Chelsea Watego

Watego was born in 1978 or 1979 in Brisbane, Queensland, and is the daughter of Vern and Elaine Watego.{{Cite web|url=https://www.croakey.org/letter-to-my-former-self-7-insights-for-becoming-an-ethical-indigenous-researcher/|title=Letter to my former self: 7 insights for becoming an ethical Indigenous researcher|publisher=Croakey Health Media|last=Bond|first=Chelsea|editor-last=McInerney|editor-first=Marie|date=24 November 2016|access-date=30 November 2021}} Vern was Mununjali Yugambeh (an Australian Aboriginal group whose traditional lands are located around Beaudesert in South East Queensland) and South Sea Islander, while Elaine is of English and Irish descent.{{Cite news|title=Chelsea Bond: Australia Day ought to be for everyone|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/chelsea-bond-australia-day-ought-to-be-for-everyone/XEVWGYPWADKCZ3LA7GH75GVAEA/|newspaper=The New Zealand Herald|last=Bond|first=Chelsea|date=27 January 2015|access-date=30 December 2021}} Through Vern, her great-great-great-grandfather was Bilin Bilin, a well-known Yugambeh man and diplomat who died in 1901.{{Cite book|title=Fire Front: First Nations poetry and power today|editor-last=Whittaker|editor-first=Alison|editor-link=Alison Whittaker|publisher=University of Queensland Press|date=28 April 2020|isbn= 9780702263880|chapter=Dear Ancestor|last=Bond|first=Chelsea|pages=3–8}}{{rp|3–4}}

She has five children (Kihi, Matt, Eliakim, Vernon and George) with her ex-husband, Matthew Kihi Toka Bond.{{Cite episode|title=Through American Eyes|series=Foreign Correspondent|network=ABC TV|date=26 June 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.uqp.com.au/books/another-day-in-the-colony|title=Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego|publisher=University of Queensland Press|access-date=30 December 2021}}{{Cite podcast|url=https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/id1595031851?i=1000548668931|title=09: AMA about how Straya Day and the GST suck (ft. Chelsea Watego)|website=Serious Danger|last=Moon|first=Emerald|last2=Ballard|first2=Tom|author-link2=Tom Ballard (comedian)|date=22 January 2022|access-date=30 January 2022}}

Watego studied a Bachelor of Applied Health Science at the University of Queensland (UQ), graduating with honours in 2001. In 2007, she received her Doctor of Philosophy for her thesis, '"When you're black, they look at you harder": narrating Aboriginality within public health,' under the supervision of Mark Brough, Leonie Cox and Megan Jennaway.{{Cite web|url=https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:158618|title="When you're black, they look at you harder": narrating Aboriginality within public health|last=Bond|first=Chelsea|publisher=University of Queensland|date=28 August 2007|access-date=29 December 2021}}

She has since worked as a researcher and lecturer at both UQ and Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She began her academic career at UQ, and worked there as Principal Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences.{{Cite web|url=https://poche.centre.uq.edu.au/profile/183/chelsea-bond|title=Associate Professor Chelsea Bond|publisher=University of Queensland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229042632/https://poche.centre.uq.edu.au/profile/183/chelsea-bond|archive-date=29 December 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}} However, in 2019 she lodged a race and sex discrimination complaint against UQ and left the university for QUT,{{Cite news|title=Always Bet on Black (Power)|url=https://meanjin.com.au/essays/always-bet-on-black-power/|magazine=Meanjin|last=Watego|first=Chelsea|date=Spring 2021|access-date=30 December 2021}} where she began work as Professor of Indigenous Health on 26 July 2021.{{Cite news|title=Project aims to develop advanced health outcomes for Indigenous peoples|url=https://www.miragenews.com/project-aims-to-develop-advanced-health-599556/|publisher=Mirage.News|date=21 July 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}} As of 2021, she is also a director and principal researcher at the Institute for Collaborative Race Research.{{Cite web|url=https://icrr.com.au/professor-chelsea-watego|title=Professor Chelsea Watego|publisher=Institute for Collaborative Race Research|access-date=30 December 2021|archive-date=29 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229191056/https://icrr.com.au/professor-chelsea-watego|url-status=dead}}

She has received awards for her scholarship, particularly the 2009 NAIDOC Award for Scholar of the Year and the 2012 Lowitja Institute Emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Researcher Award.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lowitja.org.au/page/research/awards/emerging-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-researchers-award|title= Emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Researcher Award|publisher=Lowitja Institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229061543/https://www.lowitja.org.au/page/research/awards/emerging-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-researchers-award|archive-date=29 December 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}}

The focus of her academic work has been described as "interpreting and privileging Indigenous experiences of the health system, including critically examining the role of Aboriginal health workers, the narratives of Indigeneity produced within public health, and advocating for strength based community development approaches to Indigenous health promotion practice". She has also worked prominently on the development of the field of Indigenist health humanities, for which she received a $1.7 million grant in 2021.

