Healing through Connection: Wayapa Wuurrk in Disaster Recovery
Tracks
Norfolk Room
| Monday, July 14, 2025 |
| 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM |
Overview
Jem Stone, Wayapa Wuurrk
Details
Key Presentation Learnings:
1. Healing Through Connection to Country:
Disasters impact Aboriginal communities through the loss of connection to Country. Healing begins by restoring cultural custodianship and acknowledging this bond.
2. Wayapa Wuurrk as a Strength-Based Framework:
Wayapa Wuurrk is a trauma-informed practice using ancestral wisdom and the 14 Wayapa Elements to promote resilience, mindfulness, and reconnection with Country.
3. Community-Led Recovery and Earth Stewardship:
Wayapa Wuurrk fosters intergenerational healing by embedding Earth stewardship. Training and educating others creates a ripple effect, empowering communities to lead recovery through cultural knowledge, shared responsibility, and everyday care for Country.
Speaker
Ms Jem Stone
Cultural Lead And Training Manager
Wayapa Wuurrk
Healing through Connection: Wayapa Wuurrk in Disaster Recovery
Abstract
Aboriginal people's connection to Country is deeply embedded in their physical, emotional, and spiritual memory, spanning over 100,000 years. When Country is devastated by natural or human-made disasters, this trauma is felt as kinship loss, worsened by the disregard for cultural land care practices. Healing begins with acknowledging this trauma and restoring cultural custodianship.
Wayapa Wuurrk is a trauma-informed practice that provides language, frameworks, and embodied action to support healing. Through circle-wuurrk, yarning, and the wisdom of the 14 Wayapa Elements, individuals reconnect with the resilience of their ancestors. Remembering that Aboriginal people have survived two ice ages offers a strength-based perspective on disaster recovery.
Healing becomes recovery through action. Wayapa Wuurrk fosters Earth stewardship, embedding mindfulness in daily interactions with the environment. When individuals, families, and communities live the Wayapa Way, they create safe spaces for both Country and people.
Intergenerational healing is within Aboriginal people’s cellular memory. By sharing their deep knowledge of resilience, healing, and restoration, Wayapa Wuurrk wisdom strengthen the whole community. Training more people in this practice creates widespread healing and a shift in thinking toward long-term recovery.
Wayapa Wuurrk empowers through contribution and inspired action to be part of a solution with daily actions of caring for Country which affirms that as nature sustains us, it is everyone’s responsibility to be Earth stewards. By caring for Country, we care for ourselves, fostering Aboriginal-led resilience initiatives that restore connection to culture, Country, and community.
Jem Stone will share the successful stories emerging from the Wayapa Wuurrk Disaster Recovery Projects delivered in Victoria in partnership with Emergency Recovery Victoria and the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owners Corporations as well as on Bundjalung Country.
Wayapa Wuurrk is a trauma-informed practice that provides language, frameworks, and embodied action to support healing. Through circle-wuurrk, yarning, and the wisdom of the 14 Wayapa Elements, individuals reconnect with the resilience of their ancestors. Remembering that Aboriginal people have survived two ice ages offers a strength-based perspective on disaster recovery.
Healing becomes recovery through action. Wayapa Wuurrk fosters Earth stewardship, embedding mindfulness in daily interactions with the environment. When individuals, families, and communities live the Wayapa Way, they create safe spaces for both Country and people.
Intergenerational healing is within Aboriginal people’s cellular memory. By sharing their deep knowledge of resilience, healing, and restoration, Wayapa Wuurrk wisdom strengthen the whole community. Training more people in this practice creates widespread healing and a shift in thinking toward long-term recovery.
Wayapa Wuurrk empowers through contribution and inspired action to be part of a solution with daily actions of caring for Country which affirms that as nature sustains us, it is everyone’s responsibility to be Earth stewards. By caring for Country, we care for ourselves, fostering Aboriginal-led resilience initiatives that restore connection to culture, Country, and community.
Jem Stone will share the successful stories emerging from the Wayapa Wuurrk Disaster Recovery Projects delivered in Victoria in partnership with Emergency Recovery Victoria and the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owners Corporations as well as on Bundjalung Country.
Biography
Jem Stone is a Bundjalung woman, Wayapa Wuurrk training manager, cultural consultant, and We Al-li lead facilitator specialising in trauma recovery through Earth connection, Indigenous knowledge systems, and culturally informed trauma healing. Jem has supported survivors of Victorian and NSW climate disasters and is a therapist on the first disaster recovery psychedelic-assisted therapy trial at Southern Cross University. She is part of a climate anxiety community of practice with the University of Sydney and has two publications in Explorations Climate Psychology Journal and contributed to research and development for Melbourne University’s climate anxiety and ecological distress project.
