Incarceration of Disability and Aboriginality 
There is a high prevalence of Aboriginal people with disability being unfairly and unjustly incarcerated due to the criminal justice system not properly equipped to support people with disability, such as brain injury or foetal alcohol syndrome. The NDIS is not properly engaged with state/territory health and housing systems to appropriately support people with disability to live in the community and prevent reoffending. People with disability have reported that the prison system punishes them as a person rather than helping them with issues pertaining to their mental health and disability. [Artwork and words by John Gilroy]
These are the topics that will be covered in the International Indigenous Disability Research Symposium, hosted by the University’s Centre for Disability Research and Policy in partnership with the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, and held over two days at the Camperdown campus this week.
With representation from academics from Australia, the USA, Canada and Sweden, the goal of the event is to develop a global collaborative research community in Indigenous disability research guided by the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. One of the key focus areas of the symposium will be on how scholars can both empower and respect Indigenous people in disability research.
While encouraged by this progress, Professor Gilroy points out that as such a prosperous nation Australia should and could be leading the way in leveling the playing field for First Nations people.
“Yet the rate of disability among Indigenous Australians is almost twice as high as among non-Indigenous people. And when we look at certain age groups or rural and remote areas those rates can be as high as three times. These are pretty confronting statistics – especially when taking into account that much of this disability could be prevented,” said Professor Gilroy.
The roll out of the NDIS in Australia was historic, but the scheme has faced many challenges and the application and planning process have proven quite traumatic for many.
This is the subject of the art exhibition opening to staff, students and the public this week in the level 4 foyer of the Susan Wakil Health Building, a collaboration with his sister-in-law and artist Jessica Gilroy and psychologist Associate Professor Paul Rhodes.
When many of his research projects in communities came to a halt during COVID-19 lockdowns Professor Gilroy was inspired to communicate his research on Indigenous people’s experience of the NDIS through art, rather than the journal papers he was used to writing.
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