How old are you now?
Oh… mmmm… that’s a question.
That’s a sensitive question.
I’m not allowed to ask that.
I think we should introduce ourselves first.
Would you like to start?
Okay. Hi, my name is Queenie Wu.
I’m a clinical psychologist.
I’m also a founder of Mindspace Consulting,
it’s a bilingual psychology service in Melbourne.
specialised in providing psycho/educational seminars
and workshops and as well as assessment
and counselling services to the Chinese community in Australia,
that includes international students, Chinese migrants.
How about you?
Okay wow, that’s amazing.
So, my names Joshua Simm
and I’m a Bangerang/Yorta Yorta man
and I work for an organisation called Dardi Munwurro.
My role, I’m funded through the Magistrates' Court of Victoria
and it’s through a program called Umalek Balit.
It’s an initiative through the royal commission
to address the over-representation of
Aboriginal people in the judicial system.
What I do is,
I strengthen the pathways between
our organisation and the magistrates court in Shepparton,
corrections and other community services agencies,
in getting men to engage with us and our programs.
We look at the man’s own responsibility,
we work on integrity,
self-awareness, accountability.
We understand that
the answers that the men are looking for,
they already have those answers
inside of themselves and
we just help them to bring it out.
So, how long have you been in the field?
I’ve been working in this field,
probably four years now.
So, before that I worked as a tradesman.
Growing up I struggled with alcohol and drugs
and I got myself into a lot of trouble with that.
Just over four years ago,
I went into a rehab.
I got involved with Dardi Munwurro
when I was in that rehab
and then when I got out
I still continued to go to the program
because I got so much out of it.
It taught me a lot of life skills.
Growing up, I had some bad role models in my life
and I find being around men
who were accountable,
you know had that level of integrity in their life,
was something that I aspired to
and you know,
I wanted to grow as a person.
That’s a lot about me,
little bit more about you.
So, I came to Australia when I was an international student
when I was probably eighteen/nineteen.
So, I was studying foundation and got into University.
Was there any barriers that you found, sort of,
going through your study or finding placement?
Well, absolutely.
I guess, that’s the reason why not a lot
of international students studying psychology because
it is a difficult area to study,
there’s a lot of terminology,
you can’t just be good at language,
you have to have,
you know a certain level of cultural understanding.
The educational system in China and Australia is quite different.
Your cutting out
Can you…
Yep, you’re back now.
I can hear you.
Okay.
In China because of the cultural values
we respect authority
and teachers are usually an authority figure.
We were encouraged to accept
what we’ve been taught.
When we were growing up,
when you speak up, you have to be 100% sure
with what you say
and you need to believe
that what you say is right.
So, before we speak up
we have to really kind of rehearse
a couple times in our brain.
It’s almost rude to actually, you know,
get your hands up and talk about your thinking process
because it kind of, wasting people’s time.
Yep.
And in Australian classrooms,
a lot of the time you’ll see students
who just speak up and speak out their thinking process
rather than come up with a conclusion.
The really beginning I really struggled.
I remember not one teacher
actually realize that might be a cultural thing.
I see that as very similar to the Aboriginal culture
because we, if you’ve noticed Aboriginal people,
we’re very reserved and shy.
We want to be respectful of our elders
and this how we were brought up.
We hold strong values
in our culture of love and respect.
Even if there was something not nice to say about someone,
we’re better not to say it.
In Chinese culture, you know,
from very young, you know,
we’ve been taught to be responsible, you know,
responsible for our parents,
responsible with our family,
responsible for lots of things.
You know, a lot of the time when I’m dealing with,
you know, young kids or maybe teenagers
or young adults from a Chinese background.
The big pressure they have is from their family,
their responsibilities.
Yeah, in the Aboriginal culture,
I think it’s very free flowing.
Our parents are like
if that’s what you want to do then you do that,
they sort of, they support you.
The elders and stuff, they like believe that like,
we never, we don’t own the land
and we’re actually part of the land.
It’s actually more that the land owns us.
Look after the land, to look after the animals,
look after our loved ones
but it’s not like a corporate
or a structure or a political responsibility
it’s not in our thinking.
You know, there’s an extremely low access
to mental health by the Chinese community in Australia.
We’ll go to see GP,
to see Chinese traditional medicine for headaches,
for other somatic symptoms
but most of those symptoms was actually mental health related.
That low awareness of mental health
and the stigma about mental disorders,
I think that’s a big thing.
I always say to my clients is
that greater responsibility comes with greater power.
If you start taking responsibility of your mental health,
of your environment, of your situation and circumstances,
the more power you actually feel.