Waterways Project Report

Culturally Responsive Trauma Informed Training Initiative

Executive Summary

‘Country holds us, Country also holds our trauma. Our healing as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
must be in the context of healing Country, in community and through culture.’

Through our work at SNAICC, we continue to hear the call for the need for culturally responsive trauma informed training that provides tools and frameworks to address the needs of the sector. There is much research indicating the ongoing intergenerational, complex and compounded trauma of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Project Waterways provided culturally responsive trauma informed training anchored in truth telling around ongoing impacts of colonisation, power and privilege and important skill development around addressing this complex intergenerational trauma. Project Waterways also celebrates the intergenerational knowledge and wisdom of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including Kin and Kinship Systems, collective child raising practices and the complex ceremonial practices that were sophisticated emotional regulation systems.

The impact of the outcomes of Project Waterways is significant in our work as a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families peak body in progressing the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement). The primary objective of the Project Waterways contract was to advance Target 12, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not over-represented in the child protection system; specifically to reduce the rate of over-representation in out-of-home care by 45 per cent by 2031 (Closing the Gap 2025).

Through the careful co-design and co-production of Project Waterways, the work has significantly contributed to the advancement of priority reforms. At the centre of the National Agreement are four Priority Reforms that focus on changing the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Priority Reforms will:

• strengthen and establish formal partnerships and shared decision-making,
• build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector,
• transform government and mainstream organisations so they work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,
• improve and share access to data and information to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to make informed decisions (National Agreement on Closing the Gap, Australian Government 2025).

Project Waterways strengthened the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector by enabling national collaboration through a partnership model that respected the cultural and intellectual property of the partners. This collaborative approach demonstrates that ACCOs have the capacity and capability to deliver large-scale contracts typically reserved for non-government organisations (NGOs). The partnership model established through Project Waterways also creates a strong foundation for continued growth, with the potential to expand and include ACCOs across additional jurisdictions.