The more I talk, the stronger I get: unlocking our past to free our future

Uncle Michael Welsh, Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

Dr Tiffany McComsey, Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

Richard Campbell, Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

Jayde Kelly, Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

Dr Paul Gray, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney

Professor Lindon Coombes, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney

Professor Larissa Behrendt AO, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, University of Technology Sydney

This project is a Stolen Generations Survivor and community-led project that will utilise Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation’s unique survivor-led governance model and practice framework to explore the legacies of institutional child sexual abuse that occurred at Kinchela. Further, this project will examine the intergenerational legacies of those abuses on descendants and families, the child sexual abuse experiences of descendants and the development of survivor-led responses to these experiences. This project has implications not only for healing within the Kinchela community, but also across other First Nations communities, for First Nations survivors of institutional and non-institutional child sexual abuse.

This project will utilise an Aboriginal Participatory Action Research methodology across two phases – qualitative exploration of specific experiences of survivors and descendants, and co-creation development of a model of care. Purposeful sampling will engage members of the Kinchela Boys Home survivor community, their families and descendants, totalling 30-50 participants. Yarning circles and individual sessions will work in tandem to deliver on the project aims.

This project will contribute to ongoing efforts by survivors and descendants towards intergenerational healing, through community-based truth-telling and the co-creation of tailored, culturally-grounded models of care that promote community stories. In turn, policy and practice reform will be advocated for through strong relationships with relevant bodies at local, State, Territory and Commonwealth levels.