Title: Sharing Our Stories and Building on Our Strengths
Format: Video
Producers: Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit and the Knowledge Transfer Group, MDHS Faculty
Series: Aboriginal health workers talk up their community health projects

Synopsis: A film about Aboriginal health workers preparing to present at an international mental health conference and the support provided by the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit in getting them there.

'If we win today we're in the finals. It's not for yourself today. Everything you do today is for all your team mates out there. You've done it all year, lift that care for each other up another notch. Let's show them that there's a bunch of blokes who know how to play for each other and know how to play footy.' (Alan Brown, Coach, Fitzroy Stars Football Club).

For the Fitzroy Stars Football Club, football is more than a game. The club nurtures a culture that promotes healthy lifestyles and offers pathways to employment. It is just one local Koori organisation in Melbourne working to benefit the social and emotional wellbeing of community members; work which has been documented in Sharing Our Stories and Building on Our Strengths.

The film documents the work of two Aboriginal health workers, Anthony Brown and Troy Austin. Anthony, Coordinator of the Koori Kids Adolescents Unit at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, and Troy, President of the Fitzroy Stars Football Club, are two of eleven Aboriginal health workers mentored by Onemda to present at the 2008 From Margins to Mainstream: 5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health.

The work of all these health workers are great examples of the positive ways in which local Aboriginal community organisations are working together to build a healthier community, and demonstrates how all cultural and community activities can contribute to better health outcomes. More on the project can be found in our report of the same name by Ngarra Murray.

Contact Person: Paul Stewart, Email: pjstew@unimelb.edu.au or Ngarra Murray, Email: nmurray@unimelb.edu.au.

Additional Credits: Sharing Our Stories and Building on Our Strengths was commissioned by Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population Health, at the University of Melbourne with support from the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health, and produced by the Knowledge Transfer Group, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, at the University of Melbourne.

Duration: 30mins, 30 seconds.