First people health – Portfolio Assessment 1.1: Autobiographic Reflective Assessment on Privilege and Colonisation

Objective

Engage in a reflective exercise focusing on your personal experiences, beliefs, and biases, especially regarding social privilege and demonstrating your emerging understanding of the impact of colonial systems on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (or on you and your Community if you are an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person).

This is a reflective task that requires you to examine your subjective thoughts and feelings, posing questions when you do not know the answer. Being a reflective task you are expected to write using first person. You will also be required to write in a culturally safe way. You are required to write in a culturally safe way, ensure that you follow the Yurirka: Proppa Engagement with Aboriginal Peoples guide or other local terminology guides as you reflect on your own experience in relation to health systems and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Assessment aims

Deepen understanding and self-awareness about:

1. Self-awareness to gain a clearer understanding of your own biases, privileges, and experiences within broader systems of privilege.

2. Cultural self-reflection to delve into your own cultural background, worldview, and values, and how they intersect with wider societal dynamics.

3. Understanding colonial impacts by recognising and evaluating the implications of colonial systems on inequality, structural disadvantage, and their relevance to health care practice.

4. Within the historical context, by appreciating historical and contemporary health issues of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, especially in light of your own cultural lens.

Assessment instructions

Contextual Understanding – familiarise yourself with the Yurirka: Proppa Engagement with Aboriginal Peoples guide. Ensure you use culturally appropriate terminology.
Undertake the Cultural Capability Measurement Tool (CCMT), linked above, to help frame your thinking about this reflection.
Initiate Reflection – reflect on your personal experiences and biases about social privilege, power dynamics, and the history and lasting impacts of colonisation, especially on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Answer the Following Prompt Questions for Your Reflection:
Have you ever been in a situation where you felt misunderstood or uncomfortable due to a cultural or social difference? (i.e. being in a room where the majority of people are a different race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, level of ability, socioeconomic status and/or language speaker than you).
How did it make you feel?
How did you handle it?
What did you learn from the situation that may inform your future experiences?
What could others have done to make you feel more comfortable/safe in the situation?
How would you describe your own cultural background, values, and beliefs?
How might these factors influence your interactions with individuals from different cultural backgrounds or Aboriginal cultural protocols?
Describe your own values and beliefs about health.
How may these inform your future practice?
Reflecting on these, what might you like to know or develop to become a culturally safe and respectful health practitioner?
Write your assessment in full paragraphs, not bullet points, using first-person narration. This assessment requires in text referencing,if journal articles, books , please include them in-text and in a reference list. You should reference using APA7th edition. Incorporating images or drawings is optional but may enhance your reflection. Submit your reflection as a Word document, assignment from below resources only.