Embrace Co-Director Professor Helen Milroy AM has called for a course correction in the wake of last October’s damaging referendum and ‘no’ vote.
Talking at an online panel with her co-editors of the seminal Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice, Professor Pat Dudgeon AM and Professor Roz Walker, Professor Milroy said the landscape had changed for Aboriginal people.
“What we’ve seen in the post-referendum landscape is a change that’s taken us back probably 50 years in the way we see relationships and racism in this country,” Professor Milroy said.
“We have to accept what has happened – it’s part of what we went through as a nation. If we’re to move forward, we need to make that a safe process. It’s not just ‘no’ to a Voice (to Parliament) – it’s ‘no’ to the impact of 100 years of colonisation.”
We’re less welcome in our country, we’re less comfortable in our positions. I’m not sure what the way forward is except to say that we have gone a long way. We’re now going backwards but we need to turn that around.
The panel discussion, which can be viewed above, was chaired by former AFL footballer and guest from Embracing the Mind’s season one episode on sports and mental health, Michael Mitchell.
It marked the 10th anniversary of the book’s release. In that time, it has become the go-to text on social and emotional wellbeing.