Dr Paola Balla 
Dr Paola Balla is a visual artist, curator, speaker, academic and writer. She is a Wemba-Wemba and Gunditjmara woman based at Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Centre, Victoria University where she works in Blak community research & teaches The Politics of Aboriginal Art, Indigenous units in the Master of Teaching program and is Director of Teaching & Learning at Moondani Balluk. Her visual and curatorial practice is focused on Blak women’s resistance, sovereignty, self-determination and healing practices.   

Aunty Margie Tang, Aunty Donna Mitchel, Aunty Denise Morgan 
Aunty Margie, Aunty Donna and Aunty Denise collaborate together as Cousins and Sisters as Aboriginal women in Echuca for community wellbeing, healing and women’s gathering to address racism, health and education inequalities and all work towards healing, through weaving, artwork and community collective work with their families and community to work towards healing and wellbeing after decades of community work together in the Echuca area.

Kath Travis
Kath Apma Penangke Travis (Arrernte/Boandik) is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit at Victoria University. Kath is a Stolen Generation survivor and historian. Kath’s research investigates the process of decolonising the archives, reclaiming and reframing First Nations family her-stories to reimagine inter-generational healing. In her doctoral research, she asserted that the lasting impact of displacement, exploitation, and violence on First Nations people, which originated at first contact, is exacerbated by ongoing colonial processes. Her work focuses on challenging the oppressive control, overt racism, and lack of accountability evident in historical records detailing the mistreatment of First Nations people. Instead, Kath aims to produce historical knowledge through a trauma-aware, healing-informed, innovative creative, collective, and reconstructive family archival practice entitled HARTS (Healing and Recovering True Stories). She argues that this practice is crucial for enhancing the health and well-being of the First Nations community. Kath has published articles in Australian Feminist Studies and the Australian Journal of Politics and History. She continues her work in various archival/history and healing spaces as a member of the South Australian State Records & State Library Aboriginal Reference Group, The Healing Foundation’s National Historical Records Taskforce, and the Find & Connect Stolen Generations Project.

Blak community women of the western suburbs - loved, valued, respected and significant participants and contributors in and of the Blak Women’s Healing Project whose honesty, courage, knowledge and lived experiences, survival and healing is phenomenal in the face of ongoing colonial violence. Their survival and voices are endlessly inspiring, empowering and powerful, and is informing the field of how Blak women’s resistance and articulation of colonial violence is and will continue to educate others about the expressed needs and desires of Blak women and their children and grandchildren to live in peace without harassment, child removal and violence against them and future generations. 

Curator: Paola Balla

Artists: Aunty Margie Tang, Aunty Donna Mitchel, Aunty Denise Morgan, Paola Balla, Kath Travis and Blak community women of the western suburbs

Blak Women’s Healing Ongoing Project Collaborators: The Creative Research Collective at Moondani Balluk including Paola Balla, Karen Jackson, Kath Travis, Angela Parades, Roshani Jayawardana and Amy Quayle