A new community bush garden project wants to provide opportunities for young people to work alongside Elders - and strengthen links with culture.
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The Banatjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup of Jawoyn Association Aboriginal Corporation will launch the Growing StrongBala Way Community Bush Garden Project on Wednesday.
The project launch will take place from 10.30am at the Jawoyn Association's Victorian Highway office.
This grassroots project, funded through a NT Government Suicide Prevention Grant, will see the Banatjarl women work with other local Katherine organisations to establish and maintain a community bush medicine and bush tucker garden.
Young people from the Big Rivers region will be invited to work alongside Elders in culturally immersive activity.
The project brings together traditional cultural healing strategies and trauma informed practices to raise awareness of effective suicide prevention for Aboriginal people and provide a positive example of building and strengthening an inclusive, resilient local community.
When complete, the garden will give the Banatjarl women and youth access to important bush plants in Katherine that complement the Bush Healing Garden at King Valley, also providing an easily accessibly place to continue to spend time together.
Banatjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup of Jawoyn Association will partner with a range of organisations, including Back on Track youth program partners Jesuit Social Services, Save the Children and the Australian Childhood Foundation, as well as FoodLadder, Rise Ventures and other local stakeholders.
The collaborative project is a direct response to the Jawoyn Association's Council of Elders and members desire to create opportunities to share culture and traditional knowledge, as a means to improve community mental health, including overall wellbeing and supporting effective suicide prevention practices.
Jawoyn Association recognises that two-way cultural inclusion is essential, working in partnership with youth and family services to utilise Western approaches alongside the cultural leadership of Elders that incorporate traditional plant knowledges, bush medicine making and use, bush tucker and activities that support healing and wellbeing for the women, young people involved and the broader community.
Jawoyn Association chair Lisa Mumbin said: "This project is very important for our community. I speak on behalf of the Jawoyn Board as the chairperson in that we support and want to see our Banatjarl Strongbala Wimuns Grup providing such cultural pathways for healing in our communities.
"Working in this social and emotional space is very important for us. The Banatjarl Bush medijin garden at King Valley is sacred and significant to us. This local garden is opening pathways for relationships to be developed and for our people to be more central in providing cultural strategies for dealing with mental health and suicide prevention."
The garden activity will run every Wednesday from 10 am-noon at the Jawoyn Association office at 89 Victoria Highway.
If you are interested in being involved or supporting, please contact Pip Gordon, coordinator of the Banatjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup, at banatjarlwgc@jawoyn.org.au.
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