Always Was, Always Will Be
Weave always has and always will stand on Aboriginal land alongside our Aboriginal communities.
Weave Youth & Community Services stands on the land of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people. Over our 45 year history, numerous Aboriginal community members, clients, staff and Board Members have guided our work as an organisation and taught us how to walk alongside them. We honour the resilience and strength of First Nations people and recognise their ongoing fight for self-determination.
As a non-Aboriginal controlled organisation we are committed to standing alongside our Aboriginal staff, clients and communities in their ongoing fight against systemic oppression and injustice. We recognise our role in supporting this fight, through supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and communities in their individual and collective healing journeys.
‘Always Was, Always Will Be’ is a short film produced by Weave in partnership with local grassroots organisations Tribal Warrior and Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service. The film was produced alongside Weave’s Aboriginal staff, and features clients and community members who share stories of connection to land and place on Gadigal and Bidjigal land.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers please be advised this video may contain footage of people who have passed away.
Film by Benny Edwards
Weave’s Aboriginal staff group
From left to right: Lauren Vosota, Daniel Daylight, Regan Mitchell, Beau Foster and Karlie Stewart
Photo by Tristan Stefan Edouard
“Our culture is the thing that’s going to save us and that culture is the traditional culture and it’s also contemporary Aboriginal Redfern culture of self determination, of community control, of activism. It kind of goes along with Always Was Always Will Be, this will always be Aboriginal land because we’re not going away without a fight, despite the many years and the many Government policies that were put in place to strip us of our culture they haven’t been successful. We always have been and always will be Aboriginal people.”
– Daniel Daylight
Weave's Aboriginal Healing Framework
Weave is committed to working in culturally safe and responsive ways and as part of that commitment we have supported our Aboriginal staff group to develop and document our Aboriginal Healing Framework. This framework guides the ongoing development and implementation of healing-centred practice for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and their communities, with the intention of creating genuine and sustainable healing outcomes.
Weave acknowledges and stands with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their ongoing fight against systemic oppression and injustice. We recognise that the social, economic, political, emotional, psychological and physical health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is dependent upon the dismantling of the systems that continue to impact their communities. We recognise our role in supporting this fight, through supporting our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and communities in their individual and collective healing journeys by providing holistic, trauma-informed and strengths-based practice grounded in and guided by our Aboriginal Healing Framework.
In their ongoing fight, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have demonstrated their inherent resilience and strength, standing strong in the face of great adversity and exercising self-determination to fight for and demand justice. Weave acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ strengths and solutions already lie within their communities, and we will continue walking alongside our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients to support them on their individual and collective healing journeys.
Weave’s Aboriginal Healing Framework Summary Document
To find out more, please contact us.
Our Aboriginal Healing Framework was developed by Weave caseworker, Karlie Stewart, guided by our Aboriginal staff – Daniel Daylight, Regan Mitchell, Lauren Vosota, Lauren Ella-Duncan and Beau Foster and Weave Board Member Jonathon Captain-Webb.
Karlie Stewart is a Wandi Wandian Woman from Yuin Country on the South Coast of New South Wales. She lived in Nowra throughout her childhood and spent time around the Nowra, Wreck Bay and Jerrinja Aboriginal communities with her family. Since the age of 10, Karlie has lived on Bidjigal land and has strong connections to the La Perouse Aboriginal community. In early 2019, Karlie graduated with an Honours in Social Work from the University of New South Wales and has since worked as a Child, Youth and Family caseworker at Weave Youth and Community Services. She has been part of the Healing Foundation’s Interim Youth Advisory Group and is passionate about healing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities, particularly from intergenerational trauma as a result of historic and current government interventions.
Karlie has been painting since she was young as a way to connect to her saltwater home on the South Coast. She created the artwork that features in Weave’s Aboriginal Healing Framework.
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