Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQ+ young peoples, research project

This is a NSW research project that aims to understand and promote the social and emotional wellbeing of aboriginal and/or Torres strait lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning young people, and to work with services to develop appropriate supports.

There is very little locally specific guidance available for services on how best to support a young person who is both Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and identifies as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Asexual or other (LGBTQA+). This means that young people (14-25 years) who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and LGBTQA+ may not receive the same level of support, sexual health care and information as other members of the community.

Young people who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and LGBTQA+ may be at increased risk of poor social and emotional wellbeing, but there is little information available on how best to support you and keep you strong. This is an opportunity to inform researchers about your needs for support and information as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young person to:

• Build greater understanding of your social and emotional wellbeing, and
• Inform local health, counselling and appropriate services to develop programs that support Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young people say will help them.

Find out more on this link:

Dalarinji, Your Story: Understanding and Promoting the Social and Emotional Well-being and Mental Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQ Young People.

• Better understand protective factors to build social and emotional wellbeing among Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young people
• Learn how health and support services can support Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young peoples’ social and emotional wellbeing
• Understand similarities and differences in local community responses to the needs of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young people
• Co-design place-specific supports to meet the social and emotional wellbeing needs of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ young people.

Karen Soldatic
Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences & Institute Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Karen’s research focuses on social inequalities and social injustice. Karen’s research focuses on critical intersectionalities and how to inform social systems of support to make changes for diversity and inclusion.. Her research on global social policy, inequality and poverty builds on her 20 years of experience as an international (Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia), national and state-based senior policy analyst, researcher and practitioner. Karen has worked in partnership with disability and First Nations organisations over the last 10 years on issues of service access and inclusive non-discriminatory service provision.

Kim Spurway
Kim works as a research associate at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University and the Australian National University. Her experience includes managing nationwide surveys, focus group discussions and individual interviews to conducting evidence syntheses. She worked for 13 years as a research project manager in Africa, Asia and the Middle East before returning to Sydney to work on her PhD. Her areas of research include critical approaches to natural disasters and humanitarian crises. She has written on diverse topics including Australian Aboriginal peoples with disability and food insecurity; disability and disaster risk reduction; Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Ecological Knowledge and disaster risk management and the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQA+ peoples. Kim grew up on Gumbayngirr country on the north coast of NSW but now splits her time between Awabakal country and Gadigal country. Kim has Anglo-Celtic-Scandinavian ancestry and currently identifies as a Queer cis-woman.

Linda Briskman
Linda Briskman holds the Margaret Whitlam Chair of Social Work at Western Sydney University and is a human rights activist and researcher. She has almost forty years of experience working collaboratively with Indigenous communities, particularly in the areas of children’s rights and Stolen Generations. Other areas of advocacy and research include asylum seeker rights and challenging racism and Islamophobia. She publishes widely and a recent book includes Social Work with Indigenous Communities: A human rights approach (2014 The Federation Press). She wrote the story of Stolen Generations activism by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, published as The Black Grapevine. Linda is currently one of the investigators on the NHMRC project ‘My Story Your Story’ led by Karen Soldatic.

Corrinne Sullivan

Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Indigenous Education), School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University.
Corrinne is an Aboriginal scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in Central-West New South Wales, she is a queer ciswoman. Her research interests are multi-disciplinary and focus broadly on experiences and effects of body and identity in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Her current work explores Indigenous sexuality and gender diversity through the perspectives of youth, older people, sex workers, and in digital spaces. The key objectives of Corrinne’s research initiatives are to fill gaps in these areas of knowledge by; working with Indigenous people who are sexually and/or gender diverse, and with Indigenous community organisations to develop appropriate resources that can contribute toward building inclusive communities. The outcomes of her research inform law-making, policy, as well as access and delivery of support and services that are culturally appropriate.