Culture, safety, & sovereignty: A conversation with Professor Chelsea Watego S8E23

Culture, safety, & sovereignty: A conversation with Professor Chelsea Watego S8E23

July 7, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

The episode features a conversation about Indigenous healthcare and cultural sovereignty in celebration of NAIDOC Week.

In this week’s episode, we are celebrating NAIDOC Week. SPA’s First Nations Lead, Nikita Westbury, speaks with Professor Chelsea Watego, a Munanjali and South Sea Islander woman with a career spanning 20 years in Indigenous healthcare, research, advocacy, and innovation. Nikita and Chelsea discuss what transformative change looks like when we talk about eliminating racism, facilitating self-determination, and uplifting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. Speech Pathology Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of lands, seas and waters throughout Australia, and offers our respect to Elders, across all times and places. The Speak Up podcast recognises the central role of yarning and oral storytelling in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, how this translates to knowledge translation, and that colonisation has interrupted these practices of Language and knowledge sharing. The Speak Up podcast acknowledges the need for truth-telling and deep listening, the central role that Language plays in connecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People with Culture, Country, and Community, and the interwoven nature of health, and social and emotional…

People in this episode

Host: Nikita Westbury

Guest: Professor Chelsea Watego

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Speech Pathology Australia

Places: Australia, Country, lands, seas and waters

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