Indigenous Person's Health Journey: Narrative on Nova Peris's Mental Health Issues Due to Racism

This assignment narrates the health journey of Nova Peris, an Indigenous Australian woman who faced mental health issues due to racism and discrimination. It highlights the impact of her family's support on her success as an athlete and politician, and how she became an inspiration for her community members.

Running head: INDIGENOUS PERSON'S HEALTH JOURNEY
Narrative/storying on an Indigenous person's health journey
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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INDIGENOUS PERSON'S HEALTH JOURNEY
Selected indigenous person: Nova Peris
Chosen indigenous health issue: mental health
Introduction
Improving the overall health standard of indigenous population in Australia is a
prolong challenge for Australian government. The gap in the health status of the non-
indigenous and indigenous Australians always remain unacceptably high and this has been
identified as the major human right concern by the United Nations Committees. The
important social determinants of indigenous health inequality in Australia include lack of
proper access of primary health care, lower standard of living and racial discrimination.
These health inequalities increase the physical and mental health concerns among the
indigenous population in Australia and thereby further creating a barrier towards their success
(Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017). The following assignment aims to analyse the
health journey of Nova Peris, a renowned sports person in Australia from indigenous origin.
Upon analysis of the health journey of Nova Peris via a story-telling format, this assignment
will act as a source of inspiration for other indigenous people who aspires to succeed in life
via doing something significant. The assignment begins with a brief career history of Nova
Peris followed by mental health issues as a result of racial discrimination and its subsequent
impact on her family and community members.
Reason for telling the story
Nova Peris is popular for her significant accomplishments in sports. She is the first
indigenous Australian woman to win gold medal in Olympic at 1996 Atlanta Olympic as a
player for women’s hockey team. This versatile sports person also achieved similar success
upon switching to athletics. Her 200-meter sprint and 100-meter relay in 1998
Commonwealth Games fetcher her two gold medals. Her achievement earned her the title of
Young Australian of the year (1997) and was later awarded Order of Australian medal. After
her retirement from sports she became a prominent political personality and an aboriginal
activist. She was a treaty ambassador for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
On 2013, then prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard recruited Nova Peris as the senate
candidate for Northern Territory on 2013 federal election. Her promising professional career
as a sports person and political achievement while being an aboriginal woman made her story
worth sharing from the perspective of indigenous person’s health journey (Ricci, 2013).
Indigenous health issue(s) of Nova Peris
In spite of having a successful career as a sport’s person, Peris’s life was just like any
other indigenous population residing in Australia. One of the prime health concerns that can
be easily highlighted in Nova Perris’s life is victim of racism. Racism is broadly defined as
practices, behaviours and prejudices that underlie unfair and avoidable inequalities across
different groups in the society based on ethnicity, race, religion and culture. Racism is often
conceptualized at three levels. The first one is overlap with the prevailing practice, second is
interpersonal racism and the third one is institutional or system based racism (Kelaher, 2014).
The life story of Peris highlights that she has been victim of all the three form of racism
(Peris & Heads, 2003).
According to Peris, she has faced discrimination dur to her race especially during
childhood. Nova also believes that she was also the subject of racism when she was offered

