Posts tagged Culture is Inclusion: A narrative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability

Employ more Aboriginal people in the disability service sector, says June Riemer

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.12.2021 (Hireup): June Riemer, a proud Gumbaynggirr Dunghutti woman and Deputy CEO of First Peoples Disability Network has led national campaigns for better, more inclusive and culturally appropriate access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for her people. She speaks to me about why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with a disability face numerous barriers in accessing and navigating the NDIS and what measures can be taken to ensure they receive culturally appropriate supports.

“The NDIS wasn’t designed culturally, whether that’s for the First Nations people or the culturally and linguistically diverse community,” says Riemer, who won the 2021 NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year award in recognition of her four decades of advocacy for Indigenous people with a disability.

“Culturally, given Australia’s history and the fact that we weren’t even citizens till 1967, having a disability within our communities is not any different because everyone’s at a disadvantage. This is a good thing because disability is not seen as a deficit, but it’s about caring and supporting someone, who might need more help, for example, with walking or communicating,” she adds.

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Teach Indigenous disability units to change attitudes, says Scott Avery

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 14.12.2021 (Hireup): It was not until his mid-teens that Scott Avery was diagnosed with profound hearing impairment. He now uses a Cochlear implant and tried accessing the NDIS a few years ago, but was bogged down by the complexities and peculiarities of the scheme.

“I had to complete a Hearing Handicap Audit and basically disable myself to prove how “handicapped” I was by my hearing. This was too demeaning so I gave up after a few months,” says Avery, who is from the Worimi country in New South Wales.

He says, “I just wanted to talk with an Aboriginal person for my eligibility assessment because the `medical model of disability’ thinks we are all broken. It’s a modus operandi of `we’ll just fix you’ for a lot of government systems. This has a negative impact on people’s social and emotional well-being.”

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