Transforming Systems of Care: Launching the Caring about Care Report
Alongside the Australian National University and University of Queensland, we invite you to this special event to launch the newly published 'Caring about Care' report. Join Honorary Professor June Oscar AO, Chair of the Wiyi Yani U Thangani Institute for First Nations gender justice, as well as the researchers and women involved in the research to hear about this important exploration into care work.
Join us on 10 September at 1-2pm (AEST) online.
Register here Read the Caring about Care Report
The Caring about Care report, authored by Elise Klein, Janet Hunt, Zoe Stains, Chay Brown, Kayla Glynn-Braun, and Mandy Yap, presents the findings of research that aimed to support Wiyi Yani U Thangani, and contribute to understandings of the scope of care work performed by Indigenous women. Specifically, the project explored:
- how Indigenous women conceptualise care work, including its scope and nature
- how Indigenous women value and experience care work
- what volume and type/s of care work Indigenous women are regularly engaged in, and
- how the care work of Indigenous women might be better recognised and valued in policy.
The report draws on ABS data and fieldwork, including interviews and a time-use survey, conducted between August 2022 and May 2023 with Aboriginal organisations in five locations spanning remote, regional, and urban Australia. Drawing on these data, the report also calculates the approximate economic value of the care work Indigenous women undertake. The findings indicate that ‘mainstream’ definitions of care do not include the broad ways in which care is defined by Indigenous women. In women’s stories, care repeatedly emerges as a source of personal and cultural strength. The research also finds, however, that women’s care loads are exacerbated by historic and ongoing colonisation. The report concludes with seven recommendations indicating how policy could be reshaped to centre and support Indigenous women’s care.
Past event: Wiyi Yani U Thangani National Summit 2023
The First Nations Women and Girls National Summit was be held from 9-11 May 2023, with an additional one-day Youth Forum on 8 May 2023. The Summit brought together over 900 First Nations women delegates and non-Indigenous collaborations, for decision-making, innovation and celebration.
The National Summit is an outcome of the Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) project, led by Commissioner June Oscar AO, in partnership with the National Indigenous Australians Agency. It is the first ever national gathering of its kind.
Over three days, delegates engaged with inspiring keynotes, panels and workshops, showcasing the innovative approaches and initiatives of First Nations women across key thematic areas: Leadership and Decision-Making; Language, Land, Water & Cultural Rights; Societal Healing and Intergenerational Wellbeing; and Economic Justice & Empowerment. Taken together, the Summit put forward First Nations women-led solutions to some of the most significant challenges faced by First Nations women, communities and all of society. You can read more about the presentations and initiatives showcased in the Summit Program and Showcase Booklet.
Delegates at the Summit also informed the development of a National Framework for Action (Change Agenda for First Nations Gender Justice), and endorsed the establishment of a First Nations Gender Justice Institute—both major outcomes of the Summit.
