At Wellsprings for Women, talking about the upcoming Voice referendum has meant having a ‘yarn’ in more ways than one.
The Dandenong-based service for migrant and refugee women has backed the ‘Yes’ campaign with a series of ‘Aboriginal awareness’ sessions for staff and yarning circles with Badjiri woman Karan Kent and Gurindji woman Kayla Cartledge.
“Our participants, the majority of whom from refugee backgrounds, were quite moved by engaging in the yarning circles,” chief executive Dalal Smiley said.
“They related their own experiences of loss, dislocation, grief and sorrow to what they heard on the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people in Australia and the process of reconciliation.”
Some of the attendees spoke of “the Voice of Indigenous Australians” being the voice that they didn’t have in their own countries.
Ms Smiley said 10 yarning circles will be held to boost awareness of “this important juncture in our history as a nation”.
On 9 August, Wamba Wamba woman and First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Centre CEO Karinda Taylor addressed 60 guests at a Wellsprings dinner at St John’s Regional College’s graduate restaurant.
Taylor spoke about what the referendum means to First Nations people and why and how people could support the Yes campaign, Ms Smiley said.
Wellsprings is also developing its first Reconciliation Action Plan.
The Voice referendum will be held on Saturday 14 October.
