The Sista2Sista Mentoring Program, we actually started that off yarning around the campfire.
It was around one of those principles from the Early Years Learning Framework too around
building those reciprocal and respectful relationships with each other.
And how we use that campfire there too, so when everyone gets ... When it’s their turn
to talk we pass a piece of wool around and that goes all the way around the circle, around
the campfire and once that last person or educators finish sharing their story, what
has brought them to the mentoring workshop, we tie that wool together, the string, and
that formulates our connectedness as a basically a family.
An idea of that too is we remain connected no matter where we go.
Creating that and setting the scene for around that belonging. Belonging Being Becoming is
interwoven throughout the program, you know, every morning of the workshops and every afternoon
when we do our reflecting, you know, we base that around that Belong Being Becoming.
Belonging is the, you know, how do you make
children feel that they belong in their service. You’re saying good morning to them, you’re
asking them “How are you?”, listening to them. We’re wanting our children to be
able to just to walk in the room and feel comfortable.
And we model that with our mentorees, that same process as we work with children, that
sense of belonging. When they walk in the room it’s straight away, you know, greeting
them at the door or even before they get to the door when they’re signing in. Say we’re
out there with our coffee yarnin’, yarnin’ up with them and gammin’ asking them “You
know, where you from? What’s your name?” You know, you’re establishing that relationship
straightaway, soon as they get there. So,
you know, making them feel that they belong. And that sense of connectedness too, eh? Because
we always ask them “Oh, where you from?” And as soon as they say “Oh...” you know
“From...” could be from Hopevale or some... “Oh you know so and so from Hopevale?” “Yeah, I know them”
and that’s how we connect with each other too, wanting that common ground.
Being is the here and now.
And focusing on the strengths, you know, and we’ve always told our mentorees, you know,
there are times when you cannot control what goes on in community but what you can control
is what you are doing with the children. So focus your attention on the children and on
your strengths because you do have skills and strengths and you have to always be pointing
it out to them and, you know, talking to them about how deadly they are and what strengths
that they have, you know, to remind them.
Yeah, like we are always talking them up, you know, that you are so deadly in what you
do, keep doing what you’re doing. Mm.
You know, because they are doing wonderful things in their service.
And they also needed to be reminded of the fact that how important they are to our children
and our families, our communities and you constantly have to remind them who’s, who’s
the real expert? You are because you are the one who knows those children, you know their
family history, you know their background, you know their culture, you are actually the
expert in your community and, you know, making them feel good about themselves.
Becoming is... Looking towards the future.
Yep. They’ve travelled such a great distance already and you can feel that confidence that
they’ve gained and the amount of knowledge that they have now about the eight ways of
learning, about embedding Indigenous perspectives, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
ways of learning and teaching. That’s so important, not only western knowledges but
also embedding Indigenous ways of learning. They’re in a better position to support
our children’s learning than non-Indigenous people are who don’t understand our children,
especially when it comes to language differences as well.
Our educators, they speak the language of those children in their community, so they’re
in a better position to support these children, learning concepts that are often English concepts.
We do it very differently. We’ve flipped it on its head and gone in there and grow
leaders from the grassroots level up. So it’s actually sustaining Indigenous leadership.
You know, they’re the key to it all. They’re actually the key.
‘Cause I think it’s important to realise too for our mob for too long they’ve been
told constantly they can’t be anything. So to grow indigenous leadership and what
we do was constantly remind them how deadly you are. You have skills. You have knowledge.
You’re the leader in this community. You’re the expert in this community. You’re important.
We train them too to stop at the waterholes and rest and reflect on themselves. You know,
to take care of their wellbeing, which is something that they need to do because they’re
important to us. Yes, and we always share our journey too with
the mentorees, you know, where we started, along the way, you know, what journey we’ve
taken and how did we get here as Indigenous pedagogical leaders and mentors.
Yeah, and getting them to rise above those challenges. Yes, we all have those challenges
but here we are, we’re here to help you rise above those challenges. So walking alongside
them with that journey too was really important. And I think, you know, we just get better
and better. Like Denise and I, after we did the reflection around the campfire this afternoon
with the mentorees, we just gave each other a hug because, you know, this is another one
that we’ve done, another mentoring program and another successful one. It was emotional
too because every single mentoring program that we’ve had - this is the third one - we
always get emotional, you know, because of what everyone has achieved, you know, and
their journey is still going, and so is ours. Mm, and further concreting that relationship
with each other, stay connected. This is not the end. They still want to learn, that’s what’s deadly about these
programs; they’re still wanting to learn more, they don’t want it to end want it to end. [LAUGHS]