Dr John McMullan

Being a Noongar maaman (man and father) involved in raising koorlangka (children) brings lots of happiness and excitement, along with many challenges. Noongar maaman have always helped one another learn about the fathering role and how to be effective in the rol e. Indeed one of the key features about Noongar traditions is that our moort (family) help out so that men are not alone when it comes to looking after kids. Many changes imposed on us by Wedjela (non - Aboriginal people) have made it hard for Aboriginal men to bring up their kids with good support. Our old people had kids taken from them, were punished for speaking language and practicing culture and had their authority to be maaman as fathers, uncles, brothers and pops stripped by governments. Despite this, our history is also full of maaman who have quietly maintained their status as boordier (leaders and bosses) and who have been inspirational as maaman (fathers, uncles and pops). They have allowed the old karla mia (home fires) to continue to burn for man y moorditj maaman (strong men). Today this karl (fire) for kaarnya maaman (respectful fathering) is heating up again and many Noongar maaman (fathers) are getting together to support young men as they step into roles that involve looking after koorlangka ( children). The Aboriginal Fathering workshop series has been designed by Noongar men for Noongar men. It has been set up to provide maaman (father) with a chance to get together and try some new and old activities with their koorlangka (children). The goal is to support Noongar men as they work at katatjiny bidi (go along to become learned and do good) for their koorlangka (children). This short report describes the development of a set of workshop resources to support Noongar maaman (fathering). It desc ribes the project objectives and plan and sets out some of the themes about Aboriginal fathering identified in the literature. It also explains the process used in meeting and working with Noongar men, outlines the workshop structure, describes the Noongar cultural framework adopted, and reports on the evaluation of the work.