This workshop will provide participants an opportunity to learn about principles of cultural security in an Aboriginal context. We will explore what constitutes good cross-cultural engagement and communication in a speech pathology context with Aboriginal clients and families. There will be a particular focus on brain injury rehabilitation surrounding the client’s access to cultural and community-based services that are supportive of Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing. Reference to concepts such as cultural connectedness, kinship, language, worldview, yarning, capacity-building will be made as well as how they can be applied in a clinical situation. Notions of intersectionality, ‘othering’ and deficit discourse will also be discussed. Participants will be asked to reflect on individual attitudes and practices, their knowledge of the communities in which they work, as well as institutional policies and procedures that can challenge culturally secure care. Authentic clinical scenarios surrounding Aboriginal people with brain injury and their families will be presented and form the basis of group discussion and activities.

1. To be a culturally responsive service as recognised by the Aboriginal community requires an understanding of Aboriginal history and its current impact on individuals and families, as well as an understanding of community structures in your local area.
2. Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing should be incorporated into practice, with relationships and cultural connectedness central to all clinical processes.
3. Build on the work of reconciliation through your workplace and professional association policies and strategies to improve culturally secure practice.