Support for healing

Adam Hill performing at Gamarada, Redfern, NSW.

A group of men in inner-city Sydney are learning new ways to handle life’s difficulties.

Sydney man Ken Zulumovski says a healing program in Redfern is connecting men with the “beautiful free spirit that we are born with”.

Zulumovski says the Gamarada (a Gadigal word for “friends”) healing program is helping men to break self-destructive cycles of poverty, violence and imprisonment.

The program uses a holistic approach and is based on the idea that if men feel better about themselves they are less likely to become repeat offenders and face imprisonment.

“Gamarada has created a magical place, a space of empowerment,” says Zulumovski, a Kabi Kabi man from south east Queensland who is Gamarada’s director.

“Once a safe space is created with a purpose and a vision, it is quite easy to motivate the men to talk about issues which concern them and their community,” he says.

The Gamarada program combines emotional healing techniques with traditional cultural values and practical strategies for living a successful life.

One of the traditional practices it uses is dadirri, a technique that belongs to the people of the Daly River area in the Northern Territory. Dadirri teaches the men how to be less reactive, and more mindful and compassionate, forgiving, and loving, so they are less likely to get caught up in illegal, violent or destructive behaviours and circumstances.

“Each of the men want to become better partners, better fathers, better uncles and their first step in attending the program is ground breaking,” Zulumovski says.

“It’s a huge step that says, ‘I am admitting I have work to do, I am admitting that I have made mistakes and I want to make myself a better man.’”

Gamarada’s influence has spread beyond Redfern. Zulumovski recently received a letter from inside a New South Wales prison that said a men’s healing program had started up inside the jail, and had a waiting list of inmates wanting to join.

“When some of these brothers come out of the prison system, if we can mentor them in cultural renewal, we can start to break the bubble of repeat offending and that is very important,” Zulumovski says.