Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation

Who we are

Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation (KBHAC) is a not-for-profit Aboriginal community controlled organisation established to help restore and reconstruct the identity, dignity and integrity of Aboriginal men who were forcibly removed from their families and put into the Kinchela Boys Home (KBH) and to address the intergenerational trauma that adversely impacts on the lives of the men’s families and descendants.

Our Vision

Our vision is to improve the social, emotional, cultural and spiritual wellbeing of the KBH survivors and their families in a meaningful way. This takes a strength-based focus on persistent grief, trauma and intergenerational trauma as experienced by each KBH survivor and his family. KBHAC is committed to empowering, positive, healthy peer support models that enable greater social inclusion in community life. These models address the rebuilding and strengthening of identity and family structures..

Our Mission

To encourage and support Aboriginal men, their families and communities in developing sustainable healing programs that address the legacy of physical, sexual, psychological and cultural abuse in the Kinchela Boys Home, including intergenerational impacts. To encourage and empower positive, healthy peer support models that allow KBHAC members and other Aboriginal community members to experience greater social inclusion in community life.

Our Values

The members, board and staff of KBHAC are committed to upholding and promoting the values described below. These values are embedded in our practice, our interactions with one another and in the way we engage and work with community, our partners and stakeholders.

CULTURAL INTEGRITY

We are open, honest, accountable and transparent and acknowledge that culture is at the centre of all that we do.

RESPECT

This is at the core of all our relationships with members, community, partners and wider society.

INCLUSION

We actively create opportunities for community engagement with KBHAC’s activities and priorities. We listen to our members and the communities we work with and value their input.

DIGNITY BASED, HEALING & TRAUMA INFORMED

We uphold dignity for all our members and are knowledgeable of and sensitive to trauma and intergenerational trauma related issues. We create environments where people feel valued and which emphasise hope, healing, safety (cultural, physical, psychological, and social), choice, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment.

PARTNERSHIP

We are committed to working in mutually beneficial and enriching partnerships with our community, our partners and our stakeholders.

Our Guiding Principles

  • KBHAC acknowledges and respects that each KBH Survivor has his own experience of Kinchela Boys Home.
  • We, the members of KBHAC will listen and respect our elders, our partners, our sisters, our brothers, our staff, and respect our country and each other.
  • We, the KBH Survivors and our families, know our problems, our pain, our isolation and the issues we struggle with.
  • We, the KBH Survivors will work hard to connect with our families, our communities, our culture and our neighbours.
  • We, the KBH Survivors and our families, will honour ourselves, and each other, in support of our individual and collective journeys of healing.
  • We, the KBH Survivors know and accept what is in our own heart, soul and mind. We know who we are and where we come from. We are Strong, Proud and Black.
  • We, the Survivors of KBH will help educate the Australian community about understanding the grievances of Stolen Generations Issues and other deep local and national concerns impacting on Australia’s First Peoples.
  • We, the KBH Survivors will continue to support the human dignity of all Stolen Generations.
  • We, the survivors of KBH acknowledge the National apology to Stolen Generations. Therefore, we will continue to pursue unfinished business and all issues of justice, genocide and reparations for all members of the Stolen Generations and our families.
  • We, the survivors of KBH, will honour and remember all our brothers who went before us.

Taking Control of Our Future