From Exclusion to Innovation: Pat Dudgeon's Work in Indigenous Mental Health
Professor Pat Dudgeon's groundbreaking work in First Nations mental health in Australia began with a personal revelation that she had made history.
After discovering she was Australia's first Aboriginal psychologist, Professor Dudgeon reflected on how going through university there was “no place for any indigenous people” and the discipline “totally excluded us”.
On this month’s episode of Never the Same, Professor Dudgeon - a proud Bardi woman from the Kimberley in Western Australia - recalled reading African American psychology texts that opened her perception right up.
“They were just, you know, throwing the Western paradigms aside and saying, we have to build our own paradigm,” she said.
“So I did need to step back and say, what is Indigenous knowledge and what is important for Indigenous people?
“And that was my journey. And also to critique mainstream psychology … there's racism in its concepts and in its systems and everything else.”
Drawing from the foundational Ways Forward Report of 1995, Professor Dudgeon and her colleagues developed the Social Emotional Wellbeing model, a approach that places "self in the middle" while recognizing connections to "family," "community," "culture," "Country," and "spirituality and your ancestors."
Unlike Western psychology's isolated view of self, this model presents "a relational self" that acknowledges how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience wellness through interconnected domains.
As Professor Dudgeon explains, "It's not static, too. It's how we experience things and how we express them."
She emphasized that "it's not the only model out there" and advocates for creating space for other First Nations knowledge systems.
Looking ahead, Professor Dudgeon envisions a future where "any person ... could go to their local Aboriginal medical service" to access culturally grounded healing approaches, demonstrating how First Nations wisdom can benefit all communities while maintaining cultural authenticity and respect.