 Hi everyone and welcome to the Queer Robbery and I'm going to hand over to Damian Bonson now. Next slide please. Hello everybody, my name is Damian Bonson, I'm the founder of Black Rainbow. Welcome to Queer Robbery 3, the third in our series. The previous two are available on our website at blackrainbow.org.au. In addition to the MHPN's acknowledgement as a First Nations person from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the Catherine Region and also from the western islands in the Torres Strait, I'd like to also acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Elders past and present, those that are joining us today and those on the lands in which we all work and operate. Special mention to the, because this is a, I guess, a queer focused session is also to my queer brothers and sisters and non-binary folk out there as well to acknowledge them and their day to day efforts. Thank you. Thanks Damian, next slide please. So as you can see and as you've already had in the information you would have received ahead of time this webinar is a fantastic collaboration between Black Rainbow which is an organisation run by Damian Bonson and sorry for the confusion, there's two Damians, there's me Damian Riggs and Damian Bonson and the MHPN, so this is our third webinar and we've got another one coming up in September and this is research today that Damian's going to be talking about research and was led by MediDate, that he was part of, that's focused on suicide-related behaviour. Next slide please. So Damian's already introduced himself but I'm sure he'll say it a little bit more in a minute. I'm Damian Riggs, I'm a non-Indigenous professor in psychology at Flinders University, I'm also a psychotherapist. I'm here today on the unsedited lands of the Ghana people and I acknowledge their sovereignty as First Nations people. Damian would you like to introduce yourself please and tell us a bit about Medi as well. Yeah, hi everybody. I'm up here on Larrakea Country. My great-grandmother is actually from the Javan people which is just outside of Catherine. She was immortalised in the film We Have the Never Never as the little black princess and also I have family that come from the Torres Strait. Medi Day, they are the lead researcher on this. Macquarie University is one of our key partners. What Black Rainbow has engaged in over the years is kind of like some queer First Nations nation-building by creating partnerships with other First Nations queer folk in the areas of the work that needs to be undertaken. And Medi was also the lead for our COVID study which was the subject of our first crew-operate and they were the lead on this bit of work as well. Thanks Damian. So again you've already had this information up front but just to reiterate where Damian is going to be talking through the findings of a project that he was involved in and we're really going to sort of map out what that looks like and what the implications are for our practice. Next slide please. Thanks Damian for the introduction and the beginning of this. This report really was worn out of the anecdotal and lived experience of First Nations queer folk. There has been a portion of research and data into our lives across all the domains that affect all Australians and what we had known and picked up on as First Nations queer folk is that discrimination and violence that targets us as Aboriginal and LGBTI people have a significant impact on our employment opportunities, access to health care, the types of health care that we need, housing and even just participating in our own communities whether that is First Nations communities, LGBTI communities but also in the broader Australian community. And what we found as well, what we've experienced is that violence, that discrimination, that marginalisation has also excluded a lot of us from community which also means a separation from country and culture which is a significant risk for us as First Nations people around our social, cultural and emotional well-being. One of the two significant, I guess, take-homes on this or recommendations was that for us as a population that's the Aboriginal, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, non-binary, sister, girl and brother boy populations as a priority group around research and policy and programmes to address and to identify some of those challenges that we have in the face of this violence. And we're also as a population group that we're empowered and resourced to be able to provide the responses where they can be First Nations, LGBTI-led. Just a thing on the initialism, those letters that you will see, they're going to be interchangeable throughout the presentation. This language, all these initials, these letters, they're quite fluid and different organisations and entities use a different sequencing but they all mean the same thing. Next slide, please. Historically, when demographic data has been collected and statistics for First Nations people, they've been limited to a binary of either being male, female or as man or woman. What that has done is that has obstructed any of the data and research to really unpack and uncover what is the suicide-related behaviour that is related to those of us that don't identify under that binary structure of identification. And the gender diversity also then does not get picked up in any kind of coronary inquests, particularly around suicide and self-harming. Next slide, please. It's only just recently that policy regarding the health well-being for our community has kind of materialised. Slowly we've been working towards growing a critical mass of data and kind of footnotes in reports. I think one of the earliest ones outside of HIV was in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Source Subvention Evaluation Project. We have slowly been since 2016. So it's been a minute. We are seeing ourselves in other reports now but where we're at is that without the data, there cannot be any, what's the word here, activation of that note. So while the high risk has been noted in these reports, there's no data to support that. Therefore, there is nothing there to be able to create a policy around what interventions need to go to next. This is really important in terms of the risk factors that we do face in our lives around strengthening services to be able to better engage with us as a community or first and foremost identify that as a population group, we should be using your services because of the significant high risk across a number of social domains that affect our lives. I'm