Watego has written for numerous publications including IndigenousX, NITV, ABC News, Meanjin, SBS, The Guardian and The Conversation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/chelsea.bond|title=Professor Chelsea Watego|publisher=Queensland University of Technology|access-date=30 December 2021}}{{Cite news|title=Class is the new black: The dangers of an obsession with the 'Aboriginal middle class'|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/opinion-class-is-the-new-black-chelsea-bond/8655544|publisher=ABC News|last=Bond|first=Chelsea|date=28 June 2017|access-date=30 December 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2021/11/03/chelsea-watego-our-blackness-was-not-source-shame-source-pride|title=Chelsea Watego: "Our Blackness was not a source of shame but a source of pride"|last=Watego|first=Chelsea|publisher=SBS|date=5 November 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}} Her essay Mythologies of Aboriginal Culture was nominated for the 2016 Horne Prize, but lost to Anna Spargo-Ryan's The Suicide Gene.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehorneprize.com.au/news|title=NEWS|publisher=Horne Prize|access-date=30 December 2021|archive-date=10 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310224929/https://www.thehorneprize.com.au/news|url-status=dead}}

From 2017 to 2020, she hosted Wild Black Women with Angelina Hurley on 98.9 FM in Brisbane.{{Cite web|url=https://australianaudioguide.com/makers/dr-chelsea-bond/|title=Dr Chelsea Bond|publisher=Australian Audio Guide|access-date=30 December 2021}} The show received particular publicity for its interview of Trevor Noah in 2019. In the episode, he and the hosts discussed a controversial joke he made in 2013 about Aboriginal women which Anita Heiss had called "disgusting and offensive".{{Cite AV media|title=Trevor Noah refuses to apologise for sexual joke about Aboriginal women|url=https://www.facebook.com/NITVAustralia/videos/2211034342462942|publisher=NITV|date=24 August 2018|access-date=30 December 2021}}{{Cite tweet|last=Heiss|first=Anita|author-link=Anita Heiss|user=AnitaHeiss|number=1020954908772556801|title=I had to prepare myself to watch. Save yourself. It's disgusting and offensive. The man has no idea.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229032859/https://twitter.com/AnitaHeiss/status/1020954908772556801|archive-date=29 December 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}} Noah received criticism for refusing to apologise for the joke.{{Cite news|title=Aboriginal women are Black women too|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2018/08/24/aboriginal-women-are-black-women-too|publisher=NITV|last=Bond|first=Chelsea|date=25 August 2018|access-date=30 December 2021}}

Watego has also often spoken at events and on panels, receiving praise particularly for a 2019 appearance at La Trobe University during which she spoke out against structural racism.{{Cite web|url=https://indigenousx.com.au/dr-chelsea-bond-delivers-a-masterclass-in-indigenous-excellence/|title=Dr Chelsea Bond delivers a masterclass in Indigenous Excellence|publisher=IndigenousX|last1=Pearson|first1=Luke|last2=Cromb|first2=Nat|date=15 April 2019|access-date=30 December 2021}}

