I can move them.
I can move those fingers now.
She started to pull
and it was like pulling sandpaper under the skin.
She kept saying, "Come on.
Come on, walk."
I can't explain it. I don't try to explain it.
But it's certainly what brings people
back to these clinics.
And it explains why the clinics are booked out
weeks ahead.
Their work is, maybe, 60000 years old.
They don't see illnesses like we do.
I feel their healing hands. I do.
I'm Sandra Hocking.
I'm 67 years old
and I'm a very proud Wiradjuri lady.
My health problems started in
early 1980s.
I was 34.
Went to the doctors for a checkup
and while I was actually having a test done
I had a stroke.
Then another
Then another.
And all up, I ended up having six strokes.
Now that meant I couldn't walk on my own.
After 11 years
I was at a point where
I didn't really care what happened.
My health care worker had talked about these
Aboriginal healers and I had said to Ronnie, I said,
"Well, what have we got to lose?"
I think we got a very old way of doing medicine
where a patient stays in hospital
has treatment and after a week or so, goes home.
They come to a setting like this, they expect a GP
interaction, so they find it quite interesting
that the healers not talking to them.
They're not taking a history
The healers just looking.
Your GP doesn't tend to do that.
Ngangkari means healer.
The Ngangkari can see through the body,
so as soon as you walk in,
they already have an idea of what's happening to you.
And with the touch that they call panpooni
so it's a healing touch
they can actually remove the pain.
Some of them, they can blow the spirit
inside the body of the person.
We see people coming with all different ailments
from pain, mental health. People with strokes.
They don't talk. They don't tell you anything.
They're gorgeous people.
ANTAC's aim is to see traditional healing
Aboriginal traditional healing
to have it next to the doctors
so people can choose to see them if they want.
I want you to fix me up, OK?
I'm a diabetic.
There's always pain in me,
but now the pain seems to be gone.
I suffer a bit with depression and anxiety.
I felt like it was trying to pull all the
all the bad thoughts, I suppose.
Evil feelings from me.
Clear head, which I haven't had in a long time.
So, the belief is that
all the illnesses ultimately has a spiritual cause.
This is the fourth time we've been running these clinics.
So we're now going from Bathurst to Bourke.
So it's open to everyone.
Offered free of charge.
I've got a pain right there.
We've got Max Watson
We've got Margaret Winton
and Mukayi Baker.
Margaret and Mukayi are sisters.
They become Ngangkaris as soon as they were born.
And then they train all their life, really.
I think many Aboriginal people are broken
and maybe lost and a lot of the work
that the Ngangkari do is not just about physical healing,
it's also spiritual healing.
To finally have people come in and practice something
with you that your people have done for centuries
It's very special and it's very connecting.
This is a complimentary style.
It doesn't replace medicine by any means.
Is this a placebo effect? Is this something else?
I don't know.
but the truth is, that people will report
that they have a reduction in pain.
It was more like an 'inner body' experience.
My left leg had no feeling in it.
Had no feeling in it since the first stroke
And then she started to pull
and it was like pulling sandpaper under the skin.
They told me to get off the bed.
She kept saying, "Come on.
come on. Walk."
Hello.
Why are you crying?
Because I'm walking
without my walker.
I haven't done that for a lot of years.
I still can't believe in a way that it's happened.
But it has.
That was 12 months in April.
Yes, I still have health problems,
but I woke up this morning
and I'm going back to see the healers today.
Hello.
How are you?
Oh, I do. I feel great, don't you worry.
You've done something for me that I never thought
would happen.
24 kilos.
You lost?
I lost.
I haven't let up from that day on.
I really haven't.
My doctor kept saying, "I can't explain it."
I said, "I don't want you to explain it."
There's nothing to explain.
It's something that's happened
I'm just grateful it happened to me.
See you! Bye!
This is a cultural experience,
rather than a medical intervention.
How did you go?
In my view, if a healer sees 20 people
and 18 say their pain has gotten better
then I claim that is something.
You get a lot of skeptics.
You do, you do.
We used to hear about Chinese medicine
osteopath, chiropractors, reiki and all these different
complimentary medicines, but we're not really used to
hear Aboriginal traditional medicine.
They will. They will understand.
I mean there are flow on effects for an
Aboriginal person to walk in
not only see that we're respecting their culture
but actually seeing it.
Putting it on par with modern medicine.
I think it takes it to a whole new level.
Thank you.
Makes it feel so good.
I wish I could take them home.
I love you, darling.
God bless you.
Thank you.