really interested, David, before we move on actually, it's eight years since you made that submission. Where are things going? Where do you think they should be going? I honestly believe that we do need a First Nations UTI health strategy in place. The Commonwealth has announced a 10-year plan and an investment in a 10-year plan for the LGBTI community. I understand that a new social emotional being framework for the First Nations community population is also about to get announced or start development. What happens is that currently or to date, we don't really get a look in at both. So there's either LGBTI work that gets done that doesn't include us in any substantive way and the average on Torres Strait Islander health work as well. I firmly believe that we need to have a starting point and that starting point is to be a First Nations LGBTI strategy to actually supplement and to complement those two larger strategies. Without that body of work, I fear that it will be the status quo will remain and we will continue to be overlooked as a population group of high need. Thanks very much. Over the next few slides will be some of the real key points that were brought out from the report, in particular as First Nations people, First Nations LGBTI people through the research to date, and this is only in the last three or four years, it's recognised that we have high rates of mental health problems, then non-LGBQTI, First Nations LGBTI people, so that's Indigenous people who aren't LGBQTI and then also non-Indigenous LGBQTI people as well. This all goes hand in hand with higher levels of discrimination, violence and abuse because we can experience it both as a racist abuse, excuse me, also as homophobic, biophobic, transphobic type of violence as well, excuse me. This then also has a flow and effect where housing security becomes an issue. We have noted coming out through the research that there are high risks for homelessness, but also for experiencing poverty and that's just not just around housing and security, that's around employment opportunities and having an income coming in as well. It's noted in several studies now that have come out in the last three years that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBQTI plus SB people are less likely to use mental health services. Largely that's because from the outside looking in, they don't say you are welcome here and I think that's a significant step for services to do is to create a space that from the outside looking in says you are welcome here, come through these doors. And what we think about to be come out in some data, we do have some preliminary stuff through this research and also through the COVID study that as a population group, and this is in line with the United States, American Indian and Alaska Native data, that we are more likely to attempt suicide as a population group than any population group in the country. So in the US, American Native, so American Indians and Alaska Native people as LGBQTI people are the highest risk group and the highest more likely to attempt suicide than any other American. And that's what we're mirroring here in Australia. Next slide please. Despite the trauma and the marginalization and discrimination that we experienced, this report also brings out how important the connection to the community and culture as a protective factor comes into play and this is where family is really important. We know the LGBQTI data anyway that comes out that family is an acceptance by family is one of the greatest protective factors for self-harming and suicide for LGBQTI people. That is also the same for First Nations LGBQTI people. One, that family is also a buffer, an acceptance of our diverse sex, sexuality and gender diversity. Acceptance of that also provides a barrier to racism through our families as well. So without that acceptance and without the family around us, not only just accept us as queer folk, but to protect us from that homophobia, that family also provides a barrier for us for protection against racism as well. So once that if the family unit isn't there for us, we are left kind of unshielded from both racism and homophobia. Next slide please. Because of the societal levels of racism and homophobia, we have to navigate those on a daily basis, not just in service access, but it's imperative when it comes to accessing services that these services, as I mentioned a couple of slides ago, from the outside looking in saying, you are welcome through these front doors. Our service is for you. I remember when I was in a teenager, a teenager gay guy, when I was about 18 or 19, I was living in Western Australia and I remember for the first time seeing a bookshop, this is going back to the late 80s, early 90s, seeing a bookstore with the rainbow flag on it and I'm a bit of a nerd and I thought, I knew by seeing that flag on the window, there are going to be books in that bookstore about me. It's something as simple as that. So that flag, that icon got me through that front door and that's something really simple that to increase and to provide a sense of trust in a service just to even get through that front door is something simple as a bit of iconography or just a message you need to say that First Nations queer folk, you are welcome here. And I think that, you know, Damien, this is a wonderful part about this report is that it does that work of highlighting the discrimination and marginalization, but also the resiliency I think too often, you know, and Tuck wrote that fantastic paper almost 15 years ago saying, you know, research on Indigenous communities is so often damaged centered when it's created by researchers who are not themselves Indigenous. But when we have research created by Indigenous people and in this case, Indigenous LGBTIQA plus people, you know, really it does that important work of looking at marginalization, but also say, hey, we're also a gentile, we're resilient, we have strength, we achieve things in the face of this discrimination. Okay, absolutely. And it's one of the things for Black Rainbow for us is that we don't want to present ourselves as a group that is constantly on the end of homophobia or racism, and that's our life, even though that's often the reality for us. But in presenting that outwardly, I always thought, what does that look like for us? How will people then perceive who we are if we constantly present ourselves as a marginalized, as a discriminated against group? Where are they going to be able to see our agency, to see how empowered we are and to see