1 August 2022
PACFA is delighted to announce Jiman and Bundjalung Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson as the new Convenor of the College of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Practices.
Formerly Deputy Convenor of CATSIHP, Prof. Atkinson is taking the reins from Dr Carlie Atkinson, who is stepping down from the CATSIHP Leadership Group.
PACFA thanks Dr Atkinson for her skilful leadership of the College since its formation in 2019, with special acknowledgment of her role in developing the Indigenous Healing Practice Training Standards.
Prof. Atkinson is the author of ‘Trauma Trails – Recreating Songlines: The transgenerational effects of trauma in Indigenous Australia’, which provides context to the life stories of people who have been moved from their country in a process that has created trauma trails, and the changes that can occur in the lives of people as they make connection with each other and share their stories of healing.
Prof. Atkinson’s academic contributions to the understanding of trauma related issues stemming from the violence of colonisation and the healing/recovery of Indigenous peoples from such trauma has won her the Carrick Neville Bonner Award in 2006 for her curriculum development and innovative teaching practice. In 2011 she was awarded the Fritz Redlick Memorial Award for Human Rights and Mental Health from the Harvard University program for refugee trauma.
Prof. Atkinson is Patron of the We Al-li Trust, and continues to work across Australia and in Papua New Guinea on community-based violence-trauma specific recovery programs. She worked with the University of Wollongong in the development of specialized postgraduate programs such as the Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Trauma Care and Recovery Practice designed specifically to build an Indigenous trauma skilled workforce.
On 1 August Prof. Atkinson chaired a Masterclass Talking Circle on ‘First Nations Ways of Healing Trauma and the Connections with Neuroscience’ with leading First Nations practitioners and researchers from around the globe at the International Childhood Trauma Conference in Melbourne.