Big Yarns

In 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services funded the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), Youthworx and the Parenting Research Centre (PRC) to adapt smalltalk to increase the acceptability and usability for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. This resulted in the development of, ‘smalltalk Big Yarns’.

VACCA and the PRC worked together to develop a practice model where the VACCA staff could share smalltalk Big Yarns with Aboriginal families during home visiting programs.

A set of Big Yarn resources including video clips and Conversation Cards were developed. These materials demonstrate and model ways that Aboriginal families can support their Boorai to learn and group up strong and deadly.

The Big Yarn resources are now used throughout the Supported Playgroup program. The Big Yarn video clips can be seen here

Translated materials

The smalltalk materials have been translated 8 languages, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services and Brimbank City Council. The languages are:

  • Arabic
  • Chinese (Simplified Mandarin)
  • Dari
  • Karen
  • Persian/Farsi
  • Vietnamese
  • Burmese
  • Hakha Chin

For further information, please email: smalltalk@parentingrc.org.au