our resilience in the face of all this and so we don't use it. We very rarely do we have that across our social media or anything publicly facing because I don't want people to look at us and go, oh, look at the poor, struggling, gay, Aboriginal people. Because I don't think anything grows there of any substance. And yeah, so this agency is really important and that's kind of throughout all our reports that we're co-author and participating. It's something that we ask that this has to be part of it, not just a deficit focus of, like, here's some people that need fixing. No, we're also at a point where we've got solutions as well in terms of this work because this is First Nations Queer-led work as well. The reporting that's come out in the last few years and the research has all been led by First Nations Queer Folk because no one actually has dived into the data before. Thanks, Jamie. Next slide, please. Look, these kind of really go without saying for us, again, you know, these can happen at the same time or they can happen at different times. There was a research that was part of the queer robbery just before this one led by Professor Graydon Hill. And what they found was that as First Nations LGBTQI people, sometimes we actually don't feel comfortable or accepted in the First Nations community or the LGBTQI community. So we are creating our own sort of community within itself. However, belonging to those groups and being part of those groups also provides really strong social support networks for ourselves because there's not always that within the LGBQTI community spaces that there's going to be an understanding of who we are as First Nations people, but also in the First Nations community there's not always an understanding of who we are as LGBQTI people. So we are still on this, I guess, educational pathway around who we are and where we fit within that. I've just sort of popped up a question here that's come through. Is there a difference in the statistics around this work with First Nations LGBQTI people and also First Nations SB? Now, SB is Sister Girl and Brother Boy, which is essentially trans. People can also be non-binary. Therefore, Aboriginal trans people don't need to identify as either Sister Girl or Brother Boy. So if you're looking at the letters in front of you for the trans community, so that includes Sister Girl and Brother Boys and non-binary, what we are finding is that the risk is significantly higher, but that's also mirrored in non-Indigenous communities when you're non-Indigenous LGBQTI communities as well with trans populations. We have probably seen it in the high-rathial and as the highest risk. I think that it's safe to say that the trans community at First Nations people is one of probably the highest population group at risk for a whole, not just suicide and self-harm, but a whole raft of social issues as well that impact on their lives. Thanks, Amy. And can I remind people, any questions you have, just pop them in the Q&A rather than the chat and it's easier for us to monitor as we go along. Is that the next slide now, Damien? We just did protective factors. Yeah, so next slide, please. Oh, not me. Okay. Look, these recommendations are all throughout in the report themselves. So you'll be able to get these and download them as well afterwards as per the slides. But there are some real practical ways as service providers or as departments. Again, some of these, and I'm not sure who, what agencies or departments or organizations are on the webinar today, but throughout the report and in this recommendations, there are some opportunities for both policymakers within government departments, but also those working organizations. And those just want to do some practical work as well. I think more than a significant thing is engage with the training that's available. Stuff like peer robbery, we're quite fortunate to have such a great, fantastic relationship with the MHPN for this series. And we offer it for free so that more people can engage. And also that we found that attending conferences was actually becoming really restrictive for people. So coming off the back of a COVID world where everyone was equipped with doing virtual engagement, this was just really a natural step for us. And we've had over 2,000 people registered for this one. So it shows for us that when people want the information and that it gives us confidence to keep going. So engaging with the training, see what's available around this very limited, and I think we'll talk about this later on, but there is very limited First Nations LGBTI specific training that's around. But there's some stuff that you can do on your own. It's around using inclusive language, ensuring that your facilities are accessible to all. And that is, again, from the outside looking in. If you're outside your organization and look from across the street and go, if you're a First Nations LGBTI person, would you walk through that front door and ask if you say no? Why wouldn't you? Don't just grab somebody off the street, do know a First Nations peer person, engage with them and ask them, hey, or even create an advisory group for your organization as well to support your service to get a lot stronger in that service delivery. This too will then assist with understanding, particularly the localised context around some culturally competent care that your cohort, I guess, or the population that you're serving has access to collaborate and see what other organizations are doing the work. If you're, I guess, a mainstream organization, so you're not an LGBTI-specific, you're not an Aboriginal-specific organization, I'll draw on those resources around you. If you're an Aboriginal organization, start conversations with the LGBTI organizations in your area and just ask them what are the summer things that you can do, and they may be able to support you as well. If you're, it's NAIDOC Week this week, if you're, you know, with your celebrations, if you haven't done so also, or readies, include Queen as First Nations LGBTI people within the work that you do. We've got a couple of other sessions this week where meeting with Woolworths and also with the New South Wales Legislative Council is part of their NAIDOC work. We do a lot of in-house stuff, educating organizations and corporate entities around what we do and also the work that they can potentially do within their organization's little space as well. I think also the most significant thing is be open to change, be open to change, come with an open heart and an open mind to this