Season 4 Episode 8: “Heart Healing”: An Interview with Mibbinbah’s Lisa and Jack Bulman
About This Episode
In this episode, Ruth and David speak with Lisa and Jack Bulman of Mibbinbah Spirit Healing about their work in the community to facilitate healing from intergenerational trauma, support healthy relationship connections, and strengthen the well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and families. Mibbinbah uses a “whole of communities” approach, which brings men and women together to heal in the community.
Jack and Lisa talk about the heart-healing work they do within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to strengthen and support their families after generations of colonization, which created family separation, violence, and abuse.
The discussion touches on:
The origins of Mibbinbah in Jack’s need in university for a safe space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to connect, support, and heal together
The negative police response to Aboriginal men coming together to heal in nature and how that helped Jack further develop his work with the community
How Lisa and Jack see addressing violence as separate from men’s business and women’s business
How partnering is critical when it comes to working with the community
The importance of deep listening to healing and how this differs from prescriptive approaches to addressing trauma and violence
How healing and combating family violence is important to the work of decolonization
The importance of self-responsibility for adopting behaviors that heal harm to self and community
The pitfalls and limitations of how men’s behavior change are currently understood as Individual and reductionist rather than as familial and communal
Concrete behaviors professionals can adopt to safely and appropriately support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in healing from family violence and the intergenerational impacts of ongoing colonization
Additional Resources
Safe & Together Institute’s domestic abuse–informed trainings
Safe & Together Institute’s upcoming events
David Mandel’s book Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to Transform the Way We Keep Children Safe from Domestic Violence