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INDIGENOUS PERSON'S HEALTH JOURNEY
secretarial work in Queensland as she was denied for the job by her potential employees’ dur
to her race. Even Peris also complained that one of the field and track mater repeatedly
taunted her via calling her “nigger”. Moreover, the controversy that followed her on 1998
Common Wealth Games might have been inspired by racism (Peris & Heads, 2003).
The issue of racism faced by Nova peris during her childhood and also during her
professional career can be regarded as the significant mental health issue. According to
Kelaher (2014), there is a prominent link between the self-reported cases of racism and poor
mental health outcomes. There are enough references that racism contributes towards poor
mental health outcomes among the Aboriginals of Australia (Kelaher, 2014). Forrest, Lean
and Dunn (2016) reported that racism experienced under any form of settings be it education,
professionals or personal is associated with psychological distress.
It is due to her constant victim of racism in school, Nova used to frequently run away
from school be it in primary school or while she was in high school. Her self-esteem was
lagging and constant taunt from her friends and lack of support coming from her teacher
made her reluctant to visit school. This scenario is still the same in the Australia. According
to the reports published by The Conversation (2014), indigenous students skip schools in
Australia in order to avoid bullying and racism. The survey also highlighted that the children
who are the victims during the early years in school suffer from poor self-esteem and
associated mental health complications.
Since Peris herself was victim of racism, she while being senator join campaign to
combat again depression and racism experienced by the indigenous Australian and the Torres
Strait Islander. Her campaign was jointly supported by Jeff Kennett (mental health advocate).
During campaign Peris was found reporting that how racism and discrimination damage
mental health (The Guardian, 2014).
Impact of health journey of Nova Peris on family and community
According to the autobiography of Nova Peris, the Peris family was always
supportive towards Nova. Nova’s mother (Joan Peris) was a professional soccer player for
Northern Territory. Thus she herself being a sport’s person was very supportive towards
Nova and also looked after Jessie (Nova’s child) when Nova was in peak of her professional
career. Nova’s father, John Christophersen was estranged from her mother but was very
supportive and protective towards Nova. He being active in indigenous politics educated
Nova about health and well-being of the indigenous Australians (Peris & Heads, 2003).
Moreover, Nova’s step father Darwin policeman Les Chapman was also very
supportive towards Nova. It is he who chastisement Nova and compelled her to complete her
basic level of education before she venture out with her sporting career (Peris & Heads,
2003).
Thus, the life story of Nova Peris showed that a supportive family can help to
overcome adverse mental health outcomes. It is due to her supportive family who channelized
Nova towards the right direction in her career helped her to succeed in life. According to
Wei, Yeh, Chao, Carrera and Su (2013), active support coming from the family members is
extremely helpful for the indigenous children or the young adults who are suffering from the
mental health complications or hurdles in the professional life due constant discrimination in
the workplace.

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INDIGENOUS PERSON'S HEALTH JOURNEY
It can also be seen that Nova’s health journey failed to cast any prominent negative
impact on the family member’s of Nova. However, Nova’s husband was always indifferent to
her success and this can be again an example of stereotype of indigenous culture were a
working women or successful wife is always look down upon (Moreton-Robinson, 2013).
However, life of Nova Peris, her struggle towards success cast immense impact over
her community member. She acted like a figure of inspiration to them. Moreover her political
role as a senate helped her to connect even more closely with her community members,
known their problem or health inequalities and work accordingly for their betterment.
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Nova Peris, a successful
sport’s person from indigenous Australian population is also a victim of racism and
discrimination. This constant discrimination prevented her from going to school. However,
active support coming from her family members and her strong determination helped her to
succeed in her life via overcoming all the barriers and depression. She acts as an inspiration
for all her community members who aspire to achieve something significant in life via
overcoming the burden of health inequalities in Australia.

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INDIGENOUS PERSON'S HEALTH JOURNEY
References
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2017). Social determinants and the health of
Indigenous peoples in Australia – a human rights based approach. Access date: 31st
July 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/social-
determinants-and-health-indigenous-peoples-australia-human-rights-based
Forrest, J., Lean, G., & Dunn, K. (2016). Challenging racism through schools: teacher
attitudes to cultural diversity and multicultural education in Sydney, Australia. Race
Ethnicity and Education, 19(3), 618-638.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2015.1095170
Kelaher, M. A. (2014). Experiencing racism in health care: the mental health impacts for
Victorian Aboriginal communities. Education, 55(56), 8-3. doi: 10.5694/mja13.10503
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2013). Towards an Australian Indigenous women's standpoint theory:
A methodological tool. Australian Feminist Studies, 28(78), 331-347.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2013.876664
Peris, N., & Heads, I. (2003). Nova: My Story: the Autobiography of Nova Peris. ABC
Books. Access date: 31st July 2018. Retrieved from:
http://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/peris-nova-17821
Ricci., C. (2013). Who is Nova Peris?. The Sydney Morning Herald. Access date: 31st July
2018. Retrieved from: https://www.smh.com.au/education/who-is-nova-peris-
20130201-2dpgi.html
The Conversation. (2014). Indigenous students skipping school to avoid bullying and racism.
Access date: 31st July 2018. Retrieved from: http://theconversation.com/indigenous-
students-skipping-school-to-avoid-bullying-and-racism-25433
The Guardian. (2014). Racism causing mental health issues in Indigenous communities,
survey shows. Access date: 31st July 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/racism-mental-health-indigenous-
communities
Wei, M., Yeh, C. J., Chao, R. C. L., Carrera, S., & Su, J. C. (2013). Family support, self-
esteem, and perceived racial discrimination among Asian American male college
students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(3), 453.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0032344