Category: Uncategorized

GEGAC Aboriginal Health Worker Carmel Hood. Photo by Jake Lynch/GEGAC By Troy Brown Are you wearing your sunscreen and hat? Many of us mob believe that Aboriginal people with dark skin do not have to worry about getting sunburned, or getting melanoma and other skin cancers. While dark skin does provide some protection against the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays, it...

Destiny Harrison with family and GEGAC colleagues at RMIT’s Awards Night last month. By Troy Brown GEGAC’s Destiny Harrison has been named RMIT University’s Indigenous Student of The Year. Destiny, who is a Dental Assistant at our Brabuwooloong Dental Clinic, went down to the Capitol building at RMIT for an award ceremony on October 23. The Indigenous Student of The...

GEGAC’s new Aboriginal Best Start Facilitator, Mingara Wandin. Photo: Jake Lynch/GEGAC Sometimes, there’s no substitute for lived experience. Particularly when it comes to the day-to-day lives of Aboriginal kids and families in our community, and the unique challenges they face, sometimes you can only understand it if you’ve been through it. It is fair to say that Mingara Wandin has...

The local Aboriginal community is being asked to provide their ideas and input into the creation of two on-country Healing Centres in Victoria. Being led by the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), the establishment of the two on-country Healing Centres was a recommendation of the recent Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system. To gather the feedback of...

GEGAC’s Aboriginal Family Led Decision Making Convener and Cultural Support Planner, Aunty May Pearce.Photo: Jake Lynch/GEGAC “You’ve got to take care of our little people. Right from a young age, I knew I wanted to be a voice for Aboriginal kids.” Aunty May Pearce If you know where she comes from, it is no surprise that Aunty May Pearce grew...

WARNING: The following contains discussion of child sexual abuse, that may be distressing for some readers. A public consultation is underway to help design a new referral and information service for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. There is a paid opportunity for community members to participate in the public consultation project. The project is delivered by First Nations...

(Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people please be advised that this post contains images of deceased people.) At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in the year 1918, the guns finally fell silent, and the First World War officially, mercifully, came to an end. Since then, November 11 has been known as Remembrance Day, a...

Should GEGAC prioritise building a multipurpose event space for community gatherings and other functions at its Dalmahoy Street site? Or is expanding the current medical centre, Dala Yooro and Boorai child care and kindy buildings, or the Keeping Place a more urgent priority? What about new buildings for family and children’s services, or the Elders Lounge? The local community is...

Awhiora Nia Nia, GEGAC’s Executive Director Aboriginal Health & Wellbeing. Photo: Jake Lynch/GEGAC About 800 years ago, a group of Polynesian explorers voyaged thousands of kilometres across the South Pacific Ocean. Their great ocean-going outrigger canoe was made of two large hulls carved from giant Koa trees,  connected by lashed crossbeams, and it was powered by sails woven from pandanus...

Clontarf Academy student and Bairnsdale Secondary College, Jhye Stewart, gets his 715 health check at the school recently. Photo: Troy Brown/GEGAC By Troy Brown Did you know that 97% of the Clontarf boys at Bairnsdale Secondary College have completed their 715 Health Checks? So, what is a 715 Health Check? A 715 Health Check is a health assessment for Aboriginal...