Pika Wiya Health Service
Pika Wiya Health work predominantly with Aboriginal people in the wider Port Augusta area across all areas of Health. Included as part of mental wellbeing and expression, we have worked with Pika Wiya since 2006, making CD’s with women, men, young men and mixed groups. 7 CD’s in all.
Most participants have suffered loss and sorrow and song writing can be a powerful medium for releasing pain and assisting in the healing process. The sessions have also allowed participants to express their feelings towards historical injustices and to address the issues they are currently facing. This expression gives a voice and hope instead of a silent hopelessness.
There have been many amazing moments and touching honesty.
One such story came from a quiet lady, who sat in the back. With some one-on-one time, the story of her life, of physical and mental abuse came to the fore and also of the one man who had loved and protected her.
It was an emotional session and a healing song.
Through the trauma’s she had encountered, her short term memory had been affected and she would rarely remember things from her recent past. Incredibly, when the nurses would visit, she would talk of the song she had written. She said, “Now the story is out of my head and on the CD, I feel much better”. Clearly it had meant a great deal to her and released some of the pain she’d held inside for so long.
“For this to happen is a dream come true” – Paul Elliott, Pika Wiya 2011
