Creating Space Project

Introduction to Conversation with Merle Conyer I talk to Merle Conyer. I had a particular question, about the interface between Western psychology and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge. I’m exploring that because of a work role I’ll be taking up soon, as part of the Creating Space Project. As part of my preparation for that, I was put in contact with Merle by Paul Rhodes. Merle has been grappling for some time with the same question that has only recently come to me. Merle works with Aboriginal communities. She’s a South African woman who’s been in Australia for many years. As she describes it, she is in that intersection of human rights and wellbeing and social justice. So I sat with her on her carpet and listened to her, and in listening to her, I have learnt an enormous amount. For her the word genocidewas shattering. She realised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in her lifetime have encountered the five conditions for genocide laid about by the United Nations (1948) Conventi