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Over the last fifteen years, Ian Chater has been working in the remote deserts of the Kimberley region of North Western Australia as an Indigenous Liaison; this is the actual title of his occupation. The nature of his role has him treading the liminal and transcendent realms as an intermediary and communicative link between the white and black worlds; a unique and rare role that has allowed him to spend deep time immersed with the numerous language groups of the region.
This presentation will look at the day to day experiences in his role as a liaison between black and white Australia and explain the nature of the tasks at hand, with an objective and empathetic gaze at the Indigenous people he works with – a populace beset with all the travails of a people losing their elders, myths and culture – and how a reckoning with a personal shadow can also echo a national one. A special focus of this talk is “whiffs and hints” as he looks back, with the generous gift of hindsight, to totems on the pole of his personal individuation, showing how this journey was actually set in motion a long time ago. A number of important dreams will be discussed as well as some powerful synchronicities that not only link his personal contact with Indigenous Australians directly to the call of Jungian analysis, but to the very Centre for Depth Psychology itself.
Ian Chater completed a post graduate degree in psychotherapy in 2021 and achieved diploma candidate status in March 2024 at the Research and Training Centre for Depth Psychology According to CG Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz in Zurich. He is a registered psychotherapist in Australia and, when not in the desert as an Indigenous Liaison, has worked in clinical settings from aged and palliative care facilities to addiction and trauma hospitals in Melbourne.
He spent most of his twenties traveling and working overseas with many varied occupations, from assisting in the forest service of British Columbia, to film sets in India and France, and playing music on the west coast of Ireland. He returned to Australia and completed a post graduate degree in education to teach English and literature at the secondary school level, and it was at this point that he began to work closely with some Aboriginal children in one of Perth’s disadvantaged suburbs. It was this teaching role with city Aborigines, that ultimately led to his role as an Indigenous Liaison in remote parts of Australia.
Where and whenever possible, he always aims to introduce the work and insight of Jung and von Franz into his current practice.
Learning objectives:
- Define the concept of “shadow” in Jungian psychology and give an example of how a reckoning with a personal shadow can echo a national/collective one.
- Define the concept of “individuation” in Jungian psychology and explain how dreams and synchronicities can contribute to individuation.
- Explain why a civilization requires a living myth to thrive, using the Australian Aboriginals as an example.
- Explain how a culture might influence and determine the psychological types found within it, using the Australian Aboriginals as an example.