Speaker 1: With National Reconciliation Week winding up for another year, I
Speaker 1: wanted to highlight a timely and powerful new short film,
Speaker 1: Change Direction, which delivers a stark truth Aboriginal suicide rates,
Speaker 1: particularly among young people, continue to rise. And on the
Speaker 1: line to tell us about that the film and the
Speaker 1: campaign that's built around it is one of Australia's leading
Speaker 1: Aboriginal psychologists, Dr Tracy Westerman. Hi, Tracy, Oh, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having you on the show. Ah, it's
Speaker 1: a pleasure, it really is. Now the campaign goes beyond awareness,
Speaker 1: isn't it. It's a call to action to support the
Speaker 1: Western Westerman Jillia Institute. Tell us about the institute and
Speaker 1: your role in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so I volunteer in Julia, and I actually
Speaker 2: started the Junior Institute, I guess out of frustration with
Speaker 2: the lack of government action on Indigenous child suicides. And
Speaker 2: for the listeners that don't understand the context here is
Speaker 2: that in Western Australia, my own home state, we've had
Speaker 2: four government iries into Indigenous suicides, mostly around the Kimbley,
Speaker 2: and when I started the scholarship it was really looking
Speaker 2: at those four inquiries. The last one was thirteen beautiful
Speaker 2: young Indigenous young people took their own lives from the
Speaker 2: Kimberley and when I read the reports, they all concluded
Speaker 2: pretty much the same thing, and that was that children
Speaker 2: were literally dying due to a lack of access to
Speaker 2: culturally confidence services and I guess on the complex treatment side.
Speaker 2: So I just went it looked like and fix this.
Speaker 2: I'm a psychologist, I'm an Indigenous one and from a
Speaker 2: remote community. So I self funded the Doctor Tracy Westerman
Speaker 2: Indigenous Psychology Scholarship Program, not really thinking, to be honest
Speaker 2: with all that it was going to grow to the
Speaker 2: excess as I thought, I'd probably fund one scholarship and
Speaker 2: that would be it, But Australia sort of had other
Speaker 2: ideas and now was actually funding sixty four, most of
Speaker 2: whom I've now graduated. So the Change Direction film, the
Speaker 2: great part of it is that it literally gives people
Speaker 2: something to do. Often you see campaigns and people go, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's good, what do we now do? So institue is sorry,
Speaker 2: you'll figure so.
Speaker 1: What does your director change Direction campaign do than?
Speaker 2: Basically, what it does is it takes people into a reality.
Speaker 2: And I think for a lot of people sadly they
Speaker 2: don't really understand relate to the experiences of indigenous people
Speaker 2: in the country. So the film just very beautifully takes
Speaker 2: people on our journey and so essentially what we're doing
Speaker 2: is really inviting Australia into what starts off as a
Speaker 2: painful journey. But I guess most people who have seen
Speaker 2: the film you don't really predict the change, and so
Speaker 2: what's really lovely about it as you take people into
Speaker 2: that pain but also get them to understand when you
Speaker 2: actually do have that help, that you can actually get
Speaker 2: out of it as well.
Speaker 1: So in a way, the film follows the whole process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And to be honest, when I first watched it,
Speaker 2: I didn't predict what was coming because it's so clever
Speaker 2: and it's just so brilliantly done. It's literally a poem
Speaker 2: that goes into dark spaces and then literally you start
Speaker 2: reading it backwards and the actor is the main us
Speaker 2: for Drea Jackson. It just goes backwards and then things
Speaker 2: start to lighten. But what it's actually about, obviously, is
Speaker 2: about the answers being in culturally competent services and that's
Speaker 2: what we've always known there.
Speaker 1: You wrote the poem featured in the film.
Speaker 2: So tell us about No, I didn't write I, which
Speaker 2: I'd love to take credit for a beautifulde of fearer
Speaker 2: who's done it.
Speaker 1: Tell us a bit about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So essentially what it does is it goes into
Speaker 2: the beautiful actor for Edrea Jackson, who essentially goes into
Speaker 2: some dark places and says, look, my country tells me
Speaker 2: that I'm invisible, and it's very negative and it actually
Speaker 2: explains I guess what it's like to feel that way,
Speaker 2: to feel as if there's no hope. And then suddenly
Speaker 2: halfway through it switches and it literally goes backwards into
Speaker 2: hope and light and that there are people that care
Speaker 2: and I can actually change this in me. And so
Speaker 2: it really is a I guess a visceral experience bill
Speaker 2: that you go into this, you know, feeling of what
Speaker 2: it would feel like, and then literally it changes to
Speaker 2: go backwards and you feel like there is actually hope
Speaker 2: at the end of it, which is just very brilliant.
