The Alliance attended Indigenous Allied Health Australia’s Forum on 25-26 November in Canberra.
The first day included separate sessions on emotional intelligence and mentoring – and a lively Gala Dinner and Awards addressed by Fiona Nash and sponsored by HESTA. At that celebratory event Tom Calma - in acknowledging the top award he received - gave a powerful speech about consultation as a prerequisite of progress on Indigenous affairs and rights, and about the White Ribbon Campaign to stop violence against women.
On the second day Kylie Stothers, who represents IAHA on Council of the NRHA, led a terrific workshop on Cultural Responsiveness. It provided participants with practical tools to build their ability to be culturally responsive with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Kylie emphasised the point that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to cultural responsiveness, and led discussion about why being culturally responsive is so important.
Another standout workshop on day two was on media training, facilitated by Olivia Greentree from Essential Media Communications. At this practical workshop, we were reminded of the challenges the media face in producing the news, and learnt how to present and package material to gain maximum impact. One of the 'top tips' was that to produce a media release that will grab a journalist's attention you need an ‘est’ factor in the first sentence – biggest, largest, fastest, longest etc.
Our congratulations to Indigenous Allied Health Australia on its successful Forum.