In 2021, her first book, Another Day in the Colony, was published by University of Queensland Press.{{Cite news|title='We have yet to reach our postcolonial moment': Chelsea Watego on colonialism and the canon|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/18/we-have-yet-to-reach-our-postcolonial-moment-chelsea-watego-on-colonialism-and-the-canon|newspaper=The Guardian|last=Daley|first=Paul|date=18 December 2021|access-date=30 December 2021}} It is a collection of essays which "[examine] the ongoing and daily racism faced by First Nations peoples in so-called Australia," and has received positive reviews. Declan Fry in The Guardian described it as "a fierce manifesto for First Nations to flourish,"{{Cite news|title=Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego review – a fierce manifesto for First Nations to flourish|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/26/another-day-in-the-colony-by-chelsea-watego-review-a-fierce-manifesto-for-first-nations-to-flourish|newspaper=The Guardian|last=Fry|first=Declan|date=26 November 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}} Kara Nicholson for "Readings" labelled it a "collection of sharply written, fiercely intelligent and engaging essays" and "absolutely essential reading,"{{Cite web|url=https://www.readings.com.au/products/33838643/another-day-in-the-colony|title=Another Day in the Colony|publisher=Readings|last=Nicholson|first=Kara|date=2 November 2021 |access-date=29 December 2021}} and Monique Grbec in Kill Your Darlings declared that it "[gave] agency, dignity and power in response to the shared experience of racism" and called it "Deadly".{{Cite news|title=Books Roundup: Permafrost, Scary Monsters, Another Day in the Colony, How to End a Story|url=https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/books-roundup-permafrost-scary-monsters-another-day-in-the-colony-how-to-end-a-story/|magazine=Kill Your Darlings|last1=Cregan|first1=Ellen|last2=Gill|first2=Mindy|last3=Grbec|first3=Monique|last4=Murphy|first4=Fiona|date=18 November 2021|access-date=29 December 2021}} At the 2022 Queensland Literary Awards it won the People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award{{Cite web |last=Burke |first=Kelly |date=2022-09-08 |title=Queensland Literary awards: winners list reflects 'a moment of change for the nation' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/sep/08/queensland-literary-awards-winners-list-reflects-a-moment-of-change-for-the-nation |access-date=2022-09-08 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Award for a Work of State Significance and Nonfiction.{{Cite web |title=2022 Queensland Literary Awards shortlists |url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/queensland-literary-awards |access-date=2022-08-03 |website=State Library of Queensland |language=en}} It was shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for both Indigenous Writing and Nonfiction{{Cite web|url=https://creative.vic.gov.au/news/2021/victorian-premiers-literary-awards-shortlist-announced|title=Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Shortlist Announced|publisher=Creative Victoria|date=8 December 2021|access-date=30 December 2021|archive-date=29 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229191335/https://creative.vic.gov.au/news/2021/victorian-premiers-literary-awards-shortlist-announced|url-status=dead}} and for the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Nonfiction.{{Cite web |last= |date=2022-11-07 |title=Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2022 shortlists announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2022/11/07/222913/prime-ministers-literary-awards-2022-shortlists-announced/ |access-date=2022-11-08 |website=Books+Publishing |language=en-AU}} It was also longlisted for the Stella Prize in 2022{{Cite web |date=2022-02-28 |title=The Stella Prize longlist 2022 |url=https://www.readings.com.au/news/the-stella-prize-longlist-2022?fbclid=IwAR1HxgJIOFnjX3KDKxxH0U6N9Y2gJX3jdhIajFnSJ55AKrpU37vfPSV5bgQ |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=Readings |language=en}} and shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction and the Indigenous Writers' Prize at the 2023 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-01 |title=Another Day in the Colony |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/douglas-stewart-prize-non-fiction/2023-shortlisted-another-day-colony |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=State Library of NSW}}{{Cite web |date=2023-02-01 |title=Another Day in the Colony |url=https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/indigenous-writers-prize/2023-shortlisted-another-day-colony |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=State Library of NSW}}

In 2018, Watego was arrested on charges of obstructing police and refusing to leave a licensed premise, after being forcibly removed from The Beat nightclub in Fortitude Valley. She subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of public nuisance. Watego stated the arrest left her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She later lodged a racial discrimination complaint against Queensland Police with the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), retaining George Newhouse as her solicitor.{{cite news|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/the-point/article/racial-discrimination-case-launched-against-state-of-queensland-by-professor-chelsea-watego/1m9i60vzn|title=Racial discrimination case launched against state of Queensland by Professor Chelsea Watego|publisher=NITV|date=6 September 2022|accessdate=20 October 2022|first=Keira|last=Jenkins}} In October 2022, QCAT dismissed her complaint, with Newhouse stating that "the tribunal member felt that there wasn't enough evidence to convince him that the decisions that the police made were on the basis of race".{{cite news|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/theres-a-greater-price-to-be-paid-for-silence-indigenous-author-who-lost-racism-complaint-doesnt-want-others-to-be-discouraged/415j9xx8s|title=Professor Chelsea Watego loses racism case but doesn't want others to be discouraged|publisher=NITV|date=11 October 2022|accessdate=20 October 2022|first=Dijana|last=Damjanovic}} The Tribunal found Professor Watego detailed this incident in her book 'Another Day in the Colony' but "... what is said in the book about the actions of the second and third respondents is untrue." and "... naming them could establish a cause of action in defamation ...". On 2 August 2023 the Tribunal found that the complaint was so devoid of merit that it warranted an award of costs against the complainaint in the interests of justice.{{Cite web | url=https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2023/QCAT23-292.pdf | title=Watego v State of Queensland and ors (costs) QCAT 292 | year=2023 | website=archive.sclqld.org.au}}

In 2019, Watego lodged racial and sex discrimination complaints against the University of Queensland, alleging that the university had provided an inadequate workspace for her team. She withdrew the complaints in 2021, criticising the National Tertiary Education Union for what she described as a lack of legal support.{{cite news|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03267-6|title='There's no space for us': an Indigenous-health researcher battles racism in Australia|date=19 October 2022|newspaper=Nature|first=Smriti|last=Mallapaty|accessdate=20 October 2022}}

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• [https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/chelsea.bond Chelsea Watego's staff profile] at Queensland University of Technology

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