Laura Booker

A Lunga Kija woman on my mother’s side (descending proudly from Betty Brown of Eagle Hawk) and Australian on my father’s side, I am a balance of two parallel worlds. I believe I was born with a strong spirit to walk in these two worlds for the purpose of acknowledging and healing trauma within my family lineage, whilst also facing and transforming the systems that created the trauma and disconnection. Guided by the spirit of my great grandmother and supported by the strength of the women in my family, my life experiences have given me the real and raw insight of mental health challenges in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures. I am currently completing my 4th year in a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) after witnessing the mental health system continuously failing my family, my community, and the next generation – including my 4 children.

According to Merriam-Webster (2020), the word Psychology originated in the seventeenth century from the Greek words psyche (soul, life, breath) and logia (communication- speech, written word) which can be translated to: the communication of the soul. This is important to highlight as the meaning of the word soul from its earliest Greek roots was the difference between a living thing being alive or dead (Lorenz, 2009). It appears that even the foundation of Western psychology was aware of the interconnectedness of all life on earth, as all living things included that which was human and that which was not. Over the centuries however, psychology has departed from this definition of the soul, to one of a systematic process of the mind (this could be where humanity’s disconnect from the natural world began).

Wayapa fills this soul gap where modern day psychology has neglected. Wayapa is the remembering of knowledge we all carry within us but have simply forgotten. It is a grounding of the mind so that we can reconnect to our truth. For me personally, Wayapa not only allows me connect to myself, the earth and the role I have in caring for it – but it also acknowledges both my Indigenous (mother) and non-Indigenous (father) background by bringing them together, as spirit people. Wayapa is the way forward for connecting holistically and it is an honor to serve and share this knowledge with you.