This is audio part of the Yarning about Stroke collection. Listen to more stories from mob.
Amy is a proud Dunghutti woman, a registered nurse and midwife and a young survivor of stroke. She works at Durri Aboriginal Corporation Medical Service.
Jony is a proud Palawa man and First Nations Coordinator for Stroke Foundation.
Amy and Jony yarn about disconnection from mob and community after stroke. Jony shares that as blackfellas, the way we look at culture and the way culture kind of shapes us is vastly different to the Western aspect. The interconnectedness to our communities and our cultures and to how we work and how we are so intertwined and connected is kind of carried within us.
Being disconnected from mob and community can make recovery harder for a lot of people, especially older mob, when they are disconnected from their role in community and everything that they do.
Transcript
Jony: The way we look at culture as mob, I was, you know, I was going to say blackfellas. And I am, as blackfellas, the way we look at culture and the way culture kind of shapes us is vastly different to the Western aspect. To any other sphere of culture that I've found before. Like the interconnectedness to our communities and our cultures and to how we work and how we are so intertwined and connected is kind of carried within us.
And it's kind of like when I've seen mob when they'd get flown in when I was at the Royal Children's and they'd come in. Mum would come down with her bub and she'd be disconnected from her other bubs. It feels like losing a part of your heart and a part of your soul.
And it actually, I found, made recovery harder for a lot of people. Especially like older mob, like our elders. When they're disconnected from their, you know, role in community and everything that they do.
So I've got an auntie at the moment in Perth. She's going through chemo at the moment, so she's away from her family. She goes and visits the facility. She goes and does that, but then she's not doing her job, she's not doing her roles within community, with her young ones, with her bubs, with that kind of stuff. And it actually stresses her out more to the point that we feel it's making her sicker because she's got more worry and more pain being so disconnected from mob.
And so disconnected from her bubs and so disconnected from her responsibility and community that it actually can often make it worse.
And you would have seen a lot of that up Kempsey way too hey, Amy.
Amy: Yeah. Especially with my stroke. That's an important issue Johnny, that you raised with that disconnection because that's what I felt. Disconnected from my family because you know, being a single mum and then I went to work that morning at 2:00 in the morning and I never come home. So, you know, it's that word that you're talking about.
Jony: And the whole community, and I think one thing that people don't realise is our whole communities feel it. The black grapevine goes very, very far. Yeah.
Amy: And my niece took over with the phone calls and all that sort of stuff because everyone knew within an hour or so that I had the stroke. And that news travelled from every where.
Jony: And then the whole mob, there's stress there in the community. People are worried. And half the time when you're going through emergency services and stuff like that, you don't know where you're going to end up. And the mob don't know where you're going to end up.
And it can just cause these ripple effects of, we've got to then when you know, you get back to community and you're going through recovery and you're going through rehab like you did, and then you've got to start trying to, you know, put all those pieces back together and start doing all this extra stuff because you've been disconnected.
Amy: Yeah.
Jony: And then, you know, especially when you, you run things like our women do. Youse have got to, you know, get back there and you got to get them young ones back in line. You've gotta get this back happening. These fellows back doing this.
It can really, really have long term effects when we're that disconnected and we don't have that kind of prevention education in these spaces.
