Transcript for Yarning Circles: The Elders Cultural Wellbeing Project

Aunty (Dr) Esme Bamblett: We decided to do the Elders Wellbeing Support Project and we decided to do it to try and find out the impact of COVID on the Elders and what they thought about it.

Aunty Doreen Lovett: Meeting with Elders face-to-face we need each other, we can bounce ideas off each other if we’re unwell.

[scenes of Elders talking]

We can have a yarn about… I’m feeling this way are you feeling this way or is it just me, you know, so it breaks down the barriers when we’re not well or we’re struggling.

Bringing us together and having a yarn about this is opening the door because we started to shut the door a bit because we got sick of hearing about COVID, we don’t watch the news.

Aunty Lynette Austin: Being isolated for, you know, a long time that I struggled with that because it prevented me from going about my, you know, activities and, you know, groups and socialising.

Aunty Rieo Ellis: Certainly I’ll be bringing a lot of other Elders from the GMAR, which is Grandmothers Against Removal, to this because during the pandemic a lot of our children were taken and parents and grandparents didn’t know what to do, so we’re working on that.

Uncle Brian Campbell: Elders will talk to Elders where they won’t talk to a young person.

Aunty (Dr) Esme Bamblett: With the findings for the project that will go to the Metropolitan Partnerships first.

Any issues or barriers or any impacts or what’s needed for recovery, all those issues will go to the Minister.

[scenes of Elders talking to each other]

Hopefully if there’s ever another pandemic, everyone will be prepared; they’ll have some information to do that.

The recovery from COVID’s really important, you know, it’s not only about what happened, the isolation, being restricted and locked down, it’s also about recovery and how do we help Elders to recover from it.

I think that’s one of the things we need to look at seriously.