Sandra Hocking is a Wiradjiri (pronounced as “wi-ra-jew-ri”) woman from the Kalari (pronounced as “ka-la-ri”) tribe of Forbes in NSW.
After suffering from three strokes, Sandra has had to rely on a wheel chair and a walker in order to move around for the past 11 years. She says, “I just felt that over the years, I’d tried different things. I was at a point in my life where I was willing to try anything.”
The opportunity came in early June when a mobile ngankari clinic from South Australia travelled to Western NSW in partnership with the Western NSW Local Health District visiting hospitals in six towns over two weeks.
It was Sandra’s doctor who suggested the alternative treatment which involved two ngankari healers in an hour-long session. The results were astonishing. She recalls, “They just seemed to know exactly where the pain was. I had no expectations at all and to be able to stand up beside the bed…one of the ladies pointing to my walker and she would not allow me to have it. I finally took several steps towards her. Yeah, it was just so emotional to think that I’d walked without the walker after all these years.”
The mobile ngankari clinic was made possible from the advocacy work of traditional Aboriginal medicine by Dr Francesca Panzironi.
The Italian-born academic is leading the way in integrating traditional Aboriginal healing into conventional medical practices.
A former lecturer in international human rights law, Dr Panzironi now heads the Aṉangu Ngangkaṟi Tjutaku (pronounced “ah-nun-goo”, “nun-ka-ri”, “chu-ta-ku”) Aboriginal Corporation, or ANTAC, based in north-western South Australia. Dr. Panzironi explains, “From the learning process to the way which it’s passed down, to the healing skills that each healer has is very unique. It’s a healing knowledge system which is very deeply interconnected to country and to family groups and to personal skills.”
Beyond physical wellbeing, the nganakri also take care of a patient’s mind and spirit.
The ngankari can see a person’s spirit through the healing touch, the pampuni (pronounced “pahm-poo-ni”) and place a misaligned spirit back into the body. “Some people come with physical ailments from headache, vomiting or insomnia. They have done all the tests with the doctors but there is no medical reason for this person to be sick. Yet, the person continues to experiences these symptoms. So, a lot of the times, the healers see their spirit is misaligned so the healer sees our spirit sitting in the center of our chest and for a lot of people, due to everyday living, trauma, so they are able to align the spirit,” says Panzironi.
Dr Panzironi says traditional healers have a deeper meaning for Aboriginal and Torrres Strait Islander people. According to her, “It goes beyond even the physical ailments. It is an experience of cultural reconnection. Especially for those individuals or communities whose culture has been broken by the process of colonisation.”
Debbie Annamari Watson is a Pitjantjatjara (pronounced “pee-chant-jia-ra) woman from Pipalyatjara (pronounced “pee-pal-cha-ra”) in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (pronounced “Ah-nun-gu”, “pee-chanbt-jia-ra”, “yarn-kuni-chat-jia-ra”).
She has been an ngankari healer since she was a child when she acquired her medical knowledge from another realm. She explains, “When I was sleep, I travelled with my father, like spirit travelling. Travelling in the sky. Going different places. Travelling with father, that’s first I learnt by travelling to other country like other dreaming. Healing and using hands. Pain. Taking the pain away and healing when someone’s sick long way, long distance.”
Ngankari healers also treat mental illness.
ANTAC’s services extend to the prison system.
South Australia officially recognises the healing touch of Aboriginal healers in its Mental Health Act 2009.
It has a Traditional Healers Brokerage Program allowing any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in the state to access state-funded ngankari service.
Debbie says invisible forces can sometimes cause mental illness, “Some mental. Some bad spirits, like someone’s spirit in their body or maybe sometimes brain damage, and sometimes, too many thinking, thinking and that’s why they got mental. You know? Like worry and stress.”
Even though ngankari healing is not part of the formal health system but its therapeutic benefits are gaining recognition in the medical community.
In South Australia, ngankari often visit hospital and clinics working alongside doctors to provide complementary treatment for patients.
The ANTAC mobile clinic has also travelled to NSW, Victoria and WA to provide therapies.
Dr Panzironi is proud of the organisation’s achievements in creating an employment pathway for the ngankari in order for people to access this ancient healing practice. She explains, “ANTAC is, you know, creating an employment pathway especially for the young ngankari because I think that if you don’t find an employment pathway, even if the tradition will continue to be passed down, it won’t have a place in the 21st century society. They said to me, ‘we are the ngankari of the 21st century. We want to work in the hospital and help people and also work with the doctor when we can help.’”
It’s a path Dr Francesca Panzironi never expected to embark on when she came across a report on how Chinese traditional medicine was widely practiced and supported by the government in Australia nearly a decade ago.
Yet, there was hardly any mention of Aboriginal traditional healing in the same report.
This curiosity led to her conducting her own research and eventually, working as CEO of ANTAC. In her own words, “For me, it has been a learning process, you know? I came from another country and I didn’t know anything about it. So it all started out of my curiosity to find out why? Why I can't find anything about Aboriginal traditional medicine? And then it became a vision, you know? With the healers like a pathway that we started to work together with a lot of obstacles and difficulties but we are here.”
