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Disability and Indigeneity: intersectionality of identity from the experience of Indigenous people at a global level

GILROY, John
UTTJEK, Margaretha
LOVERN, Lavonna
WARD, John
2021

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The authors of this paper have protested, fought, written extensively and represent the broader theoretical foundations of Indigenous and disability research by focusing on their standpoint perspectives informed by their ancestral spirits and knowledge. Based on our knowledge, cultures, and advocacy skills, this paper collectively explores and compares the intersections of Indigeneity and disability as an embodied identity in four countries: USA, Canada, Sweden, and Australia. This is accomplished by beginning with a brief synopsis of colonization to provide context and then examine the consequences of Western assimilation practices, including academic support of the Western status quo. The paper will then turn to the impact of both colonization and academic constructs on Indigenous epistemologies and ideas of self in disability dialogues. Finally, the paper will focus on Indigenous concepts of difference to not only advance Western disability discussions, but also as a way for Western dialogue to overcome its predilection to hierarchical binaries.

COVID 19 in Nepal: The Impact on Indigenous Peoples and Persons with Disabilities

GURUNG, Pratima
2021

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The COVID 19 pandemic crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of several important milestones for equality and the human rights of various marginalized groups including women and girls, indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities in all their diversities and intersections in Nepal. The COVID-19 pandemic has entrenched systemic gaps, underlying structural inequalities and pervasive discrimination, more visible with inadequate healthcare, access to information, employment and livelihoods, and social protection system mainly for marginalized groups. This study aims to understand the challenges and impacts of the COVID 19 on marginalized groups including persons with disabilities in Nepal. Based on qualitative research with primary and secondary information, the paper emphasizes the experiences and realities of marginalized groups during the lockdown and pandemic situations. Some of the existing challenges faced by marginalized groups include access to information and health measures related to COVID 19, access to livelihoods and employment, increasing rates of suicide, violence against women from marginalized groups, women with disabilities, and others. The study will integrate these components and deal with intersections with concrete recommendations. 

Inclusive practices in disaster risk management. Experiences of social actors and government entities in Latin America

HUMANITY & INCLUSION (HI)
December 2020

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Twelve inclusive practices are presented that explore the application of the inclusive approach to disaster risk management. Collecting and sharing inclusive practices is one axis of the project, “Inclusive Disaster Risk Management: An innovative approach towards inclusion of most vulnerable groups”, which aims to disseminate inclusive disaster risk management in Latin American countries in order to increase protection and resilience in high-risk groups. The project accompanies and strengthens regional, national, and local actors from the following countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru.

 

This regional initiative for inclusive disaster risk management is led by Humanity & Inclusion (HI), in partnership with Save the Children International Peru (SCI) and Cooperazione Internazionale Paraguay (COOPI). 

Disability Inclusive Development - Nepal Situational Analysis

ROHWERDER, Brigitte
June 2020

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This situational analysis (SITAN) addresses the question: “what is the current situation for persons with disabilities in Nepal?”. It has been prepared for the Disability Inclusive Development programme (which works on access to education, jobs, healthcare, and reduced stigma and discrimination for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, Jordan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Tanzania), to better understand the current context, including COVID-19, and available evidence in Nepal. It will be helpful for anyone interested in disability inclusion in Nepal, especially in relation to stigma, employment, education, health, and humanitarian issues. This SITAN has been briefly updated from the April 2019 SITAN.

Disability Royal Commission: WWDA’s response to education and learning issues paper

SANDS, Therese
April 2020

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In 2019 the Disability Royal Commission released an issues paper on education and learning. The issues paper asked 13 questions based on some of the key issues and barriers experienced by students with disability.

