Aboriginal Narrative Practice Course

Aunty Barbara Wingard 

Thank you for your interest in this free Aboriginal narrative practice online course. As Aunty Barbara says, narrative practice is about ‘telling our stories in ways that make us stronger’.  In this course you will be able to watch videos from a wide range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander narrative counsellors, health workers and community workers. You will also get to hear about some of their creative inventions.

This is a self-directed course that you can start straight away! We invite you to watch the videos, read the articles and then leave your own comments, thoughts, stories and questions on this site. We would love to hear from you. 

All the resources here are completely free (thanks to a Community Benefits SA Grant).

If you want to receive a certificate for completing this course, this is also possible.  For more information about this, please click here 

We hope you enjoy the course. And we look forward to hearing about how you are assisting people to ‘tell their stories in ways that make them stronger’. 

This Post Has 17 Comments

  1. JennyScott

    nice

  2. Monica San Martin

    hi there, I’d like to know how long the self paced Aboriginal Narrative Practice Course approximately would take to complete online. I am aiming to introduce this to some of my staff. Thank you, Monica

  3. tina.stasuik

    This is a beautiful course, very applicable to the work of sitting with people and helping them find stronger threads of their own story and honor their history, culture, and future. Helping people re-author Problems and re-member identity are such loving ways to do our work. Thank you for this course and these teachings. It has been a pleasure and an honor to be able to learn.

  4. kenmarchtaler

    The highlight of this course for me has been the high quality of material presented entirely by skilled indigenous instructors. It supports my own conclusions that suppression of any kind is damaging, and that there is much to learn from everyone. Aboriginal Narrative Practice uniquely portrays how one can maintain culture, values and traditions, while considering, embracing and integrating the knowledge of others. I am leaving here just a few of the things I took away.

    Danger of a Single Story In Narrative Practice re-enforces the idea that people are the experts of their story. In Adichie’s presentation, I learned how easy it is to adopt a narrative that has no relationship to the actual life you live (she was living the life of a westerner without considering her own roots). Adichie’s dominant narrative had been derived from reading about people she had never known, and places she had never been. It was not until she ventured outside of her environment that she realized how multi-storied her life really was.

    In Re-Telling the Stories of Our Lives, David Denborough introduces the concept of Saying Hello Again, and how it can transform the experience of grief. This counters the common belief that when a loved one passes ,“one must get on with life”. The story about Almas and her husband Daim, showed us how culture plays into death and healing. Here Almas navigated her way through western culture, eastern culture and religious culture, showing us the effect that each of them may have on our healing. It was interesting to read Almas’s responses to these influences and how she was able to challenge them internally.

    I finally I was so intrigued by Kylie Dowse and her work. In her approach to violence, Kylie listened to her initial audience (women who had been violated) and in my eyes discovered an important factor for treating victims and their partners. That is, not every woman wants to end their relationship, just the violence within it. In her work, Dowse noted many negative factors in the treatment of those who have abused, including the language used to describe them i.e. perpetrators or persons of interest. In using the externalizing conversations work of Michael White, Dowse was able to externalize shame, and in doing so found the problem itself ceased to be the truth, and the resolutions suddenly visible. She also noted that shame was generally directed towards males, it was condemning, and it told men that if they talked about what they had done they would be ostracized, and that no one would ever look at them the same way again. Prior to addressing shame, Dowse found that men’s and women’s stories differed. But after moving it from the conversation, these accounts of abuse began to align.

    I found the entire course has enhanced my practice of Narrative Therapy. I recommend it to everyone!

  5. cwdv2

    What a great concept ‘ narrative therapy’ reauthoring our own stories and pleased to have listened to the stories they were all so inspiring in their own rights. Loving Aunty Barbara Wingards work 🙂

  6. Nancy Jeffrey

    As a Woolwonga woman from the NT I would really love to have a look at your free course

  7. tj

    This was a really wonderful experience. I learnt so much, and I’m inspired to learn even more. Thank you to everyone involved 🙂

  8. Jasmine Stadhams

    Fantastic resource and course for all to access! Thank you Aunty Barbara.

  9. sankalpagentle@gmail.com

    Hi I appreciate that the center has made this way of addressing trauma freely available. It is a valuable tool that I can use in a practical way. Thanks

  10. Patricia

    Thank you Barb, Tileah and all that shared their stories and who participated in this course
    I liked the stories and the ways of doing especially around narrative therapy

  11. Lexie Carr

    I loved learning that Narrative therapy can assist with many issues such as family problems, grief and more for Aboriginal people. It is so important to separate the person from the problem,

    I also learnt that the person telling their story is always the expert – not the therapist.

    Loved it.

  12. Nanci Lee

    Hi friends, I am mixed race (Syrian-Chinese) and appreciate that decolonizing identity stories is key in this course early on. I’m not Aboriginal or First Nations, Metis or Innu as we call our First Peoples in Canada/ Turtle Island. But I know that there is deep wisdom that I can learn from these communities. Is it appropriate for me to take this course?

    1. Nanci

      Also so appreciate the free course. Thank you.

  13. bhakti walve

    I am working with some of the adhivasi students with viva college at Virar mumbai Maharashtra.

  14. Keiron

    that dialogue of the client being the expert. So good to hear.

  15. Peta Lewis

    As I am discovering my family and connections I’m am so excited to link into this course.

  16. Bianca Stawiarski

    As a Badimaya woman (Aboriginal) and a therapist, I’m excited to have a look at your free course!

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