Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples often face unique and heightened workplace stressors, including racism, discrimination, and the weight of “colonial load”—the cumulative impacts of colonization that continue to affect daily life.
While systemic change and top-down solutions are essential to address these deeper issues, there are some easy steps that non-Indigenous managers and colleagues can take to foster a more supportive and inclusive workplace environment.
In this blog, we’ll be highlighting resources designed to help both non-Indigenous allies create a culturally safe and respectful workplace, and also resources that can support First Nations health and wellbeing workers.
Colonial (“cultural”) load
First Nations workers often experience what is often referred to as ‘cultural load’ but more accurately termed ‘colonial load.’ To many First Nations people, culture is a responsibility and privilege to embrace, nurture and practice in our own unique way. This doesn’t align with the negative connotation that culture is a ‘load’ or burden.
Colonial load more accurately reflects the extra expectations that can be imposed on First Nations workers, especially for any sole Indigenous workers in non-Indigenous teams. It includes the additional pressures on First Nations workers to individually represent or answer questions on Indigenous issues, knowledge or perspectives. These obviously may differ for each First Nations person and community. It is the responsibility of non-Indigenous workers to learn about local cultures and peoples themself in order to deliver cultural safe services and programs.
It is important that managers and colleagues know how to avoid inflicting ‘colonial load’ onto their First Nations employees, colleagues and contacts. The Resource Sheet on How to be a good ally lists resources on reducing colonial load, as well as explaining what cultural safety means, the concept of cultural humility and how to stand up against racism.
The is also an accredited 1 hour webinar for practitioners called How to be a good ally to First Nations peoples for non-Indigenous health practitioners and managers.
Racism and discrimination
Systemic racism and workplace discrimination are still commonly reported by First Nations workers in mainstream settings all too often. This can affect not only worker satisfaction and productivity, but client and program outcomes. WellMob’s newly published Racism Resource Sheet has a collection of practical resources on dealing with and responding to racism. It is useful for both non-Indigenous managers and First Nations staff, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients experiencing racism and discrimination.
Creating a safe and prosperous workplace for First Nations staff
There are a growing number of resources developed by First Nations organisations on how to make our workplaces culturally safe, supportive and productive, and you will find them on WellMob:
A guide for managers by the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia (2019) explains the elements necessary for a supportive workplace and what contributes to cultural safety, such as having significant Aboriginal leadership and a seat at the decision-making table, regular and mandatory cultural awareness training, co-designing job descriptions, clarifying rights and responsibilities, and considering recruitment and retention strategies.
The Workforce Wellbeing Guide by the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services and University of WA (2024), recognises that sometimes workers can feel overwhelmed or stressed. Common causes are because of the nature of their work, high or complex work load, feeling like nothing they do is making a difference to people in their community, experiencing difficulties with another team member or manager, or experiencing challenges in balancing cultural and family obligations with work responsibilities.
The guide promotes the importance of reflective practice and self-care. It identifies the signs of burnout, and the value of strategies for managing stress such as mindfulness, setting clear boundaries in relation to work, building allyship, and teamwork.
The Insight Centre for Alcohol and Other Drug Training and Workforce Development has developed a brilliant resource for the alcohol and other drugs (AOD) workforce about workplace wellbeing and self-care. It includes videos, an online learning module and other tips and suggestions relevant for all health workers (not just the AOD sector).
This resource addresses the particular challenges for AOD workers and has an additional information sheet for First Nations workers in the AOD workplace.
Social and emotional wellbeing: a welcome guide for the Aboriginal workforce, addresses the particular needs of First Nations workers, explaining the concept of Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB). It also promotes the importance of regular performance appraisals, reflective practice and supervision.
This resource lists numerous practical ideas for workers on self-care in the physical, spiritual, emotional and mental aspects of working life.
The 40 minute podcast Black burnout: how Indigenous workers combat stress and foster wellbeing features Caroline Kell, a Mbarbrum woman from Far North Queensland, who is the founder and managing director of Black Wattle Coaching. It discusses what burnout is and how it is different for First Nations people. Caroline and podcast host Mikayla discuss ways to replenish, have empathy and manage emotional load.
This resource covers the impact of over-working, exhaustion, racism, cultural load, being in a minority and how to overcome these issues.
The Workplace Wellbeing Resource Sheet for First Nations workers provides links to resources to support our wellbeing in the workplace. These resources cover topics like cultural load, supervision and workplace support, plus managing racism, isolation and black burnout. At the end, there are links to other WellMob webpages to help maintain your Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) including a practical 1-page Tips for Self-Care at Work.
If you are a non-Indigenous manager or supervisor, or colleague, we also recommend you check out the resource sheets on Understanding Social and Emotional Wellbeing, and Understanding the Impact of Colonisation.
For other resources on ways to build better workplace culture, promote cultural safety at work, and recruit and maintain and a thriving First Nations workforce, check out the Training Resources webpage on WellMob.
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