SDN Newsletter – May 2024

 

SDN 2024 annual workshop

This year’s SDN workshop was held at the Don Bosco Retreat, Lysterfield east of Melbourne. This is an excellent venue – accommodation on site, large meeting room, well-equipped kitchen and spacious dining room, set in delightful pastoral surrounds of paddocks, giant gum trees and granite rocks.

There were eleven participants - six men and five women. Seven had attended an SDN workshop before, but for others this was their first experience. People came from Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle and Deniliquin and quickly formed a family of friends, sharing thoughts, emotions, hopes and fears, in an atmosphere of trust and support.

As always, this was an open-space workshop – no hierarchy, no experts (we all are, in our own ways!) and no fixed agenda - we create our own. The range of topics covered in presentations was outstanding:

• Restorative practice working with young people.
• ‘Ears of the Heart’ project involving Kimberly elder Kankawa Nagarra.
• Post Voice Referendum stories.
• The Colebrook home in South Australia where Aboriginal children were taken, a Reconciliation group and creating a memorial garden.
• Introducing the ‘Detoxing Deniliquin’ workshops.
• The mythical Hero’s Journey as it applies to our own lives.
• Concepts of change when seeking to intervene in contemporary predicaments or accept as beyond our current scope.

There was also a grief and sorry business campfire, an art therapy mini-workshop and deep listening exercises that brought people closer together. As SDN grows there will be more workshops as varied, deep and interesting as this one. Don’t miss the next!

 

Restorative practice (RP) workshop

In later years, Ned Iceton became interested in the emerging field of restorative practice. He could see the potential of RP for setting relations right when a harm has been done by breaking the law, in schools, or in other contexts. To pursue his interest, the NED Foundation has been supporting RP projects like the Hunter Restorative Community for some time and now we have started holding workshops themed along restorative practice lines.

The first of these was held in April at the Silver Wattle Quaker Centre on the shores of Lake George north of Canberra. Twelve people attended, five from Canberra, four from other NSW, two from the NT and one from Melbourne. The workshop went for three full days and included sessions on RP theory, restorative cities, a teacher-student conflict case study, recovery from sexual violence, and Indigenous case studies from the NT and NSW. There was also a session about the international RP conference to be held in Canberra in late November, and how participants could contribute to that event.

Silver Wattle is the ideal venue for small group workshops with comfortable accommodation, a good-size meeting room and delicious meals (thank you Sam). Thanks also go to the three conveners - David Purnell, Mark Spain and Richard De Martin.

For more information about NED and RP see https://ned.org.au/restorative

To view the NED Australian Restorative Mapping site see https://restorative.org.au/

Mark is also inviting people who are interested to join the RP seminar series on Zoom, established as a way of enabling practitioners to share their personal stories and challenges in their specific streams of RP https://restorative.org.au/restorative-practice-seminar-series.

 

 

NED has a new Coordinator

Richard De Martin started work for the NED Foundation in January as the Restorative Practice Coordinator. He lives and works on Awabakal country in Newcastle and is involved with the Hunter Restorative Community as Network Convenor and board member.

Richard has a degree in drama and a passion for community development, particularly social justice and community dialogue, advocating strongly for the intersection of service provision and creative practice. Most recently he managed a neighbourhood centre, working with young people in psycho-social group work and engaging them on a creative level to explore complex issues and enable personal and systemic change.

“In my NED role the focus is on the development of restorative practice in education. I have been experimenting through the lens of a neighbourhood centre with the notion of ‘community places as restorative spaces’ and believe that safety is the key to embedding restorative approaches in our communities”, Richard says.

“I also had my first experience of an SDN workshop this year which was energizing and thought-provoking. I particularly enjoyed the deep commitment to holding space within the group and the generosity of participants in sharing personal experience and wisdom”.

Richard looks forward to getting to know more people over time within and beyond the NED network and he can be contacted by email at restorativenedfoundation.org.au

 

NED grants and projects

The NED Foundation supports people who are making a contribution which is aligned with our goals and would like to work in a relational way. This may take the form of funding or we may offer support to seek other resources. We have funded a diverse range of projects including First Peoples arts and culture, preparation of a business plan for a cooperative to build and sell solar batteries, films which advocate for land rights and the protection of the environment, programs to support men who have caused harm, and more. If you have an idea please talk to our Projects Coordinator, Lesley Shuttleworth on 0428 488 215, e-mail lesleyned.org.au She is happy to explain our program and can also assist in developing your idea into a project.

 

 

And on a personal note, from Lesley

It has been one of those times when multiple strands seem drawn together, at times suggestive of beautiful weaving and at others like the tangled balls of yarn from my multi-colour knitting. Threads to be teased out as I try to find their place in my life and work. In my NED Projects role I see the need for a document to guide our work with First Nations Peoples. It is a joy and honour to engage in the co-creation of a Community Protocol with a number of people with whom I have worked over the years and there is a sense of something interesting and meaningful as we talk, write, reframe and edit. I was also invited by Woor-Dungin, a group who function as an interface between First Nations People and philanthropists, to an On-Country gathering on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Important links both work and personal were made.

I found myself both drawn in and repelled by the account of colonisation in David Marr’s meticulously researched book Killing For Country. While it is a tough and confronting read, I suggest it is an obligatory read. Halfway through the book I visited Kubirriwarra (Kubirri people Kubirri being the Kuku Yahlinji name for Mossman) in Queensland. We were talking about the long time they had lived there. More than 60,000 years equates to roughly 2,000 generations and I marvelled at the evolutionary regeneration that continues to unfold. We do not consider that people like plants adapt to their environment and that this is a deep process of Belonging which those of us who have migrated here find difficult to grasp.

 

NED Retreat

The NED Foundation (Nurturing Evolutionary Development) is the parent of SDN. It’s the official registered organisation with a board of seven people. A useful summary showing where SDN sits alongside the two other pillars or branches, and introductions to board members is provided on the NED website at this link – https://ned.org.au/about

Every couple of years, the NED board holds a retreat to reflect on how the organisation is going and whether we are living up to the ideals and ethos of our founder Ned Iceton, and taking them further in a world that has changed much since he died in 2015. This year the board invited a number of other people to join them, including all three Coordinators and supporting staff as well as specialised NED projects people.

Discussions over three days ranged from reflections on where we stand now and where we want to be in the future, focus on specific issues and directions, and a review of upcoming initiatives and decisions. The photo shows the group at Dorrigo, with NED Chair Mary Porter second-from-left front row and NED manager Michael Maher far right.

 

SDN podcasts

We have joined the podcasting boom! David ‘Sal’ Salomon has produced five podcasts now available for download. Listen to SDN podcasts to embark on an enriching experience filled with valuable insights and inspiring stories from our passionate community. To join go to https://sdn.ned.org.au/podcast/community

And to listen to all five, or just one go to - https://sdn.ned.org.au/podcast