Speaker 1: Actually, So where was the film shot.
Speaker 2: I think it was in Adelaide. That was done by
Speaker 2: the wonderful Warwick the Wornton, who of course has become
Speaker 2: incredibly famous and of course you know, from a remote
Speaker 2: community himself, so he had a passion to do something
Speaker 2: about Indigenous suicides. And then Jackson Long, who was a
Speaker 2: creative person behind it, literally spent twenty months banging down doors.
Speaker 2: So he's just been incredible in terms of his will
Speaker 2: to do something about it. And then I sort of
Speaker 2: came along when they heard of my work because they
Speaker 2: were looking at someone like an organization to donate whatever
Speaker 2: money they raised from it, and it became, you know,
Speaker 2: very old. It became very obvious that there was a
Speaker 2: really good synergy there in terms of getting people something
Speaker 2: very clear that they could do.
Speaker 1: Now, what statistics can you provide us about the unacceptable
Speaker 1: rates of Indigenous suicide?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of heartbreaking, And I guess the thing
Speaker 2: that you know is the statistic that probably separates arguably
Speaker 2: Australia from all other developed countries is the age at
Speaker 2: which our young people are taking in their lives. So
Speaker 2: it's really for Indigenous children, we have a six times
Speaker 2: the likelihood of dying by suicide and non Indigenous children.
Speaker 2: And a statistic that's probably the most sobering and heartbreaking
Speaker 2: is that every time an Indigenous child dies in this
Speaker 2: country forty percent of them will do so by suicide.
Speaker 2: And I've said this many times. Children's suicide just does
Speaker 2: not belong in a center. A yeah, kind of. I
Speaker 2: guess when you're getting into those teenage years, you're sort
Speaker 2: of getting I mean, obviously heartbreaking. We we've had suicides
Speaker 2: of children as young as ten, but when you're getting
Speaker 2: into those teenage years around thirteen to fifteen, then the
Speaker 2: statistics get even worse. So we are looking at that
Speaker 2: particularly particular vulnerability around the teenage years.
Speaker 1: Traca, What do you want Australians to do when they
Speaker 1: see the film or visit the website? What outcomes are
Speaker 1: you looking for?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a really easy one. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: probably the easiest from the campaign in that we are
Speaker 2: already taking care of this. We're put a hand up.
Speaker 2: We don't have any federal government funding. I volunteer every
Speaker 2: single day. I'll never take awage from Juilliet's. They've registered charity.
Speaker 2: We've had our students graduate at eighty percent compared to
Speaker 2: twenty percent for heavily funded universities. And they're coming from
Speaker 2: our springs, the Kimberly, They're coming from the highest risk community.
Speaker 2: Seventy percent of them first in their families to go
Speaker 2: to university. So we're literally making people who would never
Speaker 2: have had hope in their lives become psychologists. So it's
Speaker 2: an incredible program. And so literally all you have to
Speaker 2: do is donate every dollars tax deductible and we're putting
Speaker 2: our hands up for it. Seemed quite simply we are
Speaker 2: saying we've got this, We're happy to take on the
Speaker 2: most complex issues in Australia. You just literally have to
Speaker 2: get behind us and know that every single dollar goes
Speaker 2: to putting another indigenous psychologists in the remote community.
Speaker 1: So what can we do tra see as every day
Speaker 1: Australian it's not just as part of Reconciliation Week, but
Speaker 1: throughout the year, what can we do to make a
Speaker 1: difference on this issue?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess the answer to that is that just
Speaker 2: for all public attention tool, we find it really difficult
Speaker 2: and it's great to be on shows like this, we
Speaker 2: find it really difficult for anyone to pay attention to
Speaker 2: this crisis. And as someone who spent my life on this,
Speaker 2: you know, it is actually really difficult to get media
Speaker 2: to pay attention to this, and of course we rely
Speaker 2: on the media to explain to people while we have
Speaker 2: such heartbreaking rates of suicide, and to get that message
Speaker 2: out that these are Australia's children and we should all
Speaker 2: be affected by this equally, and to just pay attention
Speaker 2: and just just get involved.
