Historical trauma and resilience : stories with Aboriginal young people in Australia
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2024
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Grounded in Gamilaroi ways of knowing, being and doing, this study, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the first studies in Australia to focus on historical trauma inquiry and the subsequent impacts of continuing colonisation with Aboriginal young people. This study positions the voices of Aboriginal young people at the centre of inquiry, bringing forth perspectives that are grounded in time, place, and space for telling our story in ways that make us as Aboriginal people stronger. From this strength-based lens, this study used Indigenous Storywork methodologies that are grounded in relationality and Country, the young peoples’ stories were understood from the use of abductive analysis, positionality, and arts-informed research methods to deepen the sense-making process to understand historical trauma and resilience with Aboriginal young people. This project was gifted a Gamilaroi word and practice called winanga-li, which means to listen, to hear, to know and to remember. Informed by this practice and the ethical and cultural responsibilities embedded within this ceremony of research, the voices of Aboriginal young people are amplified throughout. This study was approved by University of Technology Sydney’s and the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council’s ethics committees. Aboriginal young people in this study identified the term historical trauma as a way of making sense of the loss they personally and collectively have experienced because of continuing colonisation. The layers of loss are multilayered, and generational. The impact associated with historical trauma is how the young people make sense of their own stories and experiences of being Aboriginal. These experiences are associated with how they engage with society and navigate through what this identity and way of being means for them in society temporally. Within the young peoples’ stories, they draw on experiences from their families and their own lives of being part of a country that continually others Aboriginal people whilst denying our continued connection to Country, culture, kin, and self-determination. Collective and individual resilience to overcome historical trauma from Aboriginal young peoples’ perspectives is learning from our pasts, growing from our present, and dreaming towards our futures. Aboriginal young people in this study recognise the previous generations who have fought for recognition, justice, and equity. Overcoming historical trauma for the young people in this study is not done by watching or sitting back; but by being part of social movements for change, standing up, showing up and speaking up.
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