JCPSLP Vol 19 No 1 March 2017

regardless of specific characteristics or need (Braveman & Gruskin, 2003). Regardful care epitomises the need for equity. Decolonisation I came to see that Australia has many worlds. But working in this context, I could clearly see that there is a mainstream, white, Eurocentric Australia and there is another place. This other place, the families called “Aboriginal world”. To contextualise this quote from Robyn’s story, the work of Mita (1989, as cited in Tuhiwai Smith, 1999) offers insight: “We have a history of people putting Ma- ori under a microscope in the same way a scientist looks at an insect. The ones doing the looking are giving themselves the power to define” (p. 58). Australia’s First Peoples share this history. This shared history cannot be considered a historical event, in a distant period in time called “colonisation” which has no reverberation in modern day Australia. Rather, as for Indigenous peoples worldwide who have been colonised by a western power, colonisation remains a pervasive and persistent, if often unconscious, core driver as service providers and policy-makers go about their day-to-day work of “creating a better Australia” for its First Peoples. We have only to think of the inadequate cultural training provided to non-Indigenous professionals within undergraduate tertiary programs and workplace environments (Downing et al., 2011); the lack of interpreters for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages spoken within Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012); the lack of funding for bilingual language teaching within remote Aboriginal community schools (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012); or the repeated failing of our health system to adequately care for the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (AIHW, 2016; AMA, 2007) to observe colonisation as an active and unyielding process within Australia. The key to implementing effective decolonisation practices is switching, as highlighted by Mita (1989, in Tuhiwai Smith, 1999), is questioning who exactly has the power to define First Peoples’ culture, language, identity and futures. Who gets to define a First Peoples’ very sense of self and the paths they wish their lives to take? Australia’s First Peoples work tirelessly and strongly in order to achieve this reversal of focus. Non-Indigenous SLPs can learn from this strong guidance and transference of knowledge that can be gained only through lived experience. In the same way that colonisation constitutes a conscious and active process, so too does decolonisation; a process that needs to follow a very conscious and explicit path. Decolonisation is about redressing the current harmful imbalance of power that exists at both a systemic/ structural/political and individual professional level within Australia. Decolonisation recognises the current living landscapes that exist within Australia. Decolonisation involves exposing and eradicating those detrimental practices, beliefs and value systems which have existed since these lands were invaded, claimed and subsequently colonised by the British. Decolonisation is about reframing choice, power and control. Decolonisation is about eliminating practices and perspectives imposed by those who have been conditioned by society to believe in the myth of white elitism which is harmful to First Peoples’ lives as they exist now and into the future.

Aboriginal peoples intuitively talk about and possess a deep intrinsic understanding of what cultural safety means to them in a practical and real sense. In order to make the cultural safety concept known and accessible for non- Indigenous health professionals also, Taylor and Guerin (2010) have summarised the five core components of culturally safe practice as follows: • reflective practice • regardful care • decolonisation • minimising power differentials • effective communication. Using excerpts from Robyn’s story as examples, the authors examine how SLPs can engage with these five core principles in their work with Australia’s First Peoples. Reflective practice The mothers would tend to group to the back of the room, stay silent and watchful. They would often leave early for things they had “forgotten” to do. Outsiders read this as non-compliance, of a lack of Indigenous family interest in their children’s education. When a breakdown in communication or a professional relationship occurs, critical reflection provides the way to achieve repair and to ensure future success. Reflective practice, when done superficially, involves examining or deconstructing a specific situation in terms of one’s own culture, values and beliefs; such thinking constituting a reflexive application of unacknowledged thoughts, judgements and assumptions. Effective reflective practice instead requires professionals to be mindful of their own self (Durey, 2010). When working with Australia’s First Peoples, this involves non-Indigenous SLPs identifying and understanding what they bring to each professional situation as members of the dominant colonial culture within Australia. It involves remembering that privilege is typically hidden to those who possess it; being able to critically reflect on how the SLP interprets or sees a situation requires an active analysis of and stepping back from our own values, attitudes and beliefs. It involves understanding that there is much non-Indigenous SLPs do not know or cannot see impacting the lives and behaviour of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It involves embodying the old adage “we do not know what we do not know”. Regardful care One mother initially told me how good school was, and that her difficulties were to do with her being a slow learner. A year or two later, she told me just how difficult school was because of racism and discrimination. These lived realities were most likely invisible to the mainstream inhabitants of the school space. Every person has a story. Regardful care involves looking beneath the surface. It involves looking for what makes each individual person, their words, their actions, their needs unique. Regardful care involves understanding that “no one size fits all”. Each Australian First Peoples’ community is unique. Identifying as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person and as a member of an Australian First Peoples’ community is an extremely important and deeply personal, yet individual construct. Health professionals are typically aware of the need to provide services and support which embrace equity, providing what individuals need to achieve success, rather than promoting equality, providing equal services to all

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JCPSLP Volume 19, Number 1 2017

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology