Indigenous Mentoring

Workshop
Your Indigenous Edge
1. Mentoring is more likely to happen if mentors have
some passion and energy for it.
2.Creating a context for mentoring is important.
3.You come into this course with skills and
competencies and you give me permission to perturb
you and push you out of your comfort zone.

Assumptions
5 Realities of Life
1. Everything changes and ends.
2. Things do not always go
according to plan.
3. Life is not always fair.
4. Pain is a part of life.
5. People are not loving and loyal all
of the time.
Who s In
the Room?
Paired Listening
1. name, where from in
agency/how long, etc.
2. any mentoring experience?
3. cultural background
4. expectations
About the
Program

1 Establish a mentoring relationship
2. Assess client needs and develop a mentoring
plan
3. Facilitate a mentoring relationship
4. Empower client to operate autonomously in
the workplace
5. Evaluate effectiveness of mentoring process
Course in Indigenous mentoring
(BIC001A)
CHCCOM403A: Use targeted
communication skills to build
relationships

HLTHIR403C: Work effectively with
culturally diverse clients and co
workers
How we going to get there?
Experiential Learning
Classroom style
Role Plays
Completing Activities 1-7 in-class
Completing Activities 8-9 (10-12 week
project) which consists of two mentoring
conver sat i ons, t hi r d par t y r epor t ,
evaluation for both mentee and mentor and
demonstrated documentation of meetings
with mentee ie at least six, 1 hour
mentoring conversations.

On Context

A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better

place than a street. At rst it is better to run than to walk. You may
have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn.
Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are
minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very
fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause
problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications it
can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break
loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.

We suspect that the paragraph made little or no sense
for you.
One the next slide you will the paragraph again. Please
read it to yourself and see what you make of it this
time.
KITE

A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better

place than a street. At rst it is better to run than to walk. You may
have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn.
Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are
minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very
fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause
problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications it
can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break
loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.
Learning Zone
Learning Zone
Comfort
Zone
Upset
angry
anxious
uncomfortable
fearful
Picking on me
stupid
Run down the process
I dont like this course
Australian Constitution 1901
The Commonwealth Constitution states "in

reckoning the numbers of people.....Aboriginal

natives shall not be counted".

The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution,

have power to make laws for the peace, order,

and good government of the Commonwealth with

respect to:.The people of any race other


than the Aboriginal Race, for whom

it is deemed necessary to make special laws.





Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land
Council

Mudgin-gal Aboriginal
Women!s Corporation

Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal
Womens Legal Centre

Metro Local Aboriginal Land Council
Mudgin-gal Aboriginal Women!s Corporation
Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women!s Legal Centre
Redfern Legal Centre

Invite
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
to talk about
Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
People in the Australian Constitution

on
10 am 3pm Thursday 15 September 2011
Morning tea and lunch provided
at
Redfern Community Centre
25-53 Hugo St, Redfern

This is an opportunity to make a change!


With the support of



The Australian Government has
asked an Expert Panel to
consider changes to the
Constitution. Come and talk
about what those changes should
be and how to make submissions.
The closing date for submissions
to the Expert Panel is 30
September, 2011.

Redfern Legal Centre

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National Indigenous Reform
Agenda
INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT
HOMELESSNESS
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To close the life-expectancy gap within a generation
To halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous
children under five within a decade
To ensure access to early childhood education for all
Indigenous four years olds in remote communities
within five years
To halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy
achievements for children within a decade
To halve the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12
(or equivalent) attainment rates by 2020
To halve the gap in employment outcomes between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a
decade.
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Early Childhood
Health
Schooling
Healthy Homes
Safe Communities
Economic Participation
Governance and Leadership

Overarching the building blocks and the
targets is the new Intergovernmental
Agreement. Its aim is to achieve:
Clearer definition of roles and
responsibilities between Commonwealth
and States;
The role of the National Congress is to:
formulate advice to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people contribute to and play a lead role in policy and program
development on issues that affect them, and that an Indigenous
perspective is provided on issues across government
advocate and lobby as a national conduit for communication
between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the
government, corporate and non-government sectors, and
ensure the presence of, and contribute to, mechanisms to monitor
and evaluate government performance in relation to Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples
Diversity & Social Inclusion
Friendship
Partnership
Relationship


anyone who thinks theyre
too small to have an impact
has never been in bed with a
mosquito ...Anita Roddick
Action Empathy
Solutions
Problems
Tell
Ask
ideal space
David Rock, Coaching with the Brain in Mind
What is Culture?
What is Culture?
your individual culture?
work culture?
Australian culture?
Aboriginal culture?
Your Indigenous Edge
Culture
Culture is the accumulated knowledge, experience,
beliefs and customs within a group, which emerges over
time and can be passed to others through literature,
music and other expression. It cannot be created by
government. You cant vote culture into being; you cant
pass a law to turn a movie into a beloved classic.
Culture emerges spontaneously and defies political
control. The freer a society; the more vigorous and
diverse its culture and vice-versa.

Wendy McElroy, 2005
Your Indigenous Edge
Culture-simple denition
A group or community with which we
share common experiences that shape
the way we understand the world.
Your Indigenous Edge
Culture, Stories & Belief
What shapes how we think, act, behave
Cultural-historical background
Lifestyle-social practices
Life experience
self
Your Indigenous Edge
Culture & Change
" All cultures today are hybrids of one
type or another
" 90% of over 6,000 languages in existence
today will disappear in coming
generations
" Globalisation has generated more change
in the past decade than in all of previous
history
Cultural Di#erence
Cultural difference basically refers to how
like elements common to all cultures are
treated differently between cultures.
Cultural Diversity
The concept of cultural diversity has multiple and
sometimes divergent meanings. Diversity is not a
single concept there is diversity within societies
and across societies. And there is diversity over
time.

Tyler Cowen How Globalisation is Changing the Worlds
Culture 2004
More on Culture
in all of human history the notion of a level
playing field with regard to culture has
been a myth Tyler Cowen
History: The 5 stages
terra nullius: genocide, invasion, dispossession
assimilation: monoculture, white Australia policy
self-determination: post-1967, rights, separatism,
diversity
integration: taking stock, turning the tide, reinvention
global diversity: transformation and adaptive change
Terra Nullius
genocide, invasion,
dispossession


introduced diseases
(i.e. influenza &
syphilis)

alcohol



By 1850, just 15 years after the first
settlement, 80% of what had been the most
densely populated part of Australia had
died.


1835, The Founding of Melbourne & the
Conquest of Australia, 2011
Assimilation
! monoculture

! white Australia policy

! stolen generation episodes, reserves
& missions
'By the 1930's colonies and ex-
colonies covered 84.6% of the land
surface of the globe. Only parts of
Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, Mongolia,
Tibet, Siam and Japan had never been
under formal European Government.'

Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Post-Colonialism,
Routledge, London, 1998
I look on the blacks as a set of
monkeys, and the earlier they are
exterminated from the face of the earth
the better... I would never see a white
man hanged for killing a black. One of the jurors, quoted
in The Australian, 18 December 1838 [8]

The whole gang of black animals are
not worth the money the colonists will
have to pay for printing the silly [court]
documents.The Sydney Morning Herald, 5
October 1838 [3,8]

Self-determination
rights agenda/politicised
expression of identity/nding voice
separatism
blame, recrimination/resentment
MOREE, Saturday. - Mob violence exploded here today as
student freedom riders were attacked by a crowd crazed
with race hate.
White women spat on girl students and screamed filthy
words as the students tried to win Aboriginal children
admission to the town baths.
Several people were arrested and the town's mayor,
Alderman William Lloyd, pitched into the battle, grabbing
students by the scruff of their necks and hurling them out
of the way.
Throughout the fighting a barrage of eggs and rotten fruit
rained on the students.
Mr Jim Spigelman, a 19-year-old student from Maroubra,
was smacked to the ground while the 500 strong crowd
roared its approval. ....Sunday Mirror, 21 February, 1965

Integration
taking stock
turning the tide
reinvention
Guilt and Blame
we dont in any way hold present
generations responsible for what
happened in the past, but we do hold
them responsible for working together in
the present to make things better for the
future

Oodgeroo Noonucal
The essence of the apology is the
burden it imposes on the current
generation It is hardly grasped that
the apology was not just about the
past, but rather, geared toward the
future.

Paul Kelly, The WeekendAustralian, 4-5 July 2009
The Apology
Wadeye's problems were ingrained in its
geography and social DNA: it was
established in the 1930s as the home for
about 23 clan groups, jammed together in
such close quarters that conflicts were
almost guaranteed.
Nicolas Rothwell | The Australian, 15/12/2007
Culture & Change
All cultures today are hybrids of one type
or another
90% of over 6,000 languages in existence
today will disappear in the next
generation
Globalisation has generated more change
in the past decade than in all of previous
history
Every 2 weeks somewhere in the
world the last speaker of a fading
language dies... Nicolas Evans, linguist
More than 150 Indigenous languages were spoken in
Australia in the early 1980s, the gure is now down to
about 70. That total may fall as low as 20 by 2040. The
trend is overwhelming and almost certainly unstoppable,
given the growth and strength of so-called world
languages such as English

Nicholas Evans, Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What
They Have to Tell Us, OUP, 2009
Indigenous Progress & the 3
Great Transformations
hunter-gatherer (original state)
agriculture (1
st
Wave)
manufacturing/industrial age (2
nd
Wave)
information (digital) age (3
rd
Wave)
Some facts: A contemporary
snapshot
70% of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders live in larger regional or
urban settings

Approx. 2/3rds of the total Indigenous population live in NSW and
QLD

Approx. 70% of Indigenous households are now mixed

Only a tiny fraction of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people
have independent means of income outside regular employment or
work for the dole
State/Territory Population % of State/
Territory total
% of
Indigenous
total
NSW 138, 506 2% 30.4%
QLD 127, 578 3.3% 28%
WA 58,711 3% 13%
NT 53,662 27.8% 12%
Vic 30,141 0.6% 6.5%
SA 25,557 1.7% 5.5%
Tasmania 16,767 3.5% 3.5%
ACT 3,873 1.2% 0.8%
Australia 455,031 2.3% 100%
Indigenous Participation
in Education
Education
In 2006, 21% of 15 year old Indigenous people were not
participating in school education. (as against 5% of non-
Indigenous)

In 2006, Indigenous students were half as likely as non-
Indigenous students to continue to Year 12

Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2007: Overview,
Productivity Commission
Education (cont)
the proportion of Indigenous students meeting the
benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy in
2005 were significantly lower than the national rates,
in each grade. Moreover, the gap between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous students appears to
have remained static between 2001-2005.

The latest OECD Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) survey results for 2006
confirm that there has been virtually no change in
Indigenous students performance across a range of
outcomes since 2000.

Dr Ken Henry, citing, OECD 2007, PISA 2006
On Education
Indigenous education is an important means of
securing individual and community development. It links
so fundamentally to other aspects of community life that
educational gains stand a good chance of leading to
improvements in other areas that are also hallmarks of
disadvantage.

Dr. Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, Keynote Address to the AIHW
Conference: Australias Welfare 2007; Canberra, 6 December 2007
Employment
recently there were over 300 CDEP
programs across Australia with 30,000+
participants
major concerns with CDEPs as a fixed
destination
our unemployment rate would be near 45%
if CDEPs were officially counted as
unemployment
Population Growth
1996-2006
353,000 (96), 410,000 (01), 455, 031 (06) 2.3% of total


% increase between census, 33% (96), 16% (01), 11% (06)

% increase of total pop. 2.0% 96), 2.2% (01), 2.2% (06),

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
POPULATION
85% of Torres Strait Islanders live on
mainland
Between 1996-2001 the Indigenous
population share grew by over 50% in
Broken Hill, 29% in Dubbo, 39% in Orange
and Tamworth, and 12% in Kalgoorlie
the proportion of the Indigenous population
resident in urban areas rose from 44% in
1971 to 74% in 2001.
Dillon & Westbury, Beyond Humbug, Seaview
Press, Adelaide 2007
Population growth
!..continued growth is
guaranteed because of natural
increase, increased propensity to
identify, and the substantial rate
of mixed marriages in which
offspring continue to be identified
as Indigenous

Dillon & Westbury, p.14
Rapid growth, youth and
population
the age structure of the Indigenous population is
much younger-the median age is 20 years as
against 35 years for mainstream - and
proportionately growing much faster
education and transition to work are critical issues
for social cohesion
the social and economic costs of early school
leaving will skyrocket unless we make a strong
effort to turn things around
Indigenous diversity
programs
Can make a difference by:
adding to social cohesion
giving everyone a fair go
making the most of individual abilities, aptitudes
and potential
service provision that reflects the community
helping stories to shift ripple effects
The 3 Cs: Social Inclusion Model
Confidence
Competence Commitment
condence
overcoming shame
building confidence, self belief
positive identity
self-esteem, self-worth
Believe that life is worth
living, and your belief
will help create the fact.
William James
self-esteem is the reputation we acquire
with ourselves
..Nathaniel Branden

individuals with self-esteem grow up in
environments where they know theyre
loved, where they feel safe and secure, and
where boundaries are set and there are
consequences for going beyond them
......Connie Podesta
SELF-ESTEEM
competence
education agenda
lifelong learning
knowledge, attitude, skills
balancing IQ with EQ
Learning in the 21
st
Century

The illiterate of the 21
st
Century will not be those who
cannot read or write, but also those who cannot
learn, unlearn and re-learn.

