Marumali Program®
Healing Through Community, Culture and Connection
The Marumali Program® delivers culturally informed programs that support healing, understanding, connection and personal growth for First Nations peoples, communities, families and organisations across Australia.
What is Culturally Informed Trauma Healing?
The Marumali Program® is built on seven stages of healing, offering a structured journey that integrates mind, body, and spirit. Healing is holistic, with culture, identity, and reconnection to family, community, and Country at its core. The model provides clear guidelines on the type of support needed at each stage, core issues to address, and the risks involved, including misdiagnosis. It also outlines the appropriate support required to minimise these risks and indicators of readiness for the next stage.
“It gives people direction in life; to reclaim their connections to everything the past generation had lost. Often the spiritual and cultural aspects of the program are what’s missing from people’s lives”, says Aunty Lorraine
The Marumali Program® Approach
The program draws on Aunty Lorraine’s ancestral knowledge and lived experience, alongside contemporary trauma theories, to create a meaningful healing framework. As a trauma-informed healing program, it incorporates three key elements:
Trauma Awareness
Understanding the prevalence of trauma.
Impact Recognition
Recognising its impact on individuals, families, communities, and systems.
Healing Response
Responding in a way that avoids re-traumatisation and builds capacity for healing.
Proven Programs
The Marumali Program® delivers culturally informed programs that support healing, understanding, connection and personal growth for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, communities, families and organisations across Australia.
Grounded in lived experience and developed through the work and vision of Aunty Lorraine Peeters, the Marumali Program creates safe spaces for individuals and communities to better understand the impacts of intergenerational trauma, grief, loss and disconnection, while supporting pathways toward healing, identity, resilience and cultural strength.
Marumali Program® also works with organisations, services and communities to build greater understanding of trauma informed practice, cultural safety and the impacts of historical and intergenerational experiences on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Programs support participants to develop deeper awareness, empathy and culturally informed approaches within health, education, justice, community and workplace settings.
The program continues to evolve to support broader access to culturally informed education and healing pathways across Australia.
A recent evaluation highlighted the program's impact:
Builds understanding of colonisation, transgenerational trauma, and grief.
Strengthens individual, family, and community capacity.
Encourages proactive rather than reactive approaches to healing.
Addresses the specific needs of local communities.
Participants consistently report that the program has made a profound difference in their lives. By increasing awareness, understanding, and knowledge of the trauma of forced removal, the program plays a crucial role in strengthening the healing process and fostering long-term recovery.
Supporting Young People and Future Generations
Marumali Program® is committed to supporting young people through culturally responsive programs designed to strengthen identity, connection, self understanding and emotional wellbeing.
Programs for young people may be delivered in:
• schools and education settings
• community organisations
• youth programs
• residential and supported environments
• justice and youth justice settings
The program recognises the importance of creating culturally safe spaces where young people can feel heard, understood and connected, particularly where experiences of trauma, displacement, family separation or systemic disadvantage may exist.
Through storytelling, cultural understanding, lived experience and guided learning, Marumali aims to support stronger outcomes for young people, families and communities while contributing to longer term healing and resilience.
Our new Young People programs are available now, contact us to find out more.
Join the Journey of Healing
Discover the transformative power of the Marumali Program® and become part of a program that fosters healing and resilience. Embrace the opportunity to learn, grow, and contribute to a culturally safe environment for all.
