Meeting Across the Divide: Can we talk about Racism?
Naarm (Melbourne), October 24-25, 2026
The 2023 Referendum saw First Nations Australians subjected to heightened levels of racism that intensified over the course of the campaign, and gave rise to overt levels of public scrutiny and abuse. Ongoing and generational experiences of racism have profoundly harmful impacts on First Nations Peoples. Unless we acknowledge and accept the truth about racism in Australia, its existence, and our history of invasion with its devastating, long-term impacts on First Nations Peoples, we hold ourselves back as a nation. For non-Aboriginal Australians to walk together with First Nations Peoples to build a better future for this country we must begin with a commitment to truth telling.
Meeting Across the Divide: Can We Talk about Racism?
is an experiential workshop designed to increase participant awareness and understanding of some of the dynamics of racism, colonisation, and invasion, in a safe and supported environment.
It is an invitation for non-Aboriginal Australians to come together to sit with, talk, understand, and take action on these critical issues in a shared space created by a First Nations woman and a white Anglo European woman.
This is for you if:
- You would like to learn about racism, colonisation and invasion and how these influence your relationships, interactions and engagement with Aboriginal colleagues and communities
- You want to build your capacity to model ways of being and acting which are anti-racist and be more confident in countering racism in your interactions with others
- You want to model leadership where you work with Aboriginal People to create relationships, spaces and work places in which trust, safety and respect are a given
Majestic Witness (1990)
by Colleen Clarke
What you will leave with:
- A deeper understanding of attitudes and mindsets around racism, colonisation and invasion and the impacts of these on all Australians
- A heightened awareness of notions of whiteness, centrality and entitlement
- A growing capacity to sit with discomfort and stay open, present and non-defensive when participating in conversations around racism
- Strategies for building resilience and self-care
- Ways of working which are anti-racist
Register for Meeting Across the Divide
THE TRAINER
Colleen Clarke
Colleen is a Wergaia/Gunditjmara/Wemba Wemba/Djadwajali woman (Victoria). She is the first Australian Aboriginal person to be qualified in Process Work and one of the few First Nations peoples in the world to hold a Masters of Arts in Conflict Facilitation & Organisational Change (MACFOC), graduating from the Processwork Institute at Portland, Oregon in 2012.
Colleen has worked in Aboriginal housing, education, health, and social and emotional wellbeing with government, universities, community and non-government organisations in rural and urban settings. She has a lived experienced of racism that has driven her passion for consciousness raising and anti-racism work, including delivering cultural competency training.
Colleen’s dream is for a world where First Nations Australians have sovereignty to their lands and lives for generations to come; where they are treated with respect and dignity, and their knowledges and wisdoms are validated and honoured.
Bec Lang
Bec has spent most of her adult life facilitating groups – first stepping into the role at university and later growing it through her work in government programs supporting communities to collaborate on complex environmental issues. Her career has spanned natural resource management, organisational change and leadership development, and she is an experienced consultant working with groups where many perspectives, and often tensions, are present. Bec is deeply moved by how disturbances disrupt equilibrium and bring rich transformative potential. She studied the MACFOC alongside Colleen in Portland, Oregon, and is also a Process Work Diplomate.
Colleen and Bec met twenty-five years ago, sitting in the fire of a Process Work training. They connected through their shared commitment to working on racism. This workshop has its origins in The Land is Listening, a series of monthly training sessions, held over two years, which Colleen facilitated with a small group in Tarndanya (Adelaide) on colonisation and racism.
THE DETAILS
Dates
24th and 25th October (Saturday & Sunday).
9.30am - 4.30pm
Fees
Individuals & Not-for-profits: $650
Government & Corporate: $950
ANZPOP DTP & 2 yr program students: $500
Location
Multipurpose Room 2,
Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre, 251 Faraday St, Carlton, VIC
Payment options
When you register, you have the option to pay via:
- Paypal or credit card (via Paypal but you don't need a Paypal account to do this)
- direct debit (please note the instructions in the registration form)
- employer invoice - we'll send an invoice to your employer for payment.
Cancellations
Cancellations with seven or more business days’ notice will receive a full refund.
Cancellations with less than seven days’ notice will not be refunded. If you simply don't turn up to the training, fees are also not refunded.
You are welcome to sell your registration to someone else. Email us at to let us know if you’re doing this.
Please note, we do consider fee refund requests with less than seven days notice on compassionate grounds in the event of significant, difficult, life events. These do not include regular illness, date clashes, scheduling issues etc.
Register for Meeting Across the Divide
ANZPOP acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands we live and work on, the Aboriginal Australian, and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the Maori First Nations peoples. We pay respect to their elders across time. We give thanks for the Indigenous knowledge that has informed the Process Work approach. We honour the courage, resilience, and spirit of First Nations peoples to counter the ongoing impacts of colonisation on their culture, well-being, and sovereignty.
