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CASSE (Creating a Safe and Supportive Environment) is a voluntary psychoanalytic organization and comprises two programs - the School Program and the Aboriginal Program.
The Aboriginal program, commenced in December 2011 when we entered into a partnership with the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, a large Aboriginal health organization based in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) serving the town and remote communities in Central Australia. The project is called Kurrunna Mwarre - which is an Arrernte term (Arrernte - traditional owners in Alice Springs) meaning “make my spirit inside me good.” It is directed by a steering committee consisting of the Aboriginal leaders of Congress and two psychoanalytic psychotherapists with CASSE and employs an Aboriginal male Co-ordinator and a female Aboriginal Administration Assistant based in Alice Springs. We have been holding focus groups and summits to talk about trauma and violence in the town and remote communities.
For this paper I present some excerpts of my work on this project. I prefer to present it in its somewhat raw and unacademized form in order to privilege and depict something of the world of Aboriginal people and something of the work; it needs no protocol.
The church was full. I was in a large church in the centre of town. People were crying. Singing. Crying. Hugging. All in white. Clean. Hands being shaken. The grief was overwhelming - a river of tears for Margie Kwemenje who was the unsung hero who manned the funeral service for Congress people for over 30 years. Now it was her funeral. Her sorry business. The campfires burn. The