Re-membering Country and Culture: Relational Liberatory Praxis in an Aboriginal Women’s Healing Project

Blak Women’s Healing is an Indigenous-led program developed by, for, and with Aboriginal women in the west of Melbourne. Grounded in liberation psychology, decolonial community psychology, and Indigenous studies, the program engages contemporary cultural practice and yarning to create culturally safe spaces where Aboriginal women can come together to explore, understand, and support healing. This article reports on one iteration of the program, drawing on women’s stories of participating in the cultural practice workshops and the subsequent public exhibition, where further yarns took place. Using a relational and culturally grounded analytic approach consistent with the program’s liberatory praxis, we examined how women narrated their experiences across these interconnected spaces. Through this work, we observed the enduring impacts of historical trauma and ongoing structural violence, alongside the strength, cultural knowledge, and collective resilience mobilized by Aboriginal women to (re)build pathways to healing for themselves, their families, and communities. The findings illuminate how cultural re-membering, relational connection and collective safety, and the amplification of counter-stories operate as forms of liberatory praxis. In doing so, the article contributes to scholarship on Indigenous-led healing and demonstrates the transformative potential of culturally grounded, community-based approaches to supporting social and emotional wellbeing and healing.