empowerment

04/03/2022
Author: David Clark on 04/03/2022
Categories

An Inspiring Visit to Kojonup

John Stanton and I headed down to visit Lisa Martello-Hart (Australiana Artist and Children’s Book Author) in Kojonup on Thursday, 17 February. We were invited to learn more of what was going on in the town and engage in various discussions with key community members that focused on […]
Do you like it?
Read more
30/09/2021
Author: David Clark on 30/09/2021
Categories

Factors Facilitating Addiction Recovery: A Summary

Some of you will know that I run two other websites, one of which, Recovery Stories, focuses on addiction and mental health recovery. Over the period from March to August I posted about 100 articles on my blog, but had to stop for a time while I was […]
Do you like it?
Read more
21/09/2021
Some of the Carrolup young artists. Front row: Reynold Hart (Far Left), Parnell Dempster (Middle) and Revel Cooper (Far Right). Back row, 2nd Left: Barry Loo. Do you know who the other boys are?
Author: David Clark on 21/09/2021
Categories

Facilitating Healing at Carrolup, Part 2

I continue my article focused on the process of healing that occurred at Carrolup Native Settlement. These sections are taken from my eBook Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe. ‘Prior to November 1946, the children had been closeted away on the Settlement. However, they were taken to the […]
Do you like it?
Read more
20/09/2021
The children of Carrolup in their schoolroom with the White family and visitors from Katanning. Photographer: Noelene White, late 1948 or early 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 20/09/2021
Categories

Facilitating Healing at Carrolup, Part 1

Some of you will know one of the main reasons I became involved with the Carrolup story was because of my interest in the healing of trauma and its consequences (e.g. mental health problems, addiction). I was looking for a story about the healing of trauma amongst Aboriginal […]
Do you like it?
Read more
22/03/2021
Author: David Clark on 22/03/2021
Categories

Recovery Stories

I’ve recently spent a good amount of time working on my Recovery Stories website, in preparation for the publishing of my new eBook Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction on 9th April 2021. I first launched the Recovery Stories website in May 2013, with the aim […]
Do you like it?
Read more
20/01/2021
Noongar Smoking Ceremony at Fremantle Round House, 26th January 2017.
Author: David Clark on 20/01/2021
Categories

Key Factors Facilitating Indigenous Healing

When I first developed the educational healing resource Sharing Culture back in 2014, I did a great deal of reading about the healing of trauma and intergenerational trauma. I summarised what I considered to be 12 principles of healing, which are relevant to Aboriginal people here in Australia […]
Do you like it?
Read more
12/01/2021
Author: David Clark on 12/01/2021
Categories

How I Came to Write About Carrolup, Part 2

Yesterday, I posted the first part of the Preface to my book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, which told the story of how I came to be involved with Carrolup. Here is the continuation of the Preface, which describes my background and how it has influenced my decision […]
Do you like it?
Read more
18/06/2020
The children of Carrolup in their schoolroom with the White family and visitors from Katanning. Photographer: Noelene White, late 1948 or early 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 18/06/2020
Categories

Key Elements Underlying the Healing of Trauma

In our forthcoming book Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, I have written two appendices, one reflecting on The Trauma and the other on The Healing. In my last blog, I provided a section of the first Appendix, The Trauma: Reflections. Here, I include the first part of […]
Do you like it?
Read more
02/06/2020
Mr and Mrs White with some of the Carrolup boys and the Peet family. Back row: Barry Loo, Mr. Peet, Noel White, Adrian Allen and Mrs. Peet. Middle row: Lily White and the three Peet girls. Front row: Parnell Dempster, unidentified boy and Reynold Hart. Photograph taken in 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 02/06/2020
Categories

Why is the Story of Carrolup Important?