work, and be also okay in forgiving yourself for making mistakes. We all make mistakes and not to be fearful of this work. I think that's kind of me for those that have been. Thanks Jamie, and next slide please. Oh, so we had already put the next slide up. So we would really like to encourage you, if you're interested, to scan the bar card on the screen and register your interest in joining an MHP and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander network. And as we spoke about before the webinar started, we're very keen for that to be an inclusive one that focuses on, so we don't have, as Jamie said before, a separate LGBTI one and a separate Aboriginal one. We want all this work to be done together. So if you're interested in getting on board and doing that work together with other people in your area, then please scan the bar code and get involved through MHPM. Next slide please. So now we've gone through fairly quickly the report and obviously we like to do it that way. We've done it in the other quirobories. It's not spent too much time on the report. Just give you a sort of a flavor of it because obviously you have access to the report to read and now spend some time answering some questions, some that we received ahead of time and some that are coming in live as we speak. So I'd like to go to the next slide please and ask Jamie some questions that came in beforehand. So the first one of these questions that we'd like to think about is how can practitioners help families have conversations about acceptance? I think to start the conversation in a perfect world would be to bring those elements into the family unit to create a safer space for those conversations to have so it's not so direct. It could be something as when Mardi Gras is on is actually making a point to sit down and actually watch Mardi Gras and not make a big deal about it with that particular person, making comments, commentary about LWQTI stuff within the home. I think then that actually lays a foundation for any other conversation and provides that safer environment as well for that person to feel comfortable. Families I think are intrinsically inherently already safe spaces. What happens is that the sometimes that as parents are unaware that potentially one of their children could be LWQTI and therefore language that gets used within the house can come across as being quite discriminatory and also quite hateful and that they will place up a barrier in terms of your family or your young people, your children feeling comfortable and accepted. Thanks, Jamie. And further to that, can we go to the next slide please because there's some great resources that Jamie was also going to share with people today around this area of supporting families and supporting young people in families. This here, Black Lives Matter has been fortunate to have created a network of support that uses a program that comes out of Queer Space in Melbourne. An interesting story, you would have said on the previous slide we'll talk about that merch later, that's some of the Black Rainbow merch, but the safest spaces is a workshop that I developed about seven years ago. I rebadged it recently under funding from the NTPHN as Safer Spaces but I delivered that training to Queer Space and the biggest learning curve for me was that I shouldn't really attempt to educate services that are their businesses, LGBQTI work around LGBQTI stuff because I was schooled, but what came out of that was a really great relationship and understanding what Queer Space do. This is one of their programs. It's a program that supports not only parents of gender diverse or gender non-performing children, it's also for queer parents or heterosexual children as well. So it actually provides that space of how to be a parent as queer parents or parents of queer children. Next slide. No, we're still on the question time. We might go back actually to the slide with the resources from the other things, just so people can see them while we're talking. So someone's asked a question, their internet has dropped in and now are they going to be able to watch this later on? Absolutely, you have access to the recording later on. Someone's also asked a question, does the research indicate any differences between experiences of Queer Mob in remote versus urban areas? I think yes, I think it's all about context. Different communities in terms of I guess in terms of their acceptance, they're going to vary and I would suggest that it's largely got to do with how much Christianity is still prevalent within that community and the teachings of Christianity. I haven't been to every community in the country but there are several within the Northern Territory where you hear about this acceptance, particularly of trans members, but then you hear of where there isn't that acceptance and largely this comes down to education. I did some workshops in the far north Queensland about eight years ago, seven, eight years ago and I put up the pride flag. This was for an Aboriginal organization with Aboriginal people in the north and Torres Strait Islanders in the room. They'd never seen the pride flag before and that was a real wake-up call to me is what we have access to in urban centres is not necessarily what everyone has access to in regional remote areas so we need to be able to take this work out to them to share with them and increase their literacy around this type of understanding around what is this LGBTQTI. Now on your screen you'll see two of the things that Black Rainbow and also I work for myself independent of Black Rainbow which is the training that I deliver but with Black Rainbow we've finally finessed a suite of products that we're going live on our website in the next couple of months we're just looking for a distributor a place to distribute this but what we've created is a guide book which really is an explanation of those letters that everybody sees can get quite confused by it talks about the importance of pronouns including what is cisgender it has a page on gender affirming care what it is and the need for it plus also a bit more detail about the village we also created some items that can come within the home so that's why it was for myself I live here in the Northern Territory and when we're out barbecuing I think the number one commodity so I thought how great would it be to have a tea towel with the explanations of what is the LGBQTI and to go hand in hand there's actually a fridge magnet as well which has those letters on there so at home that can go into your fridge people