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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-27 Daily Xml
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Question Time

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER WOMEN'S GATHERING

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:05): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women a question about the recent state Aboriginal women's gathering.

Leave granted.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: The annual state Aboriginal women's gathering was held between 21 and 23 October. The gatherings provide opportunities for Aboriginal women from across the state to come together to network and share experiences and formulate plans for future initiatives. Will the minister inform the council about initiatives discussed at this recent gathering of Aboriginal women?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (15:06): I thank the member for his most important question. It was my pleasure to attend the recent women's gathering. At the outset, I would like to say that there certainly could not be a more inspiring group of leaders than the Aboriginal and Torrens Strait Islander women, particularly some of the women who attended this year's and previous years' gatherings.

In relation to Aboriginal women, the South Australian government Office for Women has already done a lot of work around building a culture of leadership, from holding small development sessions, such as résumé writing workshops to recruiting more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to the Premier's Women's Directory and to South Australia's Women's Honour Roll.

As the gathering demonstrated, there are so many life journeys and stories that reflect the very positive contribution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women make to the community. With this in mind, I was pleased to launch the Sistas Yarnin' series of programs at the gathering this year. Sistas Yarnin' is a joint initiative between the Office for Women and RadioAdelaide, and it gathers together first-hand stories of the life journeys of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

For some of the women, Sistas Yarnin' is about highlighting their accomplishments through work and community service, and for others it is simply telling us about what life is like for them and their triumphs over adversity. Most importantly, these stories are told in these women's own way, using their own voices and their own words—they are their stories.

The rich tradition of storytelling and yarning is how cultural knowledge is and has been passed on to other generations of Aboriginal and also non-Aboriginal people. I was very pleased to present certificates at the gathering to four of the six Sistas Yarnin' participants who shared their stories—and we were able to listen to one of those stories. The participants involved were Pat Waria-Read, Frances Rigney, Delvine Cockatoo-Collins and Tiahna Wanganeen. Chris Egan and Christine Jacques were unable to attend, and their certificates will be sent to them.

Three other women who helped greatly were also acknowledged, and they are Marion Burns, who organised nine women from Nunkuwarrin Yunti Healing Camp to share their stories; Nikki Marcel, Program manager at RadioAdelaide; and Cathy Kenneally, Arts Producer at RadioAdelaide, who also did the recording of the stories.

I was also pleased to announce the second round of Anti-Violence Community Awareness grants at the gathering. The grants are an important part of the South Australian government's four year anti-violence community awareness campaign. I recently launched the media component of the Don't Cross the Line campaign, which I have previously spoken about in this chamber. That campaign promotes respectful relationships and aims to increase awareness of the proposed new domestic violence laws and rape and sexual assault laws.

As part of the campaign, a community education grant fund was established, and that fund is aimed at informing and educating groups in the community who would not necessarily be targeted through the mainstream campaign. We are keen to make sure that our message reaches as wide an audience as possible. The second round of the Anti-Violence Community Education grants is targeted at young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women aged 18 to 25 years in rural, regional and remote communities. Five grants of up to $15,000 each are available. Interested organisations need to submit an expression of interest, and successful organisations will be invited to work with the Office for Women to finalise their grant application. This process is proposed as a more supportive way to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and achieve outcomes. The Office for Women will ensure that appropriate partnerships are developed with relevant agencies to facilitate outcomes.

We expect that the community organisations will develop specifically targeted programs, training or other initiatives, which could build on the campaign message and the targeted population group and ensure that they are suitable for the community that they propose to work with and, obviously, that they are culturally relevant. The community awareness grants will help us reach the widest possible audience with the message about respectable relationships and changes to laws.

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