‘The first step in re-establishing healthy communities is to acknowledge and understand the impact of the colonial legacy on the lives of Aboriginal people today and the various pathways necessary for healing from historical trauma, using both cultural and contemporary understandings and processes.’ Pat Dudgeon, Helen Milroy and Roz […]
Do you like it?
Read more
13/09/2019
Author: David Clark on 13/09/2019
Categories

The Four Stages of Recovery

I was looking through one of my other websites, Recovery Stories, yesterday. I came across a blog I posted in 2014 about an article on recovery from mental health problems by Mark Ragins. That blog is as pertinent today, so here it is: Mark is a leading recovery figure […]
Do you like it?
Read more
09/05/2019
Author: David Clark on 09/05/2019
Categories

Community Building

Here’s an article on asset-based community development (ABCD) which I wrote some time ago for the Kinship Connections WA website. This approach can facilitate healing in a community. “Mental health is not a product of pharmacology or a service that can be singularly provided by an institution: it is […]
Do you like it?
Read more
20/02/2019
Carrolup School, main building. Photographer: David Clark, 16 November, 2016.
Author: David Clark on 20/02/2019
Categories

Importance of the Carrolup Story

“The first step in re-establishing healthy communities is to acknowledge and understand the impact of the colonial legacy on the lives of Aboriginal people today and the various pathways necessary for healing from historical trauma, using both cultural and contemporary understandings and processes.” Pat Dudgeon, Helen Milroy and […]
Do you like it?
Read more
26/01/2019
Mr. and Mrs. White with some of the Carrolup boys and the Peet family. Back row: Barry Loo, Mr. Peet, Noel White, Adrian Allen and Mrs. Peet. Middle row: Lily White and the three Peet girls. Front row: Parnell Dempster, unidentified boy and Reynold Hart. Photograph taken in 1949. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 26/01/2019
Categories

Our Carrolup Project

I thought it particularly appropriate today, so-called ‘Australia Day’, that I re-iterate what John and I are doing and what we are hoping to achieve with our Carrolup Project. Seventy years ago, Aboriginal children of Carrolup ‘reached out’ to white society with their beautiful landscape drawings. Their efforts, […]
Do you like it?
Read more
09/01/2019
Eilean Donan Castle at the entrance of Loch Duich in Scotland.
Author: David Clark on 09/01/2019
Categories

A Journey Toward Recovery: From the Inside Out

Some of you will know that I have worked in the addiction and mental health field for over 40 years, spending the first 25 years as a neuroscientist working on the brain neurotransmitter dopamine. I eventually closed my laboratory because I: (1) stopped believing in disease models of […]
Do you like it?
Read more
08/12/2018
Carrolup School, a healing sanctuary during the time that Noel White was teacher, May 1946 - December 1950. Photographer: John Stanton, 26th November 2018.
Author: David Clark on 08/12/2018
Categories

Recovery From Trauma – Judith Herman (Part 2)

In my Healing Blog postings, I’m going to use a lot of quotes and film clips of people who I consider to be experts in the field, people like Judy Atkinson, Bessel van der Kolk, Bruce Perry, Judith Herman, James Gordon, Karen Treisman and Gabor Maté. Their words are […]
Do you like it?
Read more
04/12/2018
The boys and girls of Carrolup outside their school classrooms. Photographer: Noel White in 1948/49. Noel & Lily White Collection.
Author: David Clark on 04/12/2018
Categories

Recovery from trauma – Judith Herman

Judith Herman’s book Trauma and Recovery is a classic. Judith starts the recovery part of her book, in a chapter entitled ‘A Healing Relationship’, with some important insights into recovery and healing. ‘The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the […]
Do you like it?
Read more
09/11/2018
Noongar Smoking Ceremony at Fremantle Round House, 26th January 2017.
Author: David Clark on 09/11/2018
Categories

12 Principles of Indigenous Healing

When I first developed the educational healing resource Sharing Culture, I did a great deal of reading about the healing of trauma and intergenerational trauma. I summarised what I considered to be 12 principles of healing, which are relevant to Aboriginal people here in Australia and other Indigenous […]
Do you like it?
Read more
Translate »