Alvin Toffler
RESENTMENT
RESIGNATION
ANXIETY
ACCEPTANCE
AMBITION
CURIOUSITY
BASIC MOODS OF LIFE
The sum total of our anxieties,
resentments and resignations
make us prone to blame or make
excuses, and invariably into
people who watch things happen,
or wonder what happened.
The possibility that we could be
part of a process of making things
happen might simply never occur
to us.
commitment
clear direction/sense of purpose
having goals, action plans, strategies
being engaged/participating/taking responsibility
action-oriented/proactive/just do it!
Goal setting model
Specific/stretching
Measurable
Attainable/achievable
Relevant/realistic
Time framed

A Future Orientation
your past need not be your future
its not where youve been but where
youre going that counts
Cross-Cultural
Communication
6 Fundamental Patterns of cultural difference
communication styles
attitudes toward conflict
approaches to task completion
decision-making styles
attitudes to disclosure
approaches to knowing
Your Indigenous Edge
E#ective Communication-
Individual Barriers
prejudice
stereotyping
discrimination
Interpersonal Barriers
pressure to conform
lack of participation in other cultures
events
avoidance of contact
lack of cross-cultural communication skills
aggressive behaviour
Structural Barriers
established practices
institutional discrimination
current cultural homogeneity
lack of commitment to change current
practices
tokenism
How to change your attitude
a miracle
other life altering events
change your reactions
changing your perspective
changing the way you talk to yourself
Your Indigenous Edge
4 Steps to Successful Cross-Cultural
Communication
Awareness (cultural understanding)
Knowledge (identify barriers)
Skills (respond with empathy removing
barriers)
Do the business
Your Indigenous Edge

To improve cross cultural

communication
It is not necessarily our aim to understand everything
about the cultures we engage with - a very difficult task
for an outsider. Instead we need to understand that
culture influences peoples perceptions, behaviour, value
systems and ways of communicating, and we need to try
to determine which characteristics of a particular culture
are the critical ones
Our aim is not to become more sensitive, open-minded
people (although this would not be a bad outcome); our
aim is to become more skilled communicators
Your Indigenous Edge
What is Mentoring?

What is Mentoring?
Mentoring is a process which supports
learning and development and thus
performance improvements, either for an
individual, team, or business.
(Sutton Regeneration Partnership, 1999)
What is Mentoring?
The purpose of mentoring is to
support and encourage people to
manage their own learning in order
that they may maximize their
potential, develop their skills,
improve their performance and
become the person they want to be.
(Parsloe, 2000)
What is Mentoring?
Off line help by one person to another in
making significant transitions in
knowledge, work or thinking.

(Megginson and Clutterbuck, 1998)
What is mentoring?
Is where a more experienced person
helps a less experienced person.
Activity 1
Think of a time when you received
mentoring.
How did it start?
What behaviours did the mentor
display?
What did you get out of it?
Common one on one
roles
Managers
Counselors
Guardians
Networkers/facilitators
Coaches
Trainers
Teachers/tutors
Managers
Organising the elements of tasks and process to
attain business objectives
Defining roles, priorities and process with
respect to achieving business objectives
Identifying and addressing deficits in employee
knowledge, skills and abilities to enhance
performance to attain business objectives
Counselors
Counseling is the process that helps
individuals to identify that they have a
problem, to analyse it, establish a solution
and commit to it.
Guardians
A guardian is typically a person who is
more experienced, more senior, more
powerful than another individual, and who
has chosen to use this influence to
sponsor the progress of this persons
career.
Networkers/facilitators
Sharing networks and other learning
resources with the learner to
different and wider networks.
Establishing learning needs of a
chosen individual in the realm of
networking.
Providing feedback and advice on
networking skills.
Coaching
Coaching is the process whereby one
person helps another to perform better
than they would have done alone. The
coach does so using various directive
methods.
Trainers
In this context trainer is meant to
refer to an individual who designs
and delivers training courses.
Your Indigenous Edge
Teacher/tutor
A teacher/tutor is someone who
engages a group of people or
individuals in learning according to
the guidelines of an external party.
Thus, the learning topics are usually
tied to a national curriculum and the
teacher/tutor role is to impose its
contents upon the learner/s.
Your Indigenous Edge
Mentors
Supporting mentee to discover and define their own
development
Allow mentee to raise and talk about their issues,
occasionally clarifying, reflecting and challenging
Helping to reflect on their beliefs, feelings, thoughts
and behaviours and view from other perspectives
Guiding and encouraging
Helping them to become decision makers.
distinction between a social
conversation and a mentoring
conversation
creating an influence base
creating a knowledge base
helping mentees to talk
helping mentees to experience and to
express their feelings
helping mentees to own responsibility
and to problem-solve
directive

