Global award for Aboriginal traditional healers

[rahli]

Two traditional Aboriginal healers from a remote desert area in central Australia will receive international psychotherapy awards today.

The men have been working in the field for decades and now work for a local service, the NPY Women's Council.

Healers, or ngankari use hands, arms and objects like smoking leaves and say their methods are thousands of years old.

The Sigmund Freud Award represents a lifetime achievement for the men, Ginger Toby and Rupert Peters, who are part of a group operating south-west of Alice Springs.

Dr Tony Korner of the World Psychotherapy Congress says the award recognises the links between modern medicine and traditional Aboriginal practices.

"Psychotherapy in many ways is considered to go back to shamanic roots," he said.

"In Australia the ngankari are representatives of that tradition, which involves communicative feeling, broadly."

Dr Korner says the healers are confident and happy to work with western doctors.

"They don't see themselves as being in competition," he said.

"They do feel there are many problems they can deal with effectively, and I think there is every reason to believe there are problems they do deal with effectively without the assistance of mainstream healthcare."

The awards will be presented at the 6th World Congress for Psychotherapy, "World Dreaming", now being held in Sydney.

Link

[synchromesh]

Awesomeness.

[Marcel]

That's awesome. The International Sigmund Freud Award for Psychotherapy is pretty heavy-weight and I'm impressed and surprised that it's going to two traditional healers in Australia.

Thanks for the great link, rahli.