Professor Martin Nakata is a Torres Strait Islander man, and there are two main texts written by him that I draw from in a lot of my academic work. The Cultural Interface and Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the disciplines.
Nakata recognises the complexity of the space that Indigenous people exist in, a space which Nakata calls the cultural interface. It is a space where Western and Indigenous knowledge systems meet, and he questions how Indigenous researchers can negotiate this contested space. In doing so, Nakata reminds us that in deconstructing these knowledges, we must draw from our own experiences. Working in this contested space of bringing together two worlds of knowledge we take a personal and political journey. By bringing one’s own experience we can feel vulnerable to critique, and in bringing Indigenous knowledge to our work it becomes political as we are critiquing the dominant Western way of knowing things. However, to work successfully with Indigenous communities I feel it is necessary to begin all projects, research and conversations at the intersection of academia and the Indigenous experience.
Nakata’s questioning of this space, and introduction of another way of knowing things enables future researchers and academics to present work through an alternative theoretical standpoint; a standpoint that takes into account the Indigenous experience. From his work, we can build on and personalise the way we research and have it be valid in a Western academic lens.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the oldest living continuous culture in the world, with scientific research confirming they have been living on the Australian continent for more than 50,000 years. Australia’s First Nations people are an incredibly diverse people; descending from more than 500 different nations whom each had distinct cultures, beliefs and languages.
In some research into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people’s mental health and wellbeing, they have been described as ‘caught between two worlds’ which I find an interesting statement to use as it is very similar to a term used in The Uluru Statement from the Heart, a document which highlighted the needs of the Indigenous community to thrive in this country. They describe a situation where if we give our young Indigenous people the right support; it will allow them to walk in two worlds and connect more deeply with community, country and their culture so that ‘Our children will flourish’ and their culture will be a gift to their country.
Indigenous Australians face challenges every day, particularly due to colonialism. I use the term colonialism rather than colonisation as it begins to move forward from just recognising the impact of colonisation as an event that happened in the past to being something that continues to impact upon Indigenous people in everyday life. Australian scholar, anthropologist and ethnographer Patrick Wolfe explains the reason behind recognising colonisation as a more than just an event quite well
“When invasion is recognised as a structure rather than an event, its history does not stop – or, more to the point, become relatively trivial.”
This is important to recognise that colonialism still impacts Indigenous people and does not trivialise their experience of the harm that colonisation can and does have on them. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been on this continent for over 50,000 years and as a people are healing and reacting to a traumatic and incredibly recent history.
There are a great number of inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and it is through the institutions formed by colonisation that these inequalities are able to contribute to the negative impact on Indigenous people.
Research specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people tends to be limited. Perhaps due to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being a predominantly youthful population, with a much larger proportion of young people and smaller proportions of older people.
There is a Western deficit model of presenting information which looks more towards what is wrong, or what can be done to fix something rather than looking at what is going well, or what is successful. The deficit based approach is a trend that is often followed in regards to media and research about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. So it follows that the existing research on the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people is deficit based. This deficit based approach contributes to continuing the negative impact of colonialism.
Outline
One of the issues identified in studies done around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people is that statistically they have poorer mental health when compared to non-Indigenous Australians. There are many reasons why mental health issues may be more prominent in Indigenous people; revolving predominantly around the many challenges that Indigenous youth face.
Majority of research presents a deficit perspective on Indigenous Australians, and while I acknowledge that in reality there are inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the rest of the Australia, I think it is important to recognise the harm that can be caused by continually presenting First Nations people as less than the rest of Australian society. There are a number of challenges that Indigenous young people are exposed to such as racism and discrimination, young families, ill health and economic disadvantage, intergenerational trauma/historical trauma, traumatic events, loss of cultural continuity, loss of cultural identity, removal of family origin, family conflict, violence, social exclusion, juvenile crime and imprisonment, frequent bereavement, pressure from relatives and a lack of culturally appropriate services. These challenges are what contribute to the inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and are what make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people more vulnerable to poor mental health and wellbeing.
Another element that contributes to the statistically poorer mental health is that Indigenous young people aren’t seeking help. There are systematic and structural barriers that prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from accessing mental health services, along with the fact that mental health services don’t always provide adequate, culturally appropriate support when Indigenous young people do seek help. Services that don’t provide culturally appropriate support can deter Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people from seeking help again in the future.
Methodology
I start this project from a place of understanding; that my people are more at risk, that my people’s needs must be met but also that we must address these things in an appropriate way. I also start from a place of understanding that these things aren’t always done and that the research element of the process isn’t always done appropriately. This is something that could be done better. I acknowledge that research done about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people’s mental health comes predominantly from a place of Western knowledge and is produced from within Western institutions. So while I would prefer to draw from researchers using Indigenous methodologies; this isn’t always possible. Perhaps this is something that can and will change over time, in order to create a more culturally appropriate/understanding base of knowledge and research for people and organisations to draw from.
The way in which I go about this research is very important, the way in which anyone goes about researching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be discussed before beginning.
I was first introduced to the idea of needing to go about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research in a particular way by Melitta Hogarth in her article “Speaking back to the deficit discourses: a theoretical and methodological approach”. Hogarth speaks in relation to the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational attainment is presented, but it is an idea that I believe rings true across the vast majority of research on First Nations people.
In her article, Hogarth argues for the need to “personalise methodological approaches to present the standpoint of the researcher and, in turn deepens their advocacy for addressing the phenomenon” that when we research Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we should build on Indigenous frameworks; and build on using Indigenous research methods within the Western Institution.
“The researcher you are is the person you are. By reflecting on what guides your actions it is possible to determine what methodology will likely guide your research activity” (Gale 1998, p.3; as cited in Henry et al. 2004, p.2).
With it being said that who I am influences my actions which in turn will guide my research, I believe that it is important for those reading this report to know that I am Aboriginal woman, I do have uncontrollable biases like everyone else, but that doesn’t discredit what I have to say. I speak from an experience of being a young Indigenous woman who has lived in both regional and metropolitan areas, and I hope I can provide some insight into what is important to engaging, researching and working with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
There are several scholars that I draw from in relation to the way I wanted to go about the research and I believe they could be of benefit to anyone who is working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research, I discuss each of those writers in the sections below.