Program helps Aboriginal men rediscover identity
A simple two day workshop which has been running in the Northern Territory is being credited with giving many Aboriginal men a renewed sense of culture and self esteem. The program, Codes for Life, run by Desert Knowledge Australia in Alice Springs, is similar to the Men’s Shed movement or AA in the way it allows men lost in the violence, abuse and incarceration roundabout, to confront themselves. Organiser Michael Liddle says the workshops enable them to slowly open up and begin to remember names of Country, reimagine their responsibilities and rediscover and strengthen their ‘Aboriginal heart’. In response to strong demand he hopes to spread the program across the Territory.