Provoking intergenerational change: empowering a generation to close their own gap - Wayne Denning (Carbon Creative)

QUT Institute for Future Environments

IFE Grand Challenge Lecture, recorded 4 May 2018 at QUT

In today’s media landscape, there is much discussion of closing the gap for Indigenous Australians, but a decade on, only three of the seven targets set by the Council of Australian Governments are on track. The four targets not yet achieved directly affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth: reading and writing, school attendance, life expectancy and employment.

With more than half the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population being 25 years or younger, and with no simple solutions in sight, it is time to prompt intergenerational change beginning with Indigenous youth.

In his address, Wayne Denning explores such solutions as: positive self-identification, in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth need to see themselves as successful, strong, happy, confident human beings who are comfortable within their culture; the promotion of their Aboriginality; and the amplification of programs that encourage youth self-empowerment and lead to a ‘youth movement’.