Judy Atkinson: The Value of Deep Listening
The Aboriginal Gift to the Nation
TEDx Sydney · 16 June 2017 · 16 minutesJudy Atkinson is a Bundajung woman and expert in inter-generational healing from trauma in Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. At the core of this inspiring and moving talk, held at TEDx Sydney on 16 June 2017, she describes her approach to healing: It is about listening. In order to heal, the stories behind trauma must be heard.
“As the Elders asked for help to make sense of this senselessness, I felt in them the essence of their own felt powerlessness: ‘Nobody listens to us.’”
Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson retired from formal academic work at the end of 2010. She researched and co-authored the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence Report for the Queensland government. Her book, Trauma Trails – Recreating Songlines The transgenerational effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia, was shortlisted for an Australian Human Rights Award.
In 2006 she won the Carrick Neville Bonner Award for her curriculum development and innovative teaching practice. In 2011 she received the Fritz Redlich Award for Human Rights and Mental Health, from the Harvard University Global Mental Health Trauma and Recovery program, of which she is a graduate.
A long-term Patron of the We Al-li Trust, she works across Australia and in Papua New Guinea. She worked with the University of Wollongong in the development of specialised postgraduate programs such as the Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Trauma Care and Recovery Practice designed specifically to build an Indigenous trauma-skilled workforce. [Text Source: TEDx Sydney]