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) have now submitted their response to the issues paper which highlights key recommendations to improve the lives and experiences of students with disability. The recommendations stem from the following key areas:

  • Inclusive education
  • Intersectionality
  • Inequality and discrimination underpin violence
  • Restrictive practices – torture and ill-treatment
  • Exposing violence – desegregated data and intersectionality
  • Building strengths through inclusive education

Family-based activity settings of children in a low-income African context

BALTON, Sadna
UYS, Kitty
ALANT, Erna
2019

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Background: There has been an overwhelming call to improve the understanding of how children develop within an African context as Euro-American definitions of competence have been uncritically adopted as the norm for children in Africa. The activities that children engage in within the family setting are seen as important to understand how children develop within context. The use of activity settings is closely aligned with a strengths-based perspective of family-centred practice and contributes to improved sustainability of intervention.

 

Objectives: This study that was conducted in Soweto, South Africa, aims to describe activity settings that typically developing young children in low-income African contexts participate in.

 

Method: A descriptive design using structured interviews was utilised to obtain information about activity settings that children aged 3–5 years and 11 months engaged in. Structured interviews with 90 caregivers were conducted.

 

Results: Findings show that children participate in a variety of activities with varied participation levels. The types of activities are dependent on the context and perceptions of caregivers.

 

Conclusion: These findings draw attention to understanding activities that children engage in within the family context.

 

African Journal of Disability, Vol 8, 2019

Informe regional America Latina Bajo El enfoque de la convencion sobre los derechos de las personas con discapicidad

March 2019

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Este primer informe regional de la situación de las personas con discapacidad en América Latina ha sido elaborado por RIADIS con la finalidad de realizar un primer acercamiento al estado de la implementación de los ODS bajo el enfoque de la CDPD y la reformulación del Programa de Acción del Decenio de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA). En este sentido, el informe pretende identificar los avances y buenas prácticas que se encuentran realizando los gobiernos de la región en materia de la aplicación de la CDPD a través de la implementación de los ODS en la región, así como establecer las oportunidades y los desafíos que se presentan para que las organizaciones de personas con discapacidad puedan seguir conquistando nuevos espacios y haciendo efectivo el ejercicio pleno de sus derechos. El presente informe se enfoca en diez principales áreas temáticas, identificadas como prioritarias por las personas con discapacidad de la región, quienes aportaron al abordaje de las mismas, tanto a través de las respuestas que se recopilaron de la encuesta inicial, como a través de las contribuciones grupales e individuales obtenidas en el taller de revisión del borrador del informe regional.

 

Las diez áreas temáticas que se abordan en el presente informe son las siguientes: 1. Educación inclusiva 2. Mujeres con discapacidad 3. Personas indígenas con discapacidad 4. Inclusión laboral de las personas con discapacidad 5. Reducción de riesgos de desastres y acción humanitaria 6. Accesibilidad 7. Acceso a la justicia 8. Derecho a vivir de forma independiente y ser incluido en la comunidad 9. Recopilación de datos 10. Participación de las personas con discapacidad

Decolonizing schools: Women organizing, disability advocacy, and land in Sāmoa

ANESI, Julianne
2019

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In the 1970s and 1980s, Sāmoan women organizers established Aoga Fiamalamalama and Loto Taumafai, two educational institutions, in the independent state of Sāmoa. This article examines these schools’ support of students labelled as ma’i (sick), specifically those with intellectual and physical disabilities. Through oral histories and archival research, I show the vital role performed by the women organizers in changing the educational system by drawing attention to the exclusion of disabled students. I focus on the collective labor of Sāmoan women and their influence in decolonizing schools. In this regard, the women organizers used Sāmoan concepts of fa’a Sāmoa (culture), fanua (land), and tautua (service) as ways to redefine the commitment of the education system. This is a story about daring to reimagine indigenous disabled bodies and their futures through knowledge systems, theory, and literature.

 

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2019, Vol. 6 No. 1

Mental health among Sami people with intellectual disabilities

GJERTSEN, Hege
2019

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The first living condition-survey among people with intellectual disability in Sami areas in Norway was conducted in 2017. The purpose of this article is to present and discuss results from the living-condition study, with a focus on the results related to mental health and bullying as a risk factor for poor mental health among people with intellectual disability and a Sami background. We have conducted a questionnaire survey among people with intellectual disability in Sami areas, with and without a Sami background (N = 93). People with intellectual disability have poorer mental health compared to the population in general and those with Sami background have the poorest mental health. Bullying is one of several factors that increase the risk of poor mental health among people with intellectual disability and Sami background. Having a Sami background makes people with intellectual disability more disposed to poor mental health.

