Aboriginal gay men

Well, it turns out we don't really know that much. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work. Program: What do we know about queer Indigenous history?

Footer triple j. Program: The Sunday Hook Up. This year's Reconciliation Week theme is 'Don't Keep History a Mystery', which got us thinking about what we know of queer Indigenous history. However, the Sistagirls have not always been accepted by their community and sexuality has been quite repressed in Australian Indigenous culture since colonisation.

Troy-Anthony Baylis of the Jawoyn Nation is an Adelaide-based artist and is completing his PhD about sexual and gender diversity of Australian Aboriginal peoples and artistic expression, and told The Hook Up that in terms of specific queer sexuality, we actually don't know anything.

In the last few years, the Tiwi Island Sistagirls have become quite famous, last year attending the Sydney Mardi Gras for the first time. It turns out the Mimi spirits pictured above may offer some hope of queer Indigenous history in Dreamtime stories.

Back to top. Casey Conway speaks about rugby league, race and baring all. Rowdie Walden is a Gamilaroi man and presenter and told The Hook Up that learning more about Indigenous queer history has motivated him to make more queer history.

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Credits James Findlay, Author. Play Duration: 3 minutes 58 seconds 3 m 58 s. Troy-Anthony also told The Hook Up that Aboriginal people suppressed or hid their sexuality as a survival mechanism after Christianisation and colonisation.

There are many forms of queer identity, and some are specific to First Nations people and culture. But being a gay, Aboriginal man in the world of professional sport required a particularly fine balancing act. Image Details "Mimi Spirits" was one of the year-old artist's works.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender and intersex Aboriginal people represent diversity within the already diverse Aboriginal culture. Indigenous people coming to terms with their sexuality are often told that being gay is not a part of traditional culture, a notion that experts say is incredibly dangerous.

From Mimi spirits in the Dreamtime to the Tiwi Island Sistagirls, we explore what we know about queer Indigenous history. But while there are some parallels, Troy-Anthony tells us there isn't any formal evidence that any of the dreaming stories are particularly about sexuality.

Sistergirls and Brotherboys are examples of Indigenous-specific identities.

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Presented by. More from ABC. Get the Jmail newsletter Email address. But they also belong to some of the most marginalised groups in Australia. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.