Indigenous Health and Wellbeing: Culture, Context and Colonisation

Practice within LGBTI Organisations

KEY MESSAGES:

• Cultural appropriateness is not hard. It is a matter of having program participants determine their needs. The term 'two spirit' can be a useful one for Indigenous programs
• Increased reliance on technology presents some dangers for Indigenous folk, where face to face communication is very important
• Retreats are an important space for grieving and healing and the opportunity to undertake this should be supported by LGBTIQ organisations. Recognising that it is difficult for Indigenous folk to fit into mainstream service formats such as appointment times and opening hours

Saturday 11:00-11:30 A HEALTH RETREAT FOR NSW ABORIGNIAL GAY MEN LIVING WITH HIV: LEARNINGS AND DISCUSSION

Meggan Grose & Michael Blakeney-Campbell, ACON Aboriginal Project

PRESENTERS’ BIO:

Michael Blakeney-Campbell (BC) started as an ACON volunteer on reception at the Positive Services and Health Promotions Unit (PLC) almost 3 years ago, before moving into Reception at ACON’s head office.  After approximately 6 months at Reception BC was offered a part time position with the Aboriginal Project coordinating the 2009 health retreat.  Meggan Grose is an Aboriginal women from Weilwan country, situated in north western New South Wales.  Ms Grose is Team Leader of the Aboriginal Project at ACON.  Previous to this role Ms Grose worked at Streetwize Communications and the Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council of NSW as a Project Manager of various state wide and national social marketing campaigns.

ABSTRACT:

ACON is a community-based non-government organisation promoting the health and wellbeing of a diverse gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community, and a leading agency in HIV/AIDS policy development and program delivery. ACON has been working with LGBT Aboriginal communities as well as Aboriginal people living with HIV since 1997.  With the objective of providing tailored and effective support and health promotion to Aboriginal people living with HIV in November 2009 ACONs Aboriginal Project held a health retreat for Aboriginal people living with HIV. The participants at this retreat were all Aboriginal gay men, although advertisement was directed at all Aboriginal people living with HIV.  This paper will examine approaches to organising service delivery in the context of Aboriginal culture and community. It will include an outline and discussion of how the retreat was planned, who was invited as guest speakers and other important issues relevant to other workers and community members interested in this kind of service.  We will outline our 5 key learnings from the retreat as well as discussing the significance of these issues. The first key learning is the importance of creating specific spaces for Aboriginal gay men to come together. Further to this, the second key learning is the importance of setting the tone of the retreat. That is, thinking about what it means to be culturally appropriate. How to incorporate this into planning is the third key learning. Issues pertaining to recruiting the Retreat Coordinator and working in a small team, with limited resources are the fourth key learning. Finally, how GLBT organisations can work better with Aboriginal sexual health workers and area health services to support Aboriginal gay men was our fifth key learning area.

Saturday 11:30-12:00 REFLECTION ON CONTEMPORARY AND EVOLVED COMMUNICATIONS WITH ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER GAY MEN AND SISTERGIRLS IN FNQ AND BEYOND

Earl Rosas, Queensland Association for Healthy Communities

PRESENTER’S BIO:

Earl is from the Yidinji Nation Atherton Tablelands Far North Queensland Australia.  He graduated from the Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern Sydney in 1995 with a three year Certificate in Theatre and Dance. He then became very interested in the power of education, and how to use dance as an education tool.  Earl has 15 years working experience in Contemporary and Traditional Indigenous Performing and Visual Arts, representing and advocating for Individuals living in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is now employed by the the 2 Spirits program at QLD Association for healthy communities.

ABSTRACT:

With Australia's demands on the individual today e.g work vs leisure - yes even in Indigenous communities - communicating and engaging with Gay Men and Sistergirls does present challenges for the delivery of appropriate health promotion that implements harm reduction information.   This  presentation reflects on conventional methods and opportunistic ways of communicating with a disadvantaged target population.  Modes of communication between Indigenous individuals in areas such as Far North Queensland (FNQ), Cape York, Northern Peninsula Area and Torres Straits are not necessarily reliant on people possessing the latest technological equipment.  What is curious is the tailored use of these newer modes of communication, eg mobile phones with next g vs Apple Iphone and email accounts vs. profile pages. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Gay Men and Sistergirls will not have email addresses for correspondence, but will have a profile page to access a web site via a chatroom, (to meet others online, and communicate with them).  In the advent of the technological age, and the imminent onslaught of new technology, communication between human beings is changing, even quicker than what most of us would like to think.  But is technology achieving just a more impersonal means of contact, when more personable forms of communication including body language, speech, eye contact are still, if not more so, important within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies.  This is still very true in respects to the Black Vine -a form of Indigenous community communication, controlled by the wider Indigenous community for the Indigenous community.  FNQ Indigenous communities still operate on personable qualities and respect, and expect that you are the face of your organisation.

Saturday 12:00-12:30 NTAHC 2010 SISTERGIRL RETREAT – MT BUNDY

Daniel Burton, Northern Territory AIDS & Hepatitis Council

PRESENTER’S BIO:

Daniel has been working at Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC) since November 2009. He recently moved into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) Team full time as a Project Officer. The NTAHC ATSI Team has a strong focus on engaging with the community through events, education and support.

ABSTRACT:

The NTAHC ATSI Team invited Indigenous Sistergirls, gay men and lesbian women to our annual retreat which this year was held at Mt Bundy Station next to the Adelaide River about an hour and half from Darwin. The main priority of the retreat is to provide a safe space and appropriate services for people to enhance their social and emotional wellbeing.

This year we had seven Sistergirls attend the event from Alice Springs, Katherine, Darwin and Tiwi Islands. As all the ATSI Team is new, one of the aims of the retreat was to introduce ourselves and start to build trust. We also wanted to be very respectful and allow time for healing as there was a death before the retreat.We provided participants with activities such as horse riding, healing, art and music. We invited Shellie Morris to facilitate music and expression workshops and an outcome was that they created a new and original song.

Overall the event was a good opportunity for the ATSI Team and other services to build relationships with the Sistergirls. This presentation will look at the aims of the retreat, how it worked and what we have learnt from it.