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2018, Vol. 5 No. 2 - Special issue: Intersecting Indigeneity, Colonisation and Disability

2018

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Articles include:

  • Editorial: Intersecting Indigeneity, colonialisation and disability
  • Yuin, Kamilaroi, Sámi, and Maori people’s reflections on experiences as ‘Indigenous scholars’ in ‘Disability Studies’ and ‘Decolonisation’
  • Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology: Practitioners’ Reflections on Indigeneity, Disability and Neo-Colonial Marketing
  • ‘My granddaughter doesn’t know she has disabilities and we are not going to tell her’: Navigating Intersections of Indigenousness, Disability and Gender in Labrador
  • Disabling Bodies of/and Land: Reframing Disability Justice in Conversation with Indigenous Theory and Activism
  • The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its implications for the health and wellbeing of indigenous peoples with disabilities: A comparison across Australia, Mexico and New Zealand
  • Challenges in global Indigenous–Disability comparative research, or, why nation-state political histories matter
  • ‘Black on the inside’: albino subjectivity in the African novel
  • The role of indigenous and external knowledge in development interventions with disabled people in Burkina Faso: the implications of engaging with lived experiences
  • An intersection in population control: welfare reform and indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Australian northern territory
  • Inclusion of marginalised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples with neurocognitive disability in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

 

Yuin, Kamilaroi, Sámi, and Maori people’s reflections on experiences as ‘Indigenous scholars’ in ‘Disability Studies’ and ‘Decolonisation’

GILROY, John
UTTJEK, Margaretha
GIBSON, Chontel
SMILER, Kirsten
2018

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Disability research in Indigenous communities operates within a culture of academic neo-imperialism. There is a need to decolonise disability research on a global level. Limited knowledge exists on Indigenous disability researchers' experiences in the disability research academy and on Indigenous disability research methodologies. In part, this is due to the limited writings produced by Indigenous peoples on disability research and research methodologies. Four indigenous disability researchers, one from the Nordic Region and two from Australia, and one from New Zealand met during and after the 2017 Nordic Network on Disability Research conference and reflected on and discussed each other’s experiences as Indigenous disability researchers. This paper reports on these scholars’ reflections on comparing the research methodologies and experiences of their disability research. Findings highlight how although Indigenous peoples are from different tribes/nations and countries, there are similarities and differences between each of the Indigenous disability researcher’s approach to decolonisation in disability research. The paper concludes that Sami, Australian Aboriginal people, and Maori people can learn from each other to advance the decolonisation of disability research, service and policy, at local, national and international levels.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

Audiology and speech-language pathology: Practitioners’ reflections on indigeneity, disability and neo-colonial marketing

PILLAY, Mershen
KATHARD, Harsha
2018

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Indigenous peoples are part of those populations who are underserved by Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. They include minority world populations like Aboriginal Australians/Canadians and majority world peoples in Asia, Africa and the Americas. How do Western-oriented rehabilitation/disability practitioners practice with Others? In this article, we reflect on our own experiences and use ideological critique to reveal the fault lines in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology practices. Along with other examples, we analyse South African data, viz.: canonical articles as illuminators and our works (c1990-). We reveal predominant practices/ideologies that contribute to the production of disability. We focus on three interconnected issues (i) the construction of rehabilitation/disability practitioners as (il)legitimate providers for indigenous peoples; (ii) the engagement of epistemic violence across disability practice, educational and policy domains; and (iii) the authoritative (re)inscription of indigenous persons as disabled by transnational practitioners who, like their corporate counterparts, market practices. Professional marketeering is infused with bigotry, masked as benevolence and resourced/justified by global, neo-liberal policies (e.g., international conventions) and funding. We conclude that disability practices and indigeneity in the post-colonial moment capitalises on established settler-native relationships to continue dominance over Others’ lives. Finally, we present a way forward, namely the relationship of Labouring Affinities which promotes deimperialisation and decolonisation practices to enable professional transformation.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

