Consultation Updates - Sydney Youth Consultation

Summary of the NATSIHP Youth consultation in Sydney

The consultations for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan (the Health Plan) are currently underway. This page will be updated with the latest news and highlights from the consultations as they progress.

National Youth Consult - Sydney

A youth consultation was held from 19 to 22 September 2012 to provide a specific opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 17 to 25 years to put forward their views and ideas for inclusion in the Health Plan. This youth specific consultation was coordinated and facilitated by the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Redfern, Sydney. The youth delegates presented their views directly to Minister Snowdon on the final day of the consultation. The key themes raised by the youth delegation included: access to health services, patient confidentiality, the high rates of mental illness, food and nutrition, and the importance of education and employment on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' health outcomes.

Video of the National Youth Consultations

Transcript

Narrator: On the 19th of September, 40 Indigenous Youth from all over Australia came together to talk about health.
Todd Fernando: ‘My name’s Todd Fernando, I’m 23 years old living in Western Sydney. Grew up in a country town called Condobolin and my family is from Gilgandra which is Wiradjuri country.’
Ireesha Victor: ‘My name is Ireesha Victor. I’m from… I grew up in Broome but I’m from the Dampier Peninsula.’
Todd Fernando: ‘So the location for the Health Forum was here at the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence. It’s based in Redfern which is an awesome story to begin with. The knowledge and experience this community has and especially the centre being what once was a primary school and now into a thriving community centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to come to and meet.’
Todd Fernando: ‘It was a little nervous… nerve-wracking, trying to get a feel of who’s here and what sort of things are going to happen but we arrived on the Wednesday and we done a little bit of icebreakers and got into relaxed mode and sort of got real comfortable with one another and then we kicked it off.’
*Singing- Marcus Corowa*
Todd Fernando: ‘Day one of the forum we sat down and we discussed issues relating to Indigenous health, and Indigenous youth health in particular.’
Male Youth Participant: ‘The rates of immunisation within the Aboriginal community is pretty low.’
Wes Patten: ‘Sell drugs, be cool, start smoking, stuff like that, and that’s all the kind of stuff that goes through every community.’
Female Youth Participant: ‘And I’m talking about IBD’s (Inflammatory Bowel Disease’s) and chronic diseases and stuff.’
Todd Fernando: ‘My issues that I have in my community are similar to those that are happening in other Indigenous peoples’ communities and we found that accessing primary health care was a big disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth.’
Ireesha Victor: ‘Mental illness was a big one that came up a lot of times.’
Todd Fernando: ‘One of the big things that we all came together and discussed was having a National Indigenous Youth Health voice which really looked at empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth into having their own voices heard at a national level.’
Todd Fernando: ‘So day two of the health forum we were able to come together in our States to talk about local issues.’
Emma Scolyer: ‘We don’t have psychiatrists and podiatrists or nutritionists or psychologists.’
John Nagyivan: ‘So many Indigenous people don’t have a sense of identity and be afraid to identify as Indigenous because of repercussions that may occur.’
Manuel Gagai: ‘Where I’m from up in Torres Strait, Yam Island, costs of healthy food has increased.’
Emma Cutmore: ‘Seeing our young people graduating high school and completing those high levels of education.’
Todd Fernando: ‘We was able to talk about what issues we face within our communities and bring them together and collate them into recommendations and strategies.’
Hon. Warren Snowdon, Minister for Indigenous Health: ‘So you should take great pride in your participation because you will be making a contribution as a result of what you’ve said here and the work you’ve been doing over the last couple of days.’
Ireesha Victor: ‘He was a good listener and we fired questions at him and he answered them as best as he could.’
Todd Fernando: ‘He’s the Minister for Indigenous Health but he’s a human being and was able to show that by, you know, by making us feel relaxed and asking us to call him Warren and I turned around and called him Uncle Warren which was a good friendship and a bond formed.’
Todd Fernando: ‘Without the Australian Government and the facilities like the NCIE here in Redfern we wouldn’t of had the opportunity to come together and talk about the issues that we as Indigenous people and we as Indigenous youth face every day in our communities. So just a big thanks to those people that put so much effort and so much time into listening to our stories and wanting to listen to our stories.'