Indigenous Health and Wellbeing: Culture, Context and Colonisation

Gender Diversity

Saturday 14:00-14:30 ISSUES FACED BY SISTERGIRLS IN THE NT

Crystal Johnson & Bertram Tipungwuti, Northern Territory AIDS & Hepatitis Council Inc

PRESENTERS’ BIO:

Crystal Johnson and Bertram Tipungwuti are both from Nguiu on Bathurst Island, Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory. Crystal and Bertram live within their communities as sistergirls (transgendered Indigenous peoples). Crystal has done a lot of work with the Northern Territory AIDS & Hepatitis Council over the years and is a strong advocate within the sistergirl community. Bertram works particularly with the LGBTI youth within the Aboriginal community in the NT. Both Crystal and Bertram work hard at supporting Indigenous LGBTI peoples within their community and raising awareness of the issues faced by LGBTI in the broader communities throughout the Northern Territory. Both Crystal and Bertram work with people living with HIV/AIDS, people with alcohol and other drugs issues and the broader Aboriginal community.

ABSTRACT:

The Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC) work alongside the sistergirls in the Northern Territory (NT) to provide programs to address health and wellbeing. Together with Danila Dilba and Indigenous Men's Counselling Service, we have run an annual retreat for sistergirls which focus on sexual health, social and emotional well-being with the aim of empowering sistergirls within their communities. NTAHC also provide one on one support, health promotion, education, and advocacy.  Indigenous sistergirls in the NT often face many problems within their communities, particularly in relation to social and cultural inclusion. In terms of tradition, culture and current context Indigenous sistergirls living in remote communities are often isolated. They can experience isolation or access barriers to LGBTI social supports and networks which are more accessible in larger cities. Additionally, they can also experience exclusion from their own cultural and traditional networks within their community.  In remote communities, these social networks need to be merged to be inclusive of sistergirls today and supportive of them staying in community. The exclusion of sistergirls from men's and women's business has great impacts on well-being. Despite the good facilities in communities and the strong cultural ties, social stigma and the barriers to social networks can often drive sistergirls to leave their traditional communities and relocate to big cities. They often move to Melbourne and Sydney to live their chosen lifestyle and to be accepted living as transgendered people and to escape the violence and stigma in community. This often isolates them from family and they live very separate and hidden lives and can die alone, separated from culture and family. It is necessary to develop connections between remote communities and support networks throughout the Northern Territory and Australia to better support sistergirls to live in their traditional lands.

Saturday 14:30-15:00 'WE'VE GOT TO LIVE IN THIS PLACE TOO, YOU KNOW'

Shannon Jackson, Queensland Association for Healthy Communities

PRESENTER’S BIO:

I am a Gunggari/Bidgera women, whose lands include the Maranoa river and the Carnarvon Gorge. I was born and raised on country. 

ABSTRACT:

“We've got to live in this place too, you know”. Family members use this phrase that so many sistergirls have heard over the years when sistergirls begin to explore and exhibit sistergirl characteristics. This phrase is interpreted by sistergirls as warning or threat that they may bring shame to the family.  This presentation is exploring barriers and enablers of roles and responsibilities for Aboriginal and Torres Islander Sistergirls as women in their societies.  The presentation will focus on gender, spirituality, family and connection to country.  The role of males and females in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies is determined by different members of that society depending on aspects of their life such as elder, mother, father, initiated and how these aspects give them a right to determine cultural law/lore.  The 2 Spirits program is exploring these aspects to identify ways to advocate for the culturally valid and spiritual place in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies for transgender people by developing relationships with these key individuals to identify and negotiate ways forward.

Saturday 15:00-15:30 TRANSIENT SEXUALITIES AND GENDERS IN ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER SOCIETIES OF QUEENSLAND

Laimena Wilo Muwadda, Queensland Association for Healthy Communities

Contact: wmuwadda@qahc.org.au

PRESENTER’S BIO:

Wilo Muwadda is the senior project officer with the 2 Spirits program of the Queensland Association for Healthy Communties.  Wilo has a bachelor of applied science in Indigenous community development and management. He has worked in the 2 Spirits program for eight years. His interests are in HIV, gender and sexuality within Indigenous communities of Australasia and the Pacific.

ABSTRACT:

This presentation shares the experience of 2 Spirits Health Promotion Officers of the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities working with gay men and sistergirls in Queensland and the intertwining roles of sexuality and gender for some of these people in different environments.  In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities a person may live their life as a sistergirl and then change their behaviour and identity to that of a gay man when they are in a non-indigenous lgbti community. Gender and sexuality is intertwining and complex and the behaviours are determined by the sexuality and gender roles. These identities have not been explored and discussed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lgbti communities at a national level to determine a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lgbti position. What do these labels mean to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals who identify with the lgbti community and also identify with their Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander community? Who determines the rights of people with transient sexualities and genders, their labels and their roles in community and how do we provide appropriate health interventions.