‘My granddaughter doesn’t know she has disabilities and we are not going to tell her’: Navigating intersections of indigenousness, disability and gender in Labrador

STIENSTRA, Deborah
BAIKIE, Gail
MANNING, Susan
2018

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Drawing from qualitative research and over five years of relationship-building with women in Labrador, Canada, this article explores the intersections of Indigenousness, disability and gender. Labrador offers a unique perspective with its three Indigenous nations, including one Indigenous self-government and settler populations; its remote and Northern location; and its long history as a site for resource exploitation, global military presence and colonial displacements. We explore how these features shape the experiences of women with disabilities, including in rejecting the label of ‘disability’ and finding spaces in their communities of both inclusion and exclusion. Understanding the experiences of women with disabilities in Labrador requires recognizing the disabling consequences of colonization and the fast-track urbanization that has accompanied resource development in the region. We highlight some Indigenous models of inclusion that are already working and can provide an opportunity for service providers, governments and those living in communities to learn from them.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

Disabling bodies of/and land: Reframing disability justice in conversation with indigenous theory and activism

JAFFEE, Laura
JOHN, Kelsey
2018

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A central claim of this paper is that the destruction of Earth through practices of settler colonialism is inextricable from the disablement of Indigenous ontology, peoples, and communities. The disablement of land/body as a tactic of settler colonialism has persisted for centuries and takes multifarious forms. By highlighting Indigenous struggles to protect Mother Earth and her sacred resources, we suggest that Indigenous ontology, specifically relationships to land (Deloria, 1972), challenges Eurocentric/settler disability theory at the epistemological level by rejecting the taken-for-granted dualism between the environment and (disabled) humans within (settler) disability studies. Indigenous ontology, and Indigenous peoples’ experiences of settler colonialism, belie a clear bifurcation of humans and the environment, or bodies and space. Land appropriation, resource extraction, linguistic genocide, forced removal, erasure, and devastation by settlers invariably wreaks havoc on the land, spirit, livestock, and bodies of Indigenous peoples. Rejecting logics of elimination and imagining alternative futures- in opposition to the capitalist state’s projection of futures devoid of disability and Indigeneity- is essential for realizing national and bodily self-determination for non-Indigenous disabled and Indigenous peoples in the present and into the future.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its implications for the health and wellbeing of indigenous peoples with disabilities: A comparison across Australia, Mexico and New Zealand

RIVAS VELARDE, Minerva C
O'BRIEN, Patricia
PARMENTER, Trevor R
2018

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This paper explores how the expressed health needs of Indigenous peoples with disabilities resonate with the mandate of Article 25 ‘Health’ of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The perceptions of indigenous peoples with disabilities are investigated, regarding their access to, and expectations of, health care. Their views are compared to those of health workers, senior bureaucrats and United Nations delegates. An exploratory case study approach was taken to compare three jurisdictions: Australia, Mexico and New Zealand. The data collection techniques used involved semi-structured interviews, focus groups and field notes. The findings suggest that the health needs of indigenous peoples with disabilities are largely underserved and misunderstood by health departments. Specialised and preventive health care for those with disabilities was found to be particularly problematic. Poverty, discrimination and disenfranchisement emerged as being the possible major determinants of the ill health experienced by indigenous peoples with disabilities. The findings and conclusions outlined in this paper advocate the need to build capacity and rights literacy for indigenous peoples with disabilities, particularly with respect to the CRPD, in order to enhance its impact on the health of indigenous people. A legitimate redistribution of resources and decision-making in response to the expressed health needs of indigenous peoples with disabilities is needed if the vision of the CPRD is to be realised in relation to Article 25. 

