Aboriginal Best Start Sites
The Victorian Aboriginal community comprises a number of communities and extended family networks. It is widely acknowledged that past practices have not always had a positive effect on Aboriginal people. Current health and welfare policies acknowledge the impact of past policies and continue to work collaboratively for a better future. Best Start promotes collaborative practice.
The Aboriginal Best Start status report adds to a body of knowledge that reinforces the importance Aboriginal people place on their children. Aboriginal people view their children as critical to their future and consider improving their children’s health and education outcomes as crucial. Aboriginal people want to provide leadership and direction to health, welfare and education services to provide a best start in life for their children.
The Aboriginal Best Start projects have been established to ensure that local Aboriginal communities and organisations are given every possible opportunity to influence outcomes for their children and families. Many Aboriginal children experience multiple factors that place their health wellbeing and psychosocial development at risk. These projects are designed to empower communities and families and develop broad cross-sectoral partnerships across all early years services to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and their families.
Guiding all projects will be the Best Start evidence base and the Aboriginal Best Start status report that brings together Aboriginal cultural beliefs, knowledge about the key elements of child development and the factors that impact on Aboriginal children reaching their full potential.
Local Example
Welcome Baby To Country
Delkaia Aboriginal Best Start, Horsham and District
Tyra King’s descendants may one day stand in the soothing shade of a gum tree planted in her honour. Tyra’s mum, Deanne planted the gum tree at Antwerp, near Dimboola, the home of her Wotjobaluk ancestors. Most people will pass by it and not know the history of the tree. But to the King family, the tiny tree was part of a significant cultural event held in the Wimmera. Thirteen-month-old Tyra received the tree and a certificate at the Welcome Baby To Country ceremony in October 2007 in Horsham, the first ceremony of its kind in Victoria.
The ceremony involved 13 children who were born into, or who moved into, the Wimmera Koorie communities since 2004. It celebrated and emphasised the importance of strong families and recognised the significance of children and young people. The ceremony welcomed the Koorie children to the country of the five Traditional Owner groups - the Wotjobaluk, Wergaia, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, and Jupagalk people.
The Welcome Baby to Country ceremony was an Aboriginal Best Start project funded through the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. What began as an idea to strengthen families grew to involve many of the Wimmera’s community groups, including the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority, which donated the gum trees.
Mr Sandy Hodge, Executive Officer of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, a lead partner in the project, said the ceremony reinforced the importance of the new generation and the role and status of Elders.
“Our children are our present and our future,” Mr Hodge said at the ceremony, where Elders formally welcomed the babies and toddlers.
“The broader community hears a lot about Aboriginal people and culture from northern and central parts of Australia and this ceremony was an important way of acknowledging Aboriginal people in the Wimmera Mallee region,” he said.
Kerrie Clarke, whose children Tehya, 3, and Seamus, 7 months, were welcomed at the ceremony, echoed Sandy’s comments. For her, the day was about coming together with Koories from the district, renewing old acquaintances and connecting with Koorie families the Clarke’s had not met.
“We wanted to be part of the ceremony because it helped to make us more part of the Koorie community in this area, especially my kids,” said Kerrie, a Gunai woman, who was born and raised in Gippsland, and now lives in Dimboola.
“I am married to an Irishman and my kids are fair and that’s why I think it is important o have something like the Welcome to Country which recognises them as Aboriginal kids and also reminds people that there is an Aboriginal community still in Dimboola.”
Kerrie and her family have planted the gum tree in their back yard.
Nola Illin, the Best Start facilitator with the Wimmera Health Care Group, was thrilled that her son, Djarem Harradine, 2, was welcomed to the country. As an organiser and a parent she heard the talk that followed the big day.
“People loved it and the community who came along felt really proud about it. It was so significant because it was the Elders of the community coming together to welcome the new generation of Aboriginal children,” Nola said.
Nola hopes the Welcome Baby to Country will be held again next year, possibly during NAIDOC Week.