RADIO & PODCAST INTERVIEWS
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Dr Tracy Westerman – Comments about colonisation as sad and disappointing
Dr Tracy Westerman – Next Generation of Indigenous Psychologists
Dr Tracy Westerman – Indigenous suicides continue to escalate
Dr Tracy Westerman – Dealing with online racist attacks
Dr Tracy Westerman discussing Banksia Hill riots on ABC
Dr Tracy Westerman speaks to Taylah Strano on HERSTORY at RTRFM
Dr Tracy Westerman interview discussing the ‘Empathy Gap’
Dr Tracy Westerman interview on ABC Pilbara
Dr Tracy Westerman: Understanding the why on ABC ‘The Drawing Room’
Dr Tracy Westerman interview on ABC Breakfast Radio
Dr Tracy Westerman leading the way in mental health and suicide prevention in Aboriginal communities
Interview with Dr Tracy Westerman on Black Star Radio
Why we need more Indigenous psychologists
Bringing Psychological Support and Education to Rural Indigenous Australia
Mikaela Simpson on ABC Radio Darwin
Government response to the Fogliani Inquiry
Community-based responses to youth suicide required
Supporting the next generation of Indigenous psychologists
DR TRACY WESTERMAN – comments about colonisation as sad and disappointing
Psychologists, doctors and Aboriginal community leaders are describing the Shadow Indigenous Australians minister’s comments about colonisation as sad and disappointing.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price yesterday claimed there are no ongoing negative impacts of colonisation on Aborginal people.
Featured:
Mary Kennedy, Gamilaraay woman
Dr Tracy Westerman, Nyamal woman, Indigenous Psychological Services managing director and Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health founding director
Dr Jason King, Yued Noongar man and Yarrabah GP
Rachel Perkins, Arrente Kalkadoon woman, filmmaker and Yes campaigner
Jodie Wrigley, Senate SHJ head of social change
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The interview was broadcast on 15 September 2023 by the ABC. Click here to visit the interview on the ABC website.
OUR NEXT GENERATION OF Indigenous PSYCHOLOGISTS
Psychologists in Alice Springs agree the community is in desperate need of more of them.
International research shows Black patients fare much better when they have Black doctors – and Australia has a long way to close the gap, with very few psychologists identifying as Indigenous, while the NT’s youth suicide rate is among the world’s worst.
Pyschologist, Nyamal woman Dr Tracy Westerman tells Eliza Goetze why her organisation, the Jilya Institute of Indigenous Mental Health, is targeting Alice Springs with three scholarships this year.
Interview broadcast on ABC Alice Springs
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The interview was broadcast on 8 August 2023.
Indigenous suicides continue to escalate and we still are failing to apply the best evidence to prevent this continued crisis. Dr Westerman explains
Interview broadcast on ABC News Radio
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The interview was broadcast in July 2023.
‘Don’t be a bystander’: Tips on dealing with increase in online attacks with Voice referendum approaching
Dr Tracy Westerman speaks to Biwa Kwan on SBS News. Indigenous psychologist and suicide prevention advocate Dr Tracy Westerman says she’s observed an increase in trolling and attacks on social media as the Voice referendum approaches. Dr Westerman is the founder of the charity, The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health. She told Biwa Kwan there are strategies for dealing with the problem. Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says the eSafety office is monitoring reports of increased levels of hate speech online targeting First Nations Australians, particularly youth. The body, which monitors harmful content online, has conducted research finding Indigenous youth are three times more likely to experience hate speech online than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
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The interview was broadcast in June 2023.
Dr Tracy Westerman DISCUSSING BANKSIA HILL RIOTS ON ABC RADIO
Dr Tracy Westerman speaks to Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth and discusses why children are rioting again at the Banksia Hill detention centre and the failure to invest in prevention programs drives it all.
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The interview was broadcast in May 2023.
Dr Tracy Westerman speaks to Taylah Strano on HERSTORY at RTRFM
Dr Tracy Westerman speaks to Taylah Strano about what drives her to work in the challenging field of psychology, her love of family and her love of both types of music – country and western.
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The interview was broadcast in November 2022.
DR Tracy Westerman EXPLAINING THE RACIAL EMPATHY GAP AND THE EFFECTS
Dr Tracy Westerman discusses the racial empathy gap, and how to tackle it.
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The interview was broadcast November 2022.
DR Tracy Westerman on ABC Pilbara Breakfast RADIO interviewed by Kelly Gudgeon
Dr Tracy Westerman states that “The underlying issues of trauma in more than 90% of young people in the juvenile justice system are not being addressed, and most of the crimes being committed by young people are crimes of poverty” and that “We must stop using prisons as hostels”.
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The interview was broadcast on 26 August 2022.
Dr Tracy Westerman: Understanding the why on ABC ‘The Drawing Room’
Indigenous children are around six percent of the child population in Australia, but they are over-represented in a number of troubling areas like out-of-home care, incarceration, and youth suicide.