will see those letters and go ask what do they mean there's a tea towel nearby that can explain that we've also done some playing cards and these for snap memory and fish there's a barcode on the back for those who take to the instructions plus we have some badges and also a tote bag so we've just slowly been doing some informal community based market research around how this is accepted very much so now we're just under the pump to ensure that we can have somewhere to distribute it the safest basis workshop is the workshop that I've been running now for about 7 years this here is organisational training workforce development currently I'm doing it within the Northern Territory contracted under Northern Territory Primary Health Network it's only available at this stage in person not online but this training as well is that workforce development is that organisational training around why do you need to be doing this training, why do you need to be aware of First Nations queer people in your environment and why they need to be accessing your services and some tips of how to do that Thanks Damien questions come in on the chat asking about resources in New South Wales separate from ACON they're not a lot of resources available for supporting queer mob so what are some resources you might suggest in that space hopefully us once we get our stuff about because we're unfunded as well we're only waged or unfunded and part of our business model is to create and merchandise for people to pay for it so that's individuals and organisations and so that money then goes back into resourcing us to be able to do the work that needs to be done we believe and so we do have we have some real generic stuff at the moment that you can download and I think that's just the calendar for the year and that just adds to the visibility but we will be hopefully within the next two months once we find a distributed have these resources available these will also be extended towards you can see these we've done up cards with our characters on them and also the definition on the back so this is Ricky this is Ricky and on the back is a definition of intersex we have Joyce there's his asexual non-binary so we'll have all these as well available and what we're looking at doing is packaging these as a set for organisations to have in their waiting room so that folks can see them we'll be very specific on the colours that we choose the font, the imagery it's all come really has come from what's going to catch people's eyes but we are looking to have those available to buy as packs of information resources particularly for Aboriginal organisations there hasn't been a lot of this type of conversation outside of ACOM which has been historically an AIDS organisation or HIV organisation and so they're not as as quick with this type of stuff or as in tune to what First Nations people need Thanks to Amy so another question that we had ahead of time was what engagement techniques best create when you're first engaging with a client who is LGBTQ and First Nations Be respectful I think one of the things I think the biggest thing is to not have be fearful of your engagement treat them as you would treat really anybody else and I say that in terms of is honouring who they are honouring who they are as a First Nations person honouring who they are as an LGBQTI person and some of that does come down to just be really mindful of any potential accident or racism or homophobia or transphobia and that comes down to education understanding how is it best to not behave in a racist manner but also not to make assumptions we are quite a diverse group as First Nations people not all of us we will have varying degrees I guess of cultural connection and when I say cultural connection this is in regards to the day-to-day activities like for myself I don't speak language I don't live on country so my connection to some of the behaviours that maybe for someone who is regional and more remote will be different so just to really be mindful I think particularly as therapists is how we would normally engage with a client and how you would normally engage with a client is have an understanding of who they are and then be able to progress around your engagement with them but I think you know for the most part we are human beings like everybody else with the same needs desires and wants don't be fearful of this all the First Nations LGBQTI they are from some other planet and therefore it's going to be super challenging Thanks Ewing we've had a few different questions come in I think there's still a little bit of uncertainty or lack of clarity about why we talk about sister goes and brother boys distinct from the T as trans within LGBTIQ would you like to talk a little bit more about that sort of historical and cultural meaning of sister goes and brother boys Yeah For where we've landed as Black we're both through talking with our community members I'm based here in the Northern Territory some of our leadership is in New South Wales in Queensland where we came to and we've got I think on our website even what we use on our tea towel when we describe or define sister go and brother boy it's socially and culturally accepted language to define or to describe a transgender Aboriginal person if that's how they describe not all trans people trans Aboriginal people we can trans people identify under the binary of man or woman some of them do define as non binary but the separation from that is the language that's used in community in regards to who they are as a as a key more as an identifier I guess outside of simply being trans or being gay and but also it carries with it outside of those communities with it is a morbid inherent understanding that they do come with that dual identity of being first nations as well as well as trans excuse me thanks Damian and I think we've had a few questions that came in earlier before the webinar today about suicidality and I think you know given the topic of today's webinar it's really important to talk a bit more about that and obviously that's your background as a suicidologist just to think or I'm a bit more about what does suicidality look like within queer first nations communities perhaps compared to non first nations queer communities and what does that mean for the clinical work that people are doing just for asking in terms of suicidality do you mean in terms of what are the warning signs or I think people are interested in the whole picture the warning signs and what are the responses that you might take if someone is