Gunawirra seeks to build capacity and confidence towards healing, resilience and self-reliance by working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children.

According to the 2021 Annual Report, Gunawirra has made waves through their programs ¹:
– completed 1723 service delivery hours with 255 people under the Young Aboriginal Mothers Groups Program
– completed 1431 service delivery hours with 1255 people under the 5 Big Ideas program
– provided 162 hours of teacher training and cultural learning

Gunawirra also launched a collection of cultural videos aimed at reaching Aboriginal families during the pandemic, sharing knowledge with preschool children, and enlightening the wider community on topics including Dreamtime stories, Aboriginal tools, and native plants. These videos had over 4000 views and 5 star ratings by all attendees, with people tuning in from all over Australasia, and won the Best Technology Achievement by an Indigenous Australian in the Australian Not-for-Profit Technology Awards. There are have plans to continue releasing more cultural webinars covering topics such as kinship and identity, and traditional native food uses.

Western Sydney University conducted an evaluation on the Young Aboriginal Mother’s Group in 2015 by personally attending the group sessions and interviewing the mothers taking part in the group ². Overall, attending the group had benefits that could be grouped into 2 main themes: (1) Purpose of the group: Supporting and facilitating Aboriginal motherhood and (2) the Workings of the group. For more information on the evaluation, click here.

Under the theme of Purpose of the group: Supporting and facilitating Aboriginal motherhood, the evaluation found that the group met its purpose of supporting and facilitating motherhood. Staff attributed this to Gunawirra “creating the conditions to encourage the emotional engagement of the mothers with their children beyond meeting practical care needs”. The presence of the staff was also paramount in “encouraging the mothers’ interest and curiousity in their children” as they helped “giving (give) meaning to the children’s behaviour”.

The group also served as a source of peer support and countered the social isolation that the mothers experienced. The mothers who attended the group spoke of the “support they gained from the other mothers as normalising and empowering them in their experiences of motherhood.”. Understanding that others are going through similar issues helped to remove the “stigma that they (the mothers) felt as young Aboriginal mothers.”.

The group also served as a “space to share their knowledge and experiences of motherhood” around “practical care tasks as well as accounts of how to relate to children”, and gave the mothers “an opportunity to have a break and some time out for themselves during their week.”. Finally, the group served as a mechanism for cultural transmission where mothers “became more confident and proud of their identities as Aboriginal women over time” as they engaged in “Aboriginal painting within the group, an outing to see rock paintings, weaving…”.

Under the theme of the Workings of the group, staff reported that they were able to form “trusting relationships for developing a safe space for the women to share ‘deeper’ emotional experiences.”. The trusting relationship formed between staff and mother provided some “emotional support to create the conditions to strengthen attachment between mothers and children and facilitate emotional capacity.”. Staff were able to form these trusting relationships by simply “holding space” or “validating the mothers’ emotional experiences, as well as their positive mothering practices.”.

Therefore, the evaluation found that “the mothers’ group serve function in terms of support, facilitating mother-child relationships and the development of the women’s construction of motherhood and themselves as mothers.”.

The Five Big Ideas program was also evaluated by Western Sydney University in 2016 by administering surveys and conducting interviews with the pre-school teachers and directors’ perspectives of the Five Big Ideas program ⁴.

Overall, the feedback on the Five Big Ideas program was found to be largely positive. The pre-school teachers noted changes in the children after going through content such as ‘personal hygiene’, ‘nutrition’, and ‘self-help skills’. In terms of personal hygiene, staff noted there was increased motivation to brush teeth and an increased desire to complete these tasks by themsevles, giving the children greater confidence and independence. With nutrition, staff noted that the children responded positively to vegetables and ate more vegatables. Staff also reported that children actively rejected unhealthy food such as sweets at school and at home. With the decreased intake of sweets, staff noticed that there was an increase in concentration and reduction in energy, especially in the hyperactive children.

Pre-school teachers appreciated the support that Gunawirra provided, in terms of receiving weekly training and support through Skype. Staff also felt that the art therapy sessions allowed the children to express their trauma in different ways, especially for children with additional needs. Staff also managed to relieve some of their stress through art therapy and learn new ways to manage the children from the art therapist. Although the costs of having an art therapist was high, the benefits outweighed the costs as staff felt the need for more sessions.

Visitations by the cultural advisor was also found to be helpful for both non-aboriginal and aboriginal staff. Non-aboriginal staff reported receiving feedback on how culturally aware they are and gained confidence to teach about Aboriginal cultur, while Aboriginal staff found that the addition of the cultural aspect to the program affirmed the role of culture in the children’s lives. Aboriginal staff reported that the cultural advisor served as a form of a “role model to the children.. taking culture to each of the centres”. Staff also mentioned wanting additional cultural training in their feedback about the program.

To read the evaluation report, click here.

Gunawirra is assessed as:
– having Indigenous ownership as more than half of its Board members have Aboriginal background.
– having community leadership as they partner with local indigenous and non-indigenous pre-schools such as Dalaigur and Scribbly Gum Pre-School.
– undergoing ongoing service evaluation. Their Young Aboriginal Mothers’ Groups and Five Big Ideas program were recently evaluated in a study conducted by Western Sydney University. The Young Aboriginal Mothers’ Group program is also going to be re-evaluated in 2021.