Case story

Mentoring Emerging Indigenous Researchers to Present at a Conference

In 2008 Paul Stewart, Ngarra Murray and others at Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit worked with 11 Indigenous health workers to help document and present their unique community health programs at the 2008 From Margins to Mainstream: 5th World Conference on the Promotion of Mental Health.

The health workers aimed to share some of the positive ways in which local Indigenous community organisations are working together to build a healthier community, and to demonstrate how cultural and community activities can contribute to better health outcomes.

Ngarra Murray was engaged by Onemda to run the project:

Aboriginal health workers are often too busy actually ‘doing the work’ to contemplate presenting at a conference, and certainly most are unable to find the time to work on abstracts or presentations. All of the Aboriginal presenters who took part are known for their enthusiasm and dedication to their work and commitment and advancement of our Communities. This project was a perfect opportunity for Onemda to work with our Community health workers on preparing presentations that would allow them to share the excellent programs done in our communities…

Leadership is about confidence. There is a leader in all of us but sometimes we need to be given opportunities and support.

Paul Stewart is the Research & Community Development Officer at Onemda. He talks about his mentoring role in the project: 

I guess I like to see myself as in a supportive role to our participants. I know that these guys can do this. It’s about giving them the opportunity, the confidence and just the tools to be able to get up there and talk in front of a large audience about what they do. I believe that they’re the experts and it’s a matter of drawing that out of them, to make them feel comfortable to talk about what they do, because what they do is unique and inspiring for others.

Paul and Ngarra talk about how they set up and ran the mentoring program:

We negotiated with the organisation, as well as the participants, about taking people out of the workplace and the commitment that’s needed - that you need to come to the initial planning day, the ‘abstract writing’ day, the ‘how to present’ day, your trial day.

We started with a workshop day to match mentors and presenters based on personality and topic - some people knew each other or had worked together. There were about three half days here altogether, but there was a lot of follow up. I went to the health service and sat down one-on-one and talked up ideas. We kept in contact on the phone or email, or they’d come in here, or [the mentors would] go out to see them. People were at different stages.  Logistically working that out, organising 13 people, was a challenge, especially when they’ve got work commitments and family commitments - people don’t have a lot of time. 

 Supporting them involved a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing, and double checking - it was perhaps like supervising a student. …  Then at the workshops we put the presentations together. They got a practice run and it also allowed them to critique each other, instead of just being us as the mentors to critique it. So then they were able to tidy up their presentations.

What was learnt about supporting people to present at the conference:

• ‘You need a long lead in time.  These guys are busy people – presenting at a conference is down the bottom of the order … it’s a matter of checking in to see where they’re at, and making that time, because sometimes they cancel because they’re looking after their clients, and that’s more important than a conference presentation.
• Have someone coordinating. You need the sort of relationship that you can hassle and keep people on track, just calling them and checking that they’re right and what they need. If we were to do this again, all the conference correspondence would go to [Ngarra] to distribute it back out to participants, so we know participants have been told ‘this is your time slot’ or ‘here’s the briefing notes’ from the conference, instead of [conference correspondence] being just a mainstream email they’d probably think is junk email.
• Put all the support mechanisms in place. Our attitude is that these guys are doing great work that needs to be put out there. And if it means making sure presenters had a cab charge to get to the conference …
• Tell others about the support processes you need to go through. One thing to note is that all our participants who worked in mainstream organisations during that period of time, all left their job.  (This also meant we had to renegotiate [with the new and old employers] can workers talk about their old work?)
• A local approach works best [not long distance]. It provides a local support base for emerging researchers wanting to do this sort of work, or wanting to present.
• There are two aspects of support - the support process to get people there in the first place, and to build the confidence to present, but also supporting each other at the conference too. When someone was presenting, most of them were there. … It was like a big team and they didn’t want to let people down.’

Belinda Briggs and Rachel Reilly were two of the people involved in the program. Belinda prepared a presentation about her work as Coordinator for the My Moola: opening financial pathways Program at the Koori Resource and Information Centre in Shepparton. Rachel is a Research Fellow at Onemda, and was Belinda’s mentor for the program.

