Exploring Sexuality and Gender Diversity for Indigenous Australians

There is not a lot of literature on Indigenous people and sex work, and what does exist is often a negative narrative of exploitation. This is something that Professor Corrinne Sullivan, Associate Dean of Indigenous Education at Western Sydney University, hopes to change.  

Sullivan is an Aboriginal scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in Central-West New South Wales. She has published several journal articles and book chapters and wrote her PhD thesis on the topic. Her research has documented the lived experiences of Indigenous Australian sex workers and includes discussion on how sexuality and gender diversity can be explored through sex work. Her most recent paper was published in the Journal of Intercultural Studies. 

Sullivan found that there are complex and nuanced reasons why some Indigenous Australians choose sex work. She learned that the reasons are often pragmatic, such as for economic freedom or to have flexibility to work around childcare commitments, but also that, for some people, sex work validates their gender expression and feelings about sex and sexuality. 

It validated, "their body, their attractiveness and how they performed their gender expression," Sullivan explains. "Particularly for people who are trans, it was a very affirming space."

Madi Day, a lecturer of Indigenous studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, says Sullivan’s work offers a more nuanced picture of life for Indigenous LGBTQIA+ people and sex workers.  

However, cultural expression still poses a challenge. None of the sex workers Sullivan spoke with advertised themselves as Aboriginal. 

"Those who were more tan or darker skinned would advertise themselves as Hawaiian or Māori for example, which is viewed as less contentious than being Aboriginal. That kind of racism sat there still, in how Aboriginality is not considered as being sexy or marketable," she says. 

While sex work