It’s been awhile. I’ve been on medical leave, just focusing on my health and wellbeing. I’ve been mostly resting. Slowly, at my own pace, I have also been tinkering away at some personal projects. Something I started before I went on leave is a collaboration with a colleage on the sociology of race.

We’re going to look at different theories about race, as well as methods, scholarship and practice. Our YouTube series invites Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and practitioners, as well as other people of colour, to talk about their research or services, and how we can apply critical race theory to our everyday lives. The first seven episodes focus on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how issues of race have influenced the Public Health Order. This includes the media, health settings and another institutional responses.

Today we filmed our first episode, which defines race. That is, what does it mean to look at race through institutional perspective? Then we went through what we’ll be covering in the next few episodes.

Let me quickly give you a flavour of what’s coming up for us.

We start off by looking at Indigenous sovereignty and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re going to be looking at the leadership of Aboriginal-controlled health organisations, and their responses to the pandemic. We’ll also hear about the concept of Indigenous sovereignty, and how it can be used to improve health policy.

Secondly, we have an episode on media representations of race. We’ll be talking to the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, and their initiatives to support First Nations health care workers. We’re also looking at how Indigenous methods can be used to improve pandemic responses.

Then we’ll speak to a researcher about how the history of racism towards Asian Australian people is playing out through the pandemic. We’ll speak to Aboriginal scholars about media treatment of Aboriginal people during the pandemic, and throughout the decades.

We’ll also look at concepts of cultural safety and how we can use a process of decolonisation in order to better respond to accessibility and during the lockdown.

We’ll chat with Aboriginal legal experts about policing patterns throughout this period of quarantine. We’ll also speak with other justice experts about the state of constitutional rights and data surveillance during the pandemic.

Our final session will cover economic and social costs of the pandemic. We’ll see how public health coordination is influenced by immigration policies, and the stories society is telling about the outbreak.

I’m super stoked that we’ve got amazing speakers who have generously given their time to chat with us

I’ll hopefully check in with you tomorrow, if not, before the end of the week.