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

Challenges in global Indigenous–Disability comparative research, or, why nation-state political histories matter

SOLDATIC, Karen
MELBOE, Line
KERMIT, Patrick
SOMERS, Kelly
2018

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Globally, Indigenous people, also known as First Peoples, have the poorest health outcomes of all population groups, resulting in significantly higher rates of chronic disease, ill-health, and disability. Recent research strongly suggests that Australian First Peoples and the Sami peoples of the Nordic region are positioned at opposite ends of the disability–health spectrum. Australia’s First Peoples, now experience the highest rates of disability in the nation’s recorded history, despite the significant government investment over recent decades in national Indigenous policy. Yet, Nordic Indigenous populations appear to have similar health outcomes and living conditions as the rest of the population in the region. In this paper, we compare some of the global assumptions of the two leading countries of the United Nations Human Development Index– Norway (ranked first) and Australia (ranked second)– and examine the ways in which such rankings act to hide the disparities of life trajectories and outcomes for Indigenous persons living with disability compared to the rest of the population in each country. The findings of the comparative analysis illustrate core areas for consideration when undertaking in-depth comparative research with First Nation’s peoples. This includes issues surrounding the differentiated political significance of national population data systems for local Indigenous peoples in their struggles for recognition, and the nuanced processes of population data categorisation that are developed as a result of First Nation’s localised struggles for recognition, respect and rights under processes of European colonisation.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

An intersection in population control: welfare reform and indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Australian northern territory

St GUILLAUME, Louise
THILL, Cate
2018

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In Australia, in the last decade, there have been significant policy changes to income support payments for people with a disability and Indigenous people. These policy reforms intersect in the experience of Indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Northern Territory who are subject to compulsory income management if classified as long-term welfare payment recipients. This intersection is overlooked in existing research and government policy. In this article, we apply intersectionality and Southern disability theory as frameworks to analyse how Indigenous people with a partial capacity to work (PCW) in the Northern Territory are governed under compulsory income management. Whilst the program is theoretically race and ability neutral, in practice it targets specific categories of people because it fails to address the structural and cultural barriers experienced by Indigenous people with a disability and reinscribes disabling and colonising technologies of population control.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

Inclusion of marginalised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with neurocognitive disability in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

TOWNSEND, Clare
McINTYRE, Michelle
LAKHANI, Ali
WRIGHT, Courtney
WHITE, Paul
BISHARA, Jason
CULLEN, Jennifer
2018

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Given the ambiguity surrounding the extent and experience of neurocognitive disability (NCD) among marginalised Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, evidence regarding the level and nature of NCD is crucial to ensure equitable access and inclusion into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This paper reports the results of the implementation of The Guddi Protocol (a culturally informed and appropriate screening protocol for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples) at two locations in Queensland. Results indicated high levels of NCD, and additional qualitative data revealed a number of factors associated with the complex disablement of study participants, namely: i) intergenerational trauma; ii) a social context of disadvantage, marginalisation and exclusion; and iii) the nonidentification of disability. The results are linked to implications for NDIS inclusion for this population, and recommendations are made. Unless the extent and nature of complex disability and the issues surrounding culturally safe policy, and service design and engagement are addressed with and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including those who experience complex disablement, marginalised people will continue to be effectively excluded from the NDIS.

 

Disability and the Global South, 2018, Vol.5, No. 2

Better understanding of youth mental health

The Lancet
April 2017

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Mental health issues are the leading cause of disability in adolescents aged 15–19 years in all the world's regions, contributing 45% of their overall burden of disease. Early intervention to prevent mental health disorders is crucial to suicide prevention and to improve lifelong wellbeing. In April 2017, Mission Australia, in association with the Black Dog Institute (a research institute based in New South Wales) published the 5th Youth Mental Health Report. A survey of 21 000 Australian adolescents recorded 22·8% of young Australians meeting the criteria for probable serious mental illness (PSMI), as assessed by the Kessler 6 measure of non-specific psychological distress. Adolescent girls were almost twice as likely than boys to meet the criteria for PSMI. A significantly higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander responders met the criteria for PSMI (31·6%)  than non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.


DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31140-6

Vol. 389, No. 10080, p1670, 29 April 2017

 

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