presenting with suicide or self harm I think in the first instance somebody is presenting that way providing them free from harm from themselves and also from others and that you'll be able to facilitate that within your own environments how you've done for somebody else the behaviours are largely the same the reasons behind it the behaviours are nuanced and different but they do manifest in a lot of similar ways so it is what you would see in a first nations person non first nations or LGBT non-LGBTI the suicide behaviour are quite similar within the research hasn't yet gone into the level of out in remote communities how does that look like for first nations queer folk but the disassociation or disconnecting the isolation the there is one of the things that through my research during the Masters of Suicidology is that there is an unknown quantum of risk factors that exist the key thing around understanding about risk factors is more about how they interact with a person at a particular time when they're in distress when you look at what a suicide risk factor losing a job is a risk factor for suicide and for me I think in the practical sense people should never be fired because that becomes a risk factor so it is really understanding what's going on for that person at that moment be aware though as a first nations LGBQTI some of those triggers for that behaviour or those thinking could come be experienced as a first nations person or they could be being experienced as an LGBQTI person as someone who is experiencing both and I think related to that I think people would like to hear a bit more about obviously you're one person speaking you can't speak for all first nations people but how do communities respond how is Suicidology thought about within first nations communities particularly with regards to QEMO there are over 240 communities 240 discrete I've moved back home to Northern Territory I grew up here and it's a different landscape to when I grew up I left this town because I didn't feel accepted and I thought this outback town is not somewhere where I can be queer with any kind of degree of safety it comes down to education the greater the education in these communities the greater levels of acceptance and that just makes perfect that makes perfect sense around getting this information out there I'm quite fortunate when I started working for myself in a decade ago I ensured that and having worked in regional remote areas for quite a while knowing that a lot of organizations if not all shut outside of Monday to Friday 9 to 5 that I would be offering my services and I'm not clinical this is just around training seven days a week so if there's in regional areas where people can't access any training until the weekend I'll make myself available for that but it is around ensuring that the getting the information because the more people aren't the information they can make better decisions and also what I have also found we found through our market research with our products at Black Rainbow it's not just First Nations communities who see those letters and go what the hell does that mean and what do we do next so we're finding that it's also non-indigenous folk who are looking at the work that we're doing here around this explanatory stuff and saying wow weird love access to that as well and they can and I think a lot of what to me is really coming out today is that sort of need for a holistic approach we know that families if families are supportive then that sort of reduces the risk of that impact of racism to a behaviour that might be coming from outside of the family but of course if the family doesn't know about suicide LE or has misconceptions about suicidal ideation or doesn't know how to listen or isn't accepting of their children then that safety net isn't there so it is about bringing this sort of and I think this is what Queer Operas have been doing from the first webinar onwards to today is bringing together that holistic image of we need all of these things to be working one another it's not just silos individual things we actually need the whole thing to come together to sort of mitigate suicidal suicidal risk and responding when there is risk absolutely and Queer Operas also was born out of the fact that we didn't have our policy makers or government departments doing any of this work so we thought you know what we're going to do it we're not going to wait for the policy to come out we're just going to do it and I think you know this being our third one registration I think Julian said there's like 2400 or something and I may be flexing a little bit and saying being more than what there actually was but this speaks to the need that there are people that are interested in this information and they're recognising that this information is essential to the work that they do one of the key things around Queer Operas and also being available virtually plus also online afterwards is in regional remote areas access to this information is now a lot more easy because it is going to be available online once upon a time you do have to get on a plane and go to a conference and spend thousands of dollars you don't have to do that anymore not for this stuff anyway we offer this for free this is what our donations go into is in to create be able to facilitate and pay for free education for folks. Thanks Damien and we've had another probably the most beautiful question I think I've ever had on any VMHPM webinars that I've facilitated it comes from a young person who's 11 they're non-binary and they're watching with their mum and they've said are Aboriginal children accepted for being fluid like this will they like Aboriginal people like trans people who are not Aboriginal to be their friends so they don't want to hurt themselves Absolutely Yeah especially that last bit as well I think for myself I'm not trans or non-binary but I as a young gay kid I think that I would have liked to have and no other gay kids so what a beautiful question I forgot in the first half because the second half just kind of knocked the wind out of me Damien I think it's about acceptance and people caring if you feel like you might want to hurt yourself I think you know we see it in our families and I travel quite a bit throughout the Northern Territory I've done a few laps now between as Rock and Darwin and the families there intrinsically are already loving and safe this is around that in an extra layer that can come through through the information through knowledge some families are more across this than others and