375 - Loss, Grief, And Forgiveness: Rosemary Wanganeen On How Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Australians Can Thrive

How has your understanding of and relationship with Australia Day changed over time? What goes through your mind when you hear a Welcome to Country or Acknowledgment of Country? And what do you think of when you hear the term Aboriginal prosperity? These are just some of the questions touched on in this extended interview with Griefologist, Rosemary Wanganeen, who takes us on a journey towards healing by embracing grief. As you'll hear, there is important work to be done by Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians, and it starts with finding ways to forgive our 1788 ancestors.

And in the Musical Pilgrimage, Nataleigh shares a song produced as part of her 13-year-old songwriting competition, eMusic.

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Running Sheet: Loss, Grief, And Forgiveness: Rosemary Wanganeen On How Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Australians Can Thrive

00:00:00 Intro

Introduction

00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week

There is no featured drink this week.

00:03:04 Rosemary Wanganeen, The Healing Centre for Griefology

Three weeks ago, at the end of May 2023, The Healing Centre for Griefology, shared a post that read: Did you know that 25% of Aboriginal people living in the inner city have mental health problems? We can change this - we can educate institutions and organisations about Griefology as a proven method to enact Aboriginal prosperity. It triggered an avalanche of comments like "looking for more handouts", "the solution to Aboriginal prosperity is not different to Whites - get off the grog", "easy fix, pack up the 'dilly bag' and go 'walkabout' and get out of the city, you all get paid by the government no matter where you go, and you will still get everything for nothing no matter where you go, so GET OUT OF THE CITY IF ITS MAKING YOU CRAZY". When the founder and director of the Healing Centre for Griefology, Rosemary Wanganeen, shared how much hurt this caused her team, a flood of compassion arose from many people, including me, who just couldn't process the vitriol the Centre had received. Rosemary Wanganeen Niina Marni (how are you)?

Rosemary, you are a Griefologist, a Clinical Loss & Grief Counsellor, today I want to delve into what griefology actually is, what The Seven Phases to Integrating Loss and Grief are, and your upcoming symposium on July 7, along with some discussion of the polarising views about Australia Day, my mixed feelings about Acknowledgement Of Country rituals in some circumstances, some insights about how to approach The Voice, and the buried art of intuition. But first I want to return to those spiteful, racist messages you and your team received.

My reaction was almost a carbon copy of everybody else's. We were staggered by the unveiled hatred. One comment from anthropologist, Sue Fraser, summed it up by saying: I am so sorry that you and your team have to deal with these comments. It is sickening and sad that people believe these things, and that they think it's okay to dump these comments on to someone like yourself who is doing such great work for Aboriginal Peoples and for the rest of us as well. Sending love and hugs Sue.

However, I think I have a deeper understanding of what was behind those comments, now that I have spent a few weeks listening to you talk. In particular, you shine a light on the psychotic state of the 1788 arrivals, expl