Aunty Vickey Charles was an Alawa/Mara woman from the Northern Territory who grew up in Adelaide on Kaurna Yerta from the age of 18 months due to government policies at the time. She worked tirelessly across her life to tell the story and raise awareness of Aboriginal Australia through her lived experience as an Aboriginal Women growing up in a non-Aboriginal Australia, Working in government and not for profit sectors, including as a Cultural Competency Facilitator in SA.
Aunty Vickey worked with young Aboriginal children under the Guardianship Of the Minister to help them see their Aboriginal story as meaningful, while advocating systems to consider the context of their families in light of the historical systemic background of Aboriginal Australia. Aunty Vickey had a passion to see both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal workers across the community service sector receive accurate training, and helped inform Reconciliation Action Plans (including TACSI’s Reconciliation Action Plan) at many of her work places.
While working for TACSI, Aunty Vickey significantly contributed to TACSI’s journey to become more culturally competent and culturally safe. This included taking new starters through a cultural induction and developing a cultural canvas that ensured TACSI projects begin grounded in the cultural context. Aunty Vickey played a key role in TACSI developing a Reconciliation Action Plan, and her work continues to provide cultural insight through the process in the working group.
Aunty Vickey contributed deeply to both the Family by Family program as well as the Weavers program by providing direct support to families, up-skilling cultural competency, and developing an Aboriginal specific role within Family by Family. In addition Aunty Vickey supported the facilitation of self-determined innovation approaches to reduce Aboriginal overrepresentation in justice and child protection systems, as well as facilitating a co-design process with two regional Aboriginal communities in South Australia to self-determine ways to strengthen cultural, social and economic participation across generations.