The statistics point to a problem, but they don’t get to the why.
What’s gone wrong with the systems that were meant to help? And how can government departments begin to address the problems without introducing a new round of trauma?
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The interview was added on 10 July 2020.
Black Star Radio Interview
Tracy Westerman is interviewed on Black Star Radio. The interview discusses her background, her education, and touches on some of the elements missing in Australian education that relate to Indigenous Australians. She goes on to explain how this can have huge impacts on the mental health of Indigenous people, and how she is working to change this.
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The interview was added on 10 July 2020.
Why we need more Indigenous psychologists
From ABC Radio National, and now listed as a podcast on the ABC, All In The Mind with Sana Qadar discusses the important topic of why we need more Indigenous Psychologists with our own Adjunct Professor Tracy Westerman.
From the ABC: “Indigenous people in Australia are having a very difficult time finding a psychologist who understands Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and history. Sometimes indigenous patients seeking treatment have been denied a voice, and the reality of their situation. There are about 800,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, but only 218 Indigenous psychologists. Australia needs more of them—and we look at what many mainstream psychologists fail to understand about Indigenous patients.”
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The podcast aired on Sun 16 Feb 2020, 12:30pm.
Bringing Psychological Support and Education to Rural Indigenous Australia
When Dr Tracy Westerman left her home in the Pilbara, WA to attend university to study psychology, she struggled to reconcile mainstream psychological practices with Indigenous culture.
Her work in mental health care in remote Indigenous communities has garnered international acclaim since 2003, and in 2018, she was named Australian of The Year for Western Australia.
Duncan, from Amazing People with Sam and Duncan on Hope 103.2 was able to sit down and talk to Tracy about the differences between Indigenous and western culture, how these differences affect mental health and the impact of her work in implementing framework to improve mental health and education in Indigenous communities.
There are two versions of this radio conversation. For the short five minute version click play below:
For the full 30 minute version click below:
The podcast aired on Thursday 11 Apr 2019
Chat with Mikaela Simpson on ABC Radio Darwin
On ABC Radio Darwin and the Northern Territory, Adjunct Professor Tracy Westerman chats to Mikaela Simpson on her Afternoons segment. Finding the right Psychologist for anyone can be compared speed dating, but for Indigenous people, the process comes with its own set of challenges.
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The podcast aired on Thursday 5 March 2020
Government response to the Fogliani Inquiry
On ABC Radio Perth, Adjunct Professor Tracy Westerman chats to Geoff Hutchison on his Drive program regarding the lack of Government response to the Fogliani Inquiry into the suicides of 13 Indigenous children in the Kimberley.
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The podcast aired on Tue 11 Feb 2020, 4:00pm
Indigenous communities and clinicians call for community-based responses to youth suicide
Indigenous children and young people aged between 10 and 14 are 8.4 times more likely to committee suicide than non-Indigenous Australians. With the situation reaching a crisis point in some communities, such as the Kimberley region of WA, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experts and leaders remain adamant that solutions to this problem must come from their own people.
Adj. Prof. Tracy Westerman and Maureen O’Meara who is Chief Executive Officer of Aarnja, the regional body for Kimberley Aboriginal people and a Bardi and Djaru woman chat with Hilary Harper on Life Matters. Their message? Training more Indigenous mental health clinicians would also help encourage more young people to come forward and seek help.
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Duration: 21min 42sec
Broadcast: Wed 8 May 2019, 9:06am
Supporting Indigenous students to help rural and remote communities
The Dr Tracy Westerman Aboriginal Psychology Scholarship Program aims to develop Aboriginal psychologists who have connections to rural and remote Aboriginal communities in order to provide specialised support services.
Speaking to CAAMA Radio, Dr Tracy Westerman said she will also provide mentoring to the scholarship recipients.
Dr Westerman the 2018 Western Australian of the year said she would like the program to eventually go national and see hundreds of Aboriginal psychologists across the country working in remote communities.
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Duration: 21min 42sec
Broadcast: Wed 8 May 2019, 9:06am
WA psychologist’s response to suicide inquest
Dr Tracy Westerman is speaking On ABC Radio Perth Breakfast with Nadia Mitsopoulos and Russell Woolf.
Coroner Ros Fogliano made 42 recommendations after investigating the suicide deaths of 13 Kimberley children in less than four years. But part of her report left 2018 WA Australian of the year Dr Tracy Westerman lost for words.
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Duration: 8min 27sec
Broadcast: Fri 8 Feb 2019, 6:00am
One year on, with Geoff on ABC Drive
On ABC Radio Perth, Adjunct Professor Tracy Westerman chats to Geoff Hutchison on his Drive program discussing more Indigenous youth suicides, the need for evidence based programs and training up people in best practice treatment and screening.
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The podcast aired on Tue 22 Jan 2020