The Healing Forest

A Pillar of Humanity: Healing

The Healing Forest is a living tribute to the generosity of Forest of Goodwill Fellows, Nicola and Percy Ellis. Planted with traditional medicine and food trees used by the Jinibara people, this grove will grow into a quiet sanctuary — a place of reflection, restoration, and connection for all who journey to Woodfordia.

During The Planting in May 2025, the community came together to help establish this forest, guided by a shared intention to honour healing in all its forms. Jinibara Elder Uncle Noel Blair planted the very first tree in the Healing Forest, marking the moment with deep cultural and spiritual significance.

As the weekend drew to a close, a ceremony was held beneath the Prayer Wheel on Ceremony Hill, beside the gently winding path known as Goodwill Way. There, Percy Ellis, speaking on behalf of himself and Nicola, delivered a moving and heartfelt address that touched all who were gathered. With his blessing, we are honoured to share his words here.

“When we learned about the Forest of Goodwill project, we knew immediately that this was something that we wanted to support in a tangible way that reflected what Woodfordia means to us and to the people we work with.

We have been committed to the vision of the 500 year plan since it was articulated and securing this land in a Foundation is a vital underpinning for that vision.

Hearing Steve Pronk talk about giving until it hurts and then giving something more gave shape to that and so before we left this sacred place in January after the Woodford Folk Festival, we knew that our path was to be fellows of the Forest of Goodwill.

This is our 21st year of involvement with this community and this land. After our fifth Woodford Folk Festival, we started our work with survivors of childhood trauma. Coming to Woodfordia each year for the festival became an integral part of that work. What we took away from Woodfordia had shaped our path towards the work and given us the courage to take a step into the unknown to give life to the vision we had of a process to begin real effective healing and transformation to people whose lives had been impacted by childhood trauma and abuse.

Once we started the work, Woodfordia became the place that we came to a couple of times a year to fill our cup and to get the strength to continue what often felt like a relentless battle with powerful institutions who by and large had to be dragged kicking and screaming to accept accountability for the harm inflicted under their watch. This was a task of perseverance and creativity to forge new paths to justice.

In those first few years of our work, we came to the Dreaming Festivals. It was in the conversations and connections at those festivals that we appreciated more fully why Woodfordia is such a powerful place. To be invited to share in the stewardship and connection to country of the Jinibara people and to take the energy and love of this place into our work was such an incredible gift.

The institutions had power and money. We had the power of the heart, of justice and of a people who knew where they stood and who stood in the LORE (to plagiarise Paul Kelly and Uncle Kev Carmody in connection with the Gurinji mob, whose song became something of an anthem for us).

We also felt a close connection with the trauma of displacement, dispossession, loss of culture and abuse of the Jinibara and indigenous peoples all over this continent which had such close parallels to our work and indeed overlapped with it to a significant degree as we have learned through our many indigenous clients.

So when it came to envisioning a grove of forest to form a focal part of the Forest of Goodwill, we immediately gravitated towards a healing forest that reflected the timeless knowledge of the Jinibara mob - a grove of Jinibara medicine and food trees.

We were so honoured to have Uncle Noel plant the first tree in the healing forest. That was one of the most important and beautiful moments of all the time we have been privileged to spend at Woodfordia.

Healing is sometimes seen as ‘fixing’ something that is broken. To us, healing is growing - growing into what we are created to be, into the best possible form of that. To heal from a trauma doesn’t need fixing. It needs loving, nurturing and connectedness.

Healing happens at a cell by cell level and love is the energy that fuels that – love is the life force of becoming and is fuelled by the energy of country, of the land and waters, the trees and animals. Finally, healing happens through connection - as with each cell working together at a cellular level, we grow through each of us working together with the land as one. We understand that in Jinibara culture people are part of the living environment as a living entity and there is no distinction between food and medicine.

That connectedness is what Woodfordia has been to us and we hope that this Healing Forest will be a symbol of the power of the land and of connection to the people who visit it whatever the nature of the trauma or loss.”

— Percy & Nicola, 4 May 2025

Nicola and Percy Ellis, Closing Ceremony, The Planting 2025

Uncle Noel Blair, Jinibara Elder, planting the first tree in the Healing Forest, The Planting 2025

The Healing Forest planters, The Planting May 2025

Closing Ceremony at The Planting to honour the Healing Forest, The Planting 2025