that alcohol and drug use is a way of escaping these sorts of problems. We find it very hard to get men to come voluntarily to us. But if it is done as part of a court order, then we can talk to them. It takes quite a while and a lot of education to develop their insight and confidence in expressing what is bothering them, why they are angry, and why they are abusing substances. The Ngarlu approach is to try to look for the source of it. With all this build-up of problems where are you going to start? There is denial of problems, blaming others and everything else, not looking at themselves. It is very hard for men to say: 'I've got an anger problem', or, 'it's my fault', because there is such a history in their lives and in the lives of those before, of terrible treatment and accumulated oppression and trauma. Through the generations this has been passed down; the message that you're no good, that you are useless/hopeless, and so they give up. The people we are dealing with don't feel good about themselves. If we have a look at youth suicide, we have to look at the group that is vulnerable – alienated, kicked out of school, and put in a corner feeling they're no good. They start to form into the ones going down that track. Certain kids are just pushed aside, expelled from school for a while. There is no place for them where someone can take a hold of them and try something. Maybe a different sort of education - the fundamentals of life - at least so they feel good about themselves, instead of feeling: 'What's the use, I'm going to be put in a corner'. This leads to a sense of hopelessness, lack of confidence and self-esteem that is also handed down from parent to child. Many young people especially young Aboriginal male have turn to alcohol and drugs as a means to create a new form of male identity, one that is thrill seeking, violent and different to the authority of senior Aboriginal men and white society alike. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING Wendy Casey from the Kimberley Drug Service and myself facilitate Cross Cultural Training {Ways of Working Together] for the non-Aboriginal professionals they find it very hard to see how it will work. First it starts with acknowledging things that have happened to us. For non-Aboriginal people to acknowledge the things that happened to Aboriginal people, for example, when we talk about internalised oppression, they find it difficult to see that as important, instead of just thinking: 'How can I work to empower these young people?' Finally during the training, the professionals
participating might develop good action plans but when they get back to their
departments it is hard to implement them. An example was 'sorry day'. The strong
reaction of one group Successful counselling and community development needs to include empowering Aboriginal to bring back their systems of care control and responsibility that once existed. We had it before when Aboriginal society was complete. We are in a state where we are picking these things up, trying to look for the best of both before and now. RECONCILIATION Some communities don't feel good about themselves so they are projecting it out on others. For instance, with the land rights/native title situation, people are fighting one another. It is another form of internalised oppression. People are considering more what is in it for them and their family rather than what is there for all of us. It is not caring for others any more. Others who haven't been brought up with that traditional background and with their education may try to stand over the very traditional people as though they themselves are the traditional owners now. There has been a large cultural mix over the generations among Aboriginal people, and a high degree of removal from connections with traditional land, practices and peoples. Many claimed citizenship as non-Aboriginal or identified as being of another culture, but now there is considerable reclaiming of Aboriginal identity, and issues of traditional ownership are raised in this context. These are some of the realities complicating Aboriginal life and affecting our feelings toward one another and our capacity and willingness to work together. We have to sort out the effects of this ourselves, besides the reconciliation between black and white; it is between black and black as well. There is much in fighting, based mostly on the dislocation and the other effects of our past and present treatment by the whites. Apart from reconciliation between black and white, we need to reconcile amongst ourselves. It is very hard for us to get that to work. For example, we are really all one and shouldn't call one another 'coconuts' (challenging the authenticity of identity) and things like that, but it is difficult when you grow up in it. Also, nepotism in Aboriginal organisations is another problem, a different example of black and black conflict. For these reasons we run these programs for both our people and for non-Aboriginal people. We need to get our people to see these things as well. We can't just say it's an issue for non-Aboriginal people, because it is a problem for our people too. It is important for both, for reconciliation of black and black as well as black and white. Internalised oppression is hindering the process of self-determination. It is creating difficulties working together for the self determination of Aboriginal people as a whole, especially when some people and groups are worried only about themselves and position themselves against others. We should be sorting our own business out and getting together co-operative claims, but people are still divided. Perhaps a cultural centre would facilitate this, as in other regions, where everybody benefits. When we work with communities, specifically when addressing the alcohol and drugs issue in that context, this type of approach has worked. Participants brainstorm their own ideas and can see what they are capable of. It develops as their action group; it is not we as the facilitators telling them. They explore what can they do to help their youth with drug and alcohol problems. They come out with great ideas and commitment to follow through such as teaching them culture again, including taking them out and showing them where all the Dreamtime stories about the country relate to. Within that model we then have a look at what the 'contact' history has done. Each of our stories might be a little different but the whole idea is the same and they really understand that. When we present to remote community people, we do it in a way that begins with our skin name, who we are, our identity as an Aboriginal person, and they really open up then. With the healing model they understand the concept of Ngarlu. They realise their Ngarlu has been weakened and that the task is to find ways to prevent this happening further; ways to protect it and other positive ways to strengthen it. In this way the whole system is practical, meaningful and powerful. Priority is usually given to working with the family system, to strengthening the family: 'You don't leave your family behind, you help them'. They know about that. The Ngarlu model is a culturally appropriate way of working with Aboriginal clients to deal with their emotional, spiritual and social problems. Good social and emotional, spiritual well being is a basic human right. Every Aboriginal person, their family and community has the right to equitable levels of mental health as seen in the broader Australian community. When we contrast this with the reality that exists in the Kimberley it becomes evident that this is not so. We need more culturally appropriate models of practice, programs and Aboriginal therapies need to be included in mainstream and community controlled organisations. There must also be much greater Aboriginal consultation, involvement and control in these programs to break the cycle of dependency and make self-determination a reality. ã
Joe Roe, Northwest Mental Health Services, June 2000. [ Up ]
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