The Revolution Has Always Been in the Hands of the Young: Critically Reimagining the Indigenous Child and Adolescent
Tracks
MONARCH ROOM - In-Person & Virtual via OnAIR
PRINCE ROOM - In-Person Only
MARQUIS ROOM - In-Person Only
| Tuesday, March 17, 2026 |
| 8:40 AM - 9:25 AM |
Overview
Prof Chelsea Watego, QUT Carumba Institute
Presenter
Prof Chelsea Watego
Executive Director, Carumba Institute
QUT Carumba Institute
The Revolution Has Always Been in the Hands of the Young: Critically Reimagining the Indigenous Child and Adolescent
Presentation Overview
This presentation will provide an understanding of race as a structure of oppression and its working in contemporary mental health discourse and practice upon Indigenous young people, their families and communities. It will critically interrogate how mental health reflects and reproduces racist colonial imaginings about [in]capabilities of Indigenous young people, continuing to operate as an apparatus of colonial control. Finally, the presentation will explore key elements of Indigenous youth-led/focused initiatives which are building strong minds and safe spaces for Indigenous young people.
Three Key Learnings:
1. Indigenous children and young people are not ‘the problem’.
2. The structural conditions that affect the mental health of Indigenous young people must be attended to.
3. Indigenous child and youth mental health approaches must move away from emphasising resilience, to embrace resilience as an ethic of practice.
Three Key Learnings:
1. Indigenous children and young people are not ‘the problem’.
2. The structural conditions that affect the mental health of Indigenous young people must be attended to.
3. Indigenous child and youth mental health approaches must move away from emphasising resilience, to embrace resilience as an ethic of practice.
Biography
Professor Chelsea Watego (formerly Bond) is a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman with over 20 years of experience working within Indigenous health as a health worker and researcher. She is the Executive Director of QUT’s Carumba Institute, and her scholarship has drawn attention to the role of race in the production of health inequalities. Her current ARC Discovery Grant seeks to build an Indigenist Health Humanities as a new field of research; one that is committed to the survival of Indigenous peoples locally and globally, foregrounding Indigenous intellectual sovereignty and leading to the formation of an Indigenous critical race theory. She is a prolific writer and public intellectual, having written for IndigenousX, NITV, The Guardian, and The Conversation. She is a founding board member of Inala Wangarra, an Indigenous community development association within her community, a Director of the Institute for Collaborative Race Research, but most importantly, she is also a proud mum to five beautiful children. Her debut book Another Day in the Colony, published by UQ Press, was released in November 2021 and met with critical acclaim.