COACH

Goal setter
Critical friend
Challenger
Collaborator

GUARDIAN

Protector
Guide
Role model



NETWORKER

Network mode
Bridge
Catalyst
COUNSELLOR

Listener
Sounding Board
non directive
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On-the-job training Tutoring Coaching Mentoring
individual learning
(learner-centred)
work-based learning
(job-centered)
Work-based & Individual Learning
Activity

Brainstorm some of the knowledge,
skills and attitude required of an
effective mentor?

Manages the partnership
Encourages and empowers
Nurtures
Teaches the mentee
Offers mutual trust and
respect
Responds to the mentee
needs

Type of mentoring that a
mentor and mentee may
engage in
One to one
Circles/Group mentoring
Needs based mentoring
Level of structure and formality
In terms of structure and formality mentoring
can be:
informal
enhanced informal
formal
culturally sensitive formal

Cross-Cultural Mentoring
Mainstream workplace being culturally sensitive
to Indigenous mentee having a different set of
cultural behaviours, expectations and
responsibilities
Indigenous mentee needing to fit into
mainstream workplace culture
Why the retention problem?
BIC experience indicates:
40% drop out due to workplace
issues
60% drop out due to pressures in
balancing community/cultural family
issues with work
Mentor communication skills
Empathy
Active listening
Questioning
Feedback
Building Empathy
ask a question
listen to the reply
prove you heard the reply
give free information
Responding appropriately
paraphrasing
showing empathy/building empathy
clarifying what is being said
Active listening skills
Listening with your whole
body
Rapport Building
Responding appropriately
Removing Barriers
Feedback Denition

Feedback is information about past behaviour,
delivered in the present, which might influence
future behaviour.





Types of Feedback
Constructive feedback
is information that helps people to understand their
behaviours and how these are perceived by others. It
is delivered with the intention of helping the client to
improve.

(As mentors we do not give negative feedback as
we want to improve/maintain self esteem)
Types of feedback (cont)
Reinforcing feedback is information that reinforces the required
desired behaviours and encourages repetition of those behaviours
by communicating that they are behaving as required.

Improvement feedback is information that discourages behaviours
by communicating that they are not behaving as required.


Giving feedback
Focus on the issues, not the person
Be specific, rather than general
the specifics can help resolve issues
Try not to diminish self-esteem
Be honest, problems/issues need to be aired
Be selective as to time/place for giving feedback
Give it confidentiality, if necessary.
Levels of Conict
Discomfort
Incident
Misunderstanding
Tension
Crisis
Conict Resolution Skills
Empathy
Assertion
Cooperative power
Willingness to resolve
Managing emotions
Change
change is ongoing
change happens quickly
our lives are a continuing never-
ending series of changes
change comes about to either fix a
problem or to prevent one from
occurring
Recognising the signs
The signs (or stages) are:
Denial
Resistance
Exploration
Mastery
Brainstorming

The rules of brainstorming
list all ideas
do not criticise new ideas
think outside the square
encourage all ideas
build on others ideas
ask questions of each other
Your Indigenous Edge
SWOT analysis
A technique to evaluate the potential of
innovative ideas

S =strengths (refers to internal environment)
W =weaknesses
O =opportunities (relates to external environment)
T = threats
The idea is to:
build on the S and O, and
minimise or reduce impact of W and T
Case Studies
1. Aleasha is a 17 year old working part-time on the production line at a local factory
while she finishes Year 12. The factory is willing to fund her to attend University
to complete a Business Degree. She wants to be a School Teacher

As her mentor, employed by her employer, what would you do to assist her?

2. Meagan has worked part time for the local shire as assistant payroll officer while
she finishes Year 12. She is responsible for completing the weekly payroll for
800 people. She has an excellent point score and would have no trouble gaining
a university placement. Her Mothers and Aunts want her to be the first person in
their family to go to university. Meagan wants to stay in her job, attend the local
TAFE and complete a Certificate in Business.

As her workplace mentor how would you help Meagan solve this problem?
TRUST
reliable
competent
sincere
involved
cultural literacy & cultural competence
Leaders build macro and
micro cultures where people
engage as teams to co-create
and problem-solve together
to achieve
results ....Edgar Schien
3D Mentoring