it really comes out to be able to have them understand who their child is and how to love them even more Yeah And obviously we've got 24 hour help lines such as 13 yarn have also asked questions around is there anything special that you would want people watching today to know in terms of how to approach safety plans for suicide ality for LGBTI mob Well the work hasn't been done in terms of what they would actually look like and I don't want to speak with any kind of authority on what they should look like I think it's making best what you have and if it was me it would be looking at what elements do I need to be able to bring in from both a LGBTI or a First Nations element and bring something together there but I can't speak with any kind of authority on that that's based on any research that would be making the best of what you've got but what that does do is it signifies and signals that this work is important because if practitioners are asking for this stuff then it doesn't need to be developed as a guide around that I don't think it comes back to what we were speaking about before it's about a holistic approach it's about what are the multiple factors that might be impacting upon queer mob rather than going well I'm going to do a bit on this and then a separate thing I'm going to do an assessment on this it's about how do we have this holistic conversation that looks at the multiple factors that are likely to impact suicide ality for queer mob 20 years since I did any case work and one of the things that was always embedded in me is the person that you're working with is going to be expert in their lives so that information is largely going to come from them they may be not be able to articulate it in a way that is clear but they may say it in a way that can give you some signs will lead you in directions to explore further because they might not have the language either as to why they're feeling that way but also they might not have the language to say this behaviour that I'm engaging in is because of this they may not be able to draw those links up as well yeah and I think someone's again someone's just made a point that I think you made earlier which is there are lots of similarities we're running this queer mob re-series to focus on the specificities of what it means to be LGBTQQA plus and First Nations but we also want to acknowledge as Damien said before that a lot of these things are similar across groups as well so we're not saying there's necessarily exceptionalism going on that there's entirely unique ways of experiencing suicidality for queer mob but we also are wanting to acknowledge the specific factors that are impacting on queer mob so it's a bit of both that I think is going on here and someone just made that point which I think is an excellent point yeah it's this the real one of the rather than many purposes now for queer robbery but it's identifying that as a population group at significant risk so at greater risk than First Nations people who are non-LGBQTI and at greater risk than LGBTI people who aren't First Nations so when if you're in your service delivery if your organisation doesn't have a client base that is First Nations LGBQTI perhaps look at the ways in which you can strengthen your public facing identity so that those feel comfortable after the walk through your door that's as an an Aboriginal medical service or a mainstream organisation or as an LGBTI organisation and that, everything Damien that was a question that just came through asking you know we have services out here and we think that these services are traditionally funded to be available to LGBTI people Slash First Nations people but people aren't walking through the door and so what Damien has just spoken about is this is maybe the things that are stopping people walking through the door is the signage clear are people getting the responses they need the service might be funded to work with those communities but are they getting the service responses they need think of your organisation as a business and not to try and bring capitalism into this into this space but your business needs to have customers if you don't have customers coming through your front door you need to advertise and promote yourself for a customer base and if you're finding that you're not reaching you know the most or a diverse customer base you think we haven't got a lot of men coming through here we need to start advertising so that men will come in and purchase our products women and vice versa think of your service like that so if your services for everybody and everybody isn't coming through that front door need to work out okay what do we need to do to ensure that everybody does come in through and access those services yeah excellent Damien we're getting towards the end of question time there's a few more questions I think we could touch on usefully around against suicidality which is our focus today and people are very interested in people are interested in training around identifying warning signs for queer mob and there are also people who are also interested in supports available for family members of people who are potentially bereaved by suicide bereaved by suicide from First Nations that would be cute to you yeah yeah when a family member has passed from suicide we have a close relationship with queer space we on our socials we great people towards queer space and the reason we do that is they also provide support to people pre-COVID virtually so it's actually people also outside of Victoria your local health service I imagine should have some kind of bereavement support I know I'm not too sure if there isn't the Aboriginal national ones to operate it's a long time since I've come up for air from working out in remote communities but locally there should be some kind of support network whether through an Aboriginal health service the LGBTI or through mainstream one if you have a PHN a primary health network in your region I would give them a call because they would also probably have a good idea around and perhaps even fund a service like that in your area thanks David and thanks everyone for all the wonderful questions that came in before the webinar and all the wonderful ones that came in during the webinar today obviously we can't get through all of them it's not possible but hopefully the resources that Damien has provided that you can access by clicking on the three buttons gives you some more avenues to explore for resources you might access and obviously link in with Black Rainbow and with MHPN and again consider getting involved in creating a local area network around working with First Nations people so can we please go to the beginning of the wrap up slides thank you very much before we move on to these I'd just like to ask if Damien has any quick thing you'd like to say in summary to wrap up what you've talked about today well thanks Damien and thanks to the MHPN and again for facilitating and supporting us in the work that we want to do stomach that Black Rainbow has been quite hands-on with and doing our part I'm not too sure people are aware there is a referendum coming up later this year Black Rainbow has committed to supporting the YES vote we think that we believe and this has drawn on our unique experiences as First Nations people as First Nations LGBTQTI people I certainly bring to this to guess to my decision about this over 20 years of working in service delivery and regional and remote areas it's the best chance that we've ever had as First Nations people to speak directly to governments around what it is that we need I don't see the voice as an advisory group I see it as a really strong information centre I think that there's been too much focus on the word advisory that people can ignore that but if you provide people with evidence you provide people with information I think that carries a lot more weighting but also for First Nations queer folk we believe this is going to be the this will be the very first time that as First Nations LGBTQTI people we will have direct contact with government at the moment we are funneled up through the Aboriginal health sector which seems doesn't really include us in their health work at a national level and also in the LGBTI stuff as well we're not included in there we can look across the LGBTI health frameworks or the research we're not evident so this gives us an opportunity to be able to speak directly to government and say hey this is what we also need this is what's going on so I would really encourage people to you know not just to vote but understand what they're voting for and we know that as people anyway that decisions about us are always made we're actually part of the solution and can share with what we need thanks that's beautifully said next slide please so it was a real pleasure I'm not sure if all of the 2000 plus people who registered attended today but hopefully you will all get a chance to watch if you didn't this webinar has been recorded and you will receive information from HPN very soon about how to access that recording we would very much appreciate if you would complete the feedback service so we know what we're doing well and what we could do better and we've certainly had wonderful feedback on the previous two Queer Opry webinars you'll also receive your statement of attendance if that's useful for you in your workplace and we really hope that you'll continue engaging with the work of Queer Opry as it comes up we have another webinar for Queer Opry coming up in September this year so stay tuned for information about that we also have other webinars coming up through the HNPM which might be really important for you and again there's a QR code here that you can scan for that information so we've got one supporting patients with PTSD we've got an emerging mine ones on infant and parent mental health coming up in August and then we've got another one in August coming up on latest innovations to looking at trauma-informed care so the HNPM is always doing amazing work excellent if you're on their mailing list you continue to receive that information so that you know what's coming up and it's always free so it's always an excellent resource to share within your networks and within your communities next slide please there's also amazing the HNPM doesn't just run webinars they also offer other amazing resources for people and included in that is podcasts and so they have a three-part series available on emergency workers which I think is an amazing topic to be talking about I think it's a very pressing topic here in Australia where we have lots of conversations about things like ramping so what does it mean for people to be doing that work and I think it's amazing that Theometric PM has a podcast series on that and certainly another one that's very key and salient to today's webinar is a conversation about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people climate change and COVID-19 and I think you may not think of those topics as easily going together but if you pause for a moment and reflect I think First Nations people have a lot to say about the effects of climate change since colonisation onward so I'm sure that's a really exciting podcast series for you to listen to obviously the focus on COVID-19 sits very well with the first queer robbery that Jamie explored his research on the impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous LGBTIQA plus people next slide please so we're very fortunate that the MHPN across Australia supports over 350 networks and obviously we're inviting you here today to put your hand up and signal that you might be interested in helping form another network that would focus on First Nations people with an of course focus on LGBTIQA plus people so we'd really encourage you to visit the MHPN network to talk about finding out what networks are available already and I know here in South Australia we have a gender and sexuality diversity bond that you can join everywhere but also whether you're interested in starting a new network so obviously reaching out to the MHPN scan the barcode and begin those conversations which can take many different forms it can be you being part of your own organisation starting that it might be other colleagues that you work with there's so many routes to forming those networks and the MHPN is fantastically resourced source to help you do that work and start those networks so fantastic opportunities available for everyone last slide please so before I close I'd really like to acknowledge the lived experience people and carers who have lived with mental illness in the past and those who continue to live with mental illness in the present thank you to everyone who joined us today thank you especially to Damien Bonson for the amazing work that he's doing through Black Rainbow thank you to Matty Day for leaving the project that Damien spoke about today thank you to everyone for your amazing questions especially the young person who joined with their mum today and asked us that beautiful question thank you everyone and enjoy the rest of your day