Dialogue in Healing

‘healing in community: singing our songs in a new land’

This project primarily focused on recovery and cross-cultural conflict transformation within refugee communities in Brisbane. One of the key thesis of this project is that issues of 'recovery and healing’ have been separated from issues of ‘cross-cultural conflict transformation’ in ways that have undermined the holistic nature of practice and experience. Indigenous and non-western world-views, wisdom and experiences were drawn upon as a way of creating a greater integration between two traditionally separate bodies of practice.

The project engaged in a process of appreciative enquiry with members of a number of refugee communities to explore the key objectives of the project. A number of workshops – ‘dialogue sessions’ alongside key informant interviews were hosted by the project worker.

Key objectives:

• elicit from newly emerging refugee communities their ways of healing
• discover, create and solidify the models that emerge from the resources present in these communities
• respond to needs within and from this context, to facilitate community-led recovery
• design healing interventions and implementations as identified and formulated by participants
• report and disseminate learning’s to appropriate stakeholders

For more information about the final project report 'a dialogue in healing'