Belinda talks about why she participated and her experience of being mentored:

I participated in the program because it helped our mob to be the experts that present on a subject that we know best about; as opposed to non-Aboriginal presenters. Our points of view are personal and not just work; it’s our very livelihoods and makes our messages that we want mainstream Australia to hear stronger!

The information provided at workshop sessions enabled me to feel I would know what I was doing when preparing my PowerPoint presentation. Paul emphasised the importance of preparation and had tips for dealing with nerves and getting your mind focused on what is required of you when delivering. Whilst I was part of workshop and trial presentations I observed the content of others’ presentations and how they were put together, and also how they presented at their trial. Being part of a group that was going through this together promoted an encouragement and enabled us to quietly empower and support each other.

Through the mentor program I felt comfortable and well supported to attempt something that was out of my comfort zone, and felt I could try with limited fear of failure or ‘mucking up’. Rachel, my mentor, was informative on content and historical background of my subject, and it was helpful to work with a mentor leading up to the presentation. Paul and Kevin Rowley were also generous in their support, advice and assistance. Ngarra was more than helpful with administrative support, making sure logistics were organised and made contact via email and phone to see if I needed any assistance with anything. I felt confident that I would be able to deliver my presentation with the support I had from Onemda.

Knowing Kevin, Rachel, Paul and Ngarra prior to this was a huge advantage as trust was already formed in our relationships which made for a quicker flow on the information they had to share with me, and me trusting them with my thoughts for my work and how I could present it.

I believe that it’s important to use language we are comfortable using, and not to put pressure on ourselves to use words we don’t necessarily use in everyday life.  Because once we introduce a language that we aren’t familiar with, there is pressure to keep using words to maintain that image you are trying to project, which can add to anxieties if those words aren’t a true reflection of who you are and what you are familiar with.

When I got to the conference I didn’t feel I could go through with it. My assumptions about the exact requirements of my presentation weren’t accurate, so I wasn’t fully aware of what was needed and didn’t feel I had enough confidence or experience to ‘wing it’. I wouldn’t blame the conference organisers for me not presenting. In the end I believe it came down to the lack of self-belief in my ability to talk up this work I’d been doing. I think the outcome would be different if given the opportunity again.

I know that what I gained from the program is something that will positively effect how I prepare and present my presentations in future.

Rachel talks about how she approached her mentoring role and the benefits of being a mentor.

Mentoring was an opportunity to be involved in some capacity exchange, and to build stronger relationships with a community that I already work with. I knew Belinda before the conference and was aware of her work.

Belinda hadn’t presented her work in that sort of forum before.  I put together a framework for a presentation - an example of how a presentation could go, with the expectation that we could talk about Belinda putting her own work into it.  The two of us got together a few times, and the three of us (with Paul as well), to talk about what she would like to put into it.  And there was a lot of back and forth by email over three or four months. It was a balancing act as well, to encourage and not pressure. 

So much about research partnerships is about personal relationships. I have developed my personal relationship with Belinda and a real appreciation for her honesty and openness in the process. I’ve also developed knowledge about her work, which is great. Another thing I learnt was to trust people to make the right decisions for them and not to feel responsible for that – to let go a little bit. Belinda didn’t actually do the presentation in the end, but since then we’ve had discussions about other ways of communicating her work … so I think that’s a really good thing to come out of it.

The other benefits that came out of it for me were that I developed some more skills in research supervision type activities, and learnt something about knowledge being transferred from one forum to another, and some of the difficulties and barriers to doing that. I think the academic environment is a bit inaccessible for people who aren’t working in it.

To move out of the margins and into the mainstream, you need a platform to be seen and heard… The benefit of presenting at a conference like this is being able to spread the word, and hopefully activities like this can be replicated (Ngarra Murray).

For more information, including the following resources, go to the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit website:

• Sharing Our Stories and Building on Our Strengths (video)
• Murray, N. & Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit 2009, Sharing Our Stories and Building on Our Strengths: Indigenous Presenters Talk up Their Community Health Projects, Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne.