“We Don’t Want to Live Like This”: The Lived Experience of Dislocation, Poor Health, and Homelessness for Western Australian Aboriginal People

• Published in: Qualitative health research Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 159 - 172
• Main Authors: Martin, Robyn, Fernandes, Christina, Taylor, Cheryl, Crow, Amanda, Headland, Desmond, Shaw, Nicola, Zammit, Simone
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2019; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Aboriginal Australians; Colonization; Community research; Disadvantaged; Disconnection; Emotional well being; Empowerment; Expenditures; Health disparities; Health status; Health technology assessment; Homeless people; Indigenous peoples; Low income groups; Mass media; Mass media effects; Moral panic; Morality; Narratives; Native peoples; Panic attacks; Parks & recreation areas; Participatory action research; Personal safety; Qualitative research; Racism; Self determination; Telecommunications policy; Well being; Australia; Western Australia; racism; social issues; race; lived experience; health; poverty; homelessness; resilience; resistance; community based participatory action research
• ISSN: 1049-7323; 1552-7557
• DOI: 10.1177/1049732318797616

Many policy interventions have attempted to address the entrenched disadvantage of Aboriginal Australians1; however, sustained improvement in social, cultural, physical, and emotional well-being is not evident. This disadvantage is compounded by paternalistic practices which do not promote Aboriginal self-determination or empowerment. This article presents the lived experience and voice of Aboriginal Australians spending time in parks in Perth, Western Australia. A community-based participatory action research approach informed by critical Indigenous methodologies involving collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal service providers was used. Participants experienced disconnection from kin and country, serious risk to personal safety, homelessness, and problematic health; all related to, and intersecting with, time spent in the parks. The participants’ narratives highlight the enduring impacts of colonization, dispossession, and racism. These lived experiences are situated within contexts of rising moral panic from politicians, residents and mass media, and siloed policy and service delivery responses.