#indigenousx

https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2017/01/26/do-you-know-what-aboriginal-land-youre-today-1

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/scott-morrison-announces-67-million-project-to-mark-captain-cooks-circumnavigation-of-australia/news-story/caf1be341812c23c0c32673dde0e4ef0 

Prioritizing our at-risk community members.

For my followers on Instagram, you may have noticed that recently I made a post regarding our accountability to support those who may be affected by mental health issues. The nature of this post was in reference to those who may be visibly affected by a clinical condition, or a negative response to drugs or alcohol. 

The purpose of this post was to highlight how those at their most vulnerable are for the most part overlooked. This is something I don’t think Australia as a society can continue to not address.

In saying that, however. There is another group of people within our own communities, who are again, for the most part, overlooked.

Last week I met Taz Clay, a proud Kalkadoon brother boy and staunch member and advocate of our LGBTI community. I've been in Taz’s presence a few times, but recently had the pleasure of meeting officially, working together and then talking more in-depth about the current systems that are, or are not supporting our people.

With a unique pairing of academic basis that naturally intertwines with a unique brand charismatic passion that our people are renowned for I was really in awe. The way in which Taz sheds light on the issues that specifically affect our LGBTI community was not so much a shock to me, as it was a prompt that we all need to put in a lot more effort into thinking about these issues, as simple as ensuring that they always have a seat at the table, with the opportunity of making a valued contribution is nothing short of a necessity. 

Why this is of such particular importance from my perspective is simple. Our LGBTI community is not as it is portrayed by the Australian media as another faction of the ‘leftist’ agenda. No, these are our brothers and sisters, our cousins, nieces nephews, uncles and aunties. And what’s more? They’re hurting. And we need to be responsible to support them as equals in our everyday individual lives rather than treating them a separate issue for someone else. It's a shit attitude. 

When I woke up last week and boarded a flight. At no point did I think:

“I’m going to write another blog post today.”

It was more the thoughts that Taz prompted through our discussion that made me think what we need to consider, in particular, those with skin in the game in terms of mental health, suicide prevention or hold any type of influence over community action.

Is this... 

“For every statistic that validates how marginalised Aboriginal people are in this country. Suicide, incarceration, isolation/displacement, overall health and wellbeing. What does this look like with specific respects to our LGBTI community?”

There’s barely any stats available in a specified sense, but common sense dictates that if you’re an Indigenous person marginalised by this society, think about to what extent our LGBTI brothers, Sisters and non-Binary mob must experience? Going right back to my point that our most vulnerable must be prioritized. This comes right back to something that incidentally I outlined in my previous post, and the same words came from Taz recently which were. 

“When we prioritize those most at risk, we build communities from the ground up.”