Speaker 1: Really, but you've got to do a bit more than
Speaker 1: just raise a wenness, haven't you. Because White Ribbon Campaign
Speaker 1: and all of those try to do that as well.
Speaker 1: You've got to get people to do something as well,
Speaker 1: haven't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I guess that's where the Juilliar Institute comes in.
Speaker 2: That I've had, you know, lots so do lots of
Speaker 2: public presentation and so many people have come up to
Speaker 2: me and said just that that we've never known what
Speaker 2: to do, and this actually gives us something to do
Speaker 2: that we can donate money and we know that this
Speaker 2: is actually going to changing generational trauma, generational risk in
Speaker 2: our highest risk communities like our springs, you know, like Derby,
Speaker 2: like you know, Mount Eyes a Plate. We've got psychologists
Speaker 2: coming from those communities who ultimately will stay there and
Speaker 2: we're skills building from a ground up. So this is
Speaker 2: really going to achieve massive change, or it already is
Speaker 2: achieving massive change in the country.
Speaker 1: So it kind of aligns with and complements existing government
Speaker 1: mental health programs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. However, you know, Julia is kind of
Speaker 2: not beyond is outside of government. We have no government
Speaker 2: funding for what we do, and I think that's actually
Speaker 2: a good thing because we are truly grassed for its activism.
Speaker 2: We are truly about getting business as usual isn't solving
Speaker 2: this crisis. So what we need to do, we're quite
Speaker 2: on orthodox. We we for example, picked students, picked students
Speaker 2: who I'd regularly reject students to have distinctions, so I
Speaker 2: don't pick students who will get there anyway. I'll pick
Speaker 2: students based on how many more gaps they have to close.
Speaker 2: So we're getting the most disadvantaged. But what that means
Speaker 2: is that likeals never leave, right, Yes, so they Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if any of our listeners would like to know
Speaker 1: more or view the film Change Direction, what should they do?
Speaker 2: They just get onto www Dot change Direction literally and
Speaker 2: you can see that there. And you can also, you know,
Speaker 2: if we would be massively grateful if people would donate
Speaker 2: some of their dollars, and bearing in mind that no
Speaker 2: public donations one hundred percent of public donations go directly
Speaker 2: to our scholarship program. Nothing goes on paying you know,
Speaker 2: you know, admin or salaries. That's why I work for free,
Speaker 2: so to make sure that every cent goes directly into
Speaker 2: getting another Indigenous psychologist in a remote community.
Speaker 1: Now, before I let you go, how happy if you've
Speaker 1: been with the way National Reconcilient Sitiation Week has gone
Speaker 1: in general?
Speaker 2: Look interesting enough. I was interviewed a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: ago on ABC and I said, I think had without
Speaker 2: getting into the politics, will have to get into the
Speaker 2: politics of I guess the election for a lot of
Speaker 2: Aboriginal people has been almost like a moral victory, and
Speaker 2: because we're sort of heading down a path of you
Speaker 2: know a lot of negativity in terms of Indigenous issues,
Speaker 2: particularly after the referendum, and I think a lot of
Speaker 2: Australians probably you know, probably had really, to be honest,
Speaker 2: not a really good sense of what they're no vide
Speaker 2: actually meant. And so I think, you know, the rejection
Speaker 2: of what dare I say, the right wing rest wreck around,
Speaker 2: you know, people being really negative about Welcome to Country,
Speaker 2: and you know, the attacks on Indigenous organizations and so forth.
Speaker 2: Certainly the Indigenous people that I interact with all day,
Speaker 2: every day, and there's thousands of them than I do.
Speaker 2: There's been a sense of people can breathe now, and
Speaker 2: I think now O Pray would have given a differn answer
Speaker 2: four weeks ago. But I think you know the fact
Speaker 2: that Australia has repudiated, you know that real negative in
Speaker 2: negativity and right wing approach to Indigenous issues has certainly
Speaker 2: helped significantly.
Speaker 1: One of Australia's leading Aboriginal psychologists, doctor Tracy Westerman, thanks
Speaker 1: so much and God bless you Tracy. Godess