Ken Kira-Dhan Zulumovski
Ken Zulumovski, Kir’a-Dhàn, Hon DHSc is a Gubbi-Gubbi Australian First Nations descendant, who at age 17 went from Juvenile crime convictions and self-harming behaviour, to serving in the Australian Army Reserve, 10 years as an Artillery Crew Commander and Defence Career Advisor for the Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Program.
Parallel with part-time Army service Ken served 10 years in Aboriginal Community Controlled health, 5 years at Redfern (Aboriginal mental health clinician), and 5 years at Awabakal in Newcastle, (HIV Prevention) before founding Gamarada Universal Indigenous Resources Pty Ltd (G.U.I.R). G.U.I.R provides professional services to private, government and community sectors and works to support the; health, mental health, suicide prevention, education, justice, employment, alcohol and other drug services as well as, defence and justice sectors with specialisations in:
• First Nations led program co-design and delivery
• First Nations led research and evaluation
• Project tailored community engagement activities
• Defence member and veteran suicide prevention
• Community Healing and Trauma Recovery programs
• In-prison and out-of-prison First Nations Trauma Recovery and Training
• Torture and Trauma recovery initiatives (Indigenous Australians and CALD groups)
• Event Director for the high profile, annual Coloured Digger ANZAC Day March, and Commemorative Ceremony
The framework for G.U.I.R’s services is the proprietary Coaching Model COURAGE: (Culture, Optimism, Understanding, Relationships, Acceptance, Gratitude and Encouragement), it was developed in 2014 from an alliance between Indigenous and mainstream mental health and research practitioners. The model provides a Culturally Safe, Trauma and Cognitively Impaired, Informed framework which incorporates Western psychology with First Nations wisdom traditions and principles of Army leadership. This work was mentioned in the citation by the Chair of the Academic Board for the award of Honorary Doctorate in Health Sciences which was conferred upon Ken by the University of Sydney in 2019. Ken regularly presents at dozens of occasions each year sharing innovations across industries from a lived experience of homelessness, suicide, addiction and family violence.
G.U.I.R works to promote community cohesion with a focus on marginalised groups who may be at risk of radicalisation. This work was recognised by the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet with an Excellence Award for Building Leadership in Indigenous Communities.
Operating parallel with G.U.I.R, Ken founded Gamarada Indigenous Healing and Life Training Pty Ltd. The DGR and TE status charity, responds to the therapeutic and educational need for culturally safe community programs targeting family violence, addiction, suicide prevention and family dislocation. This work was independently validated by UNSW in 2014. The charity also functions to improve access to education, justice and health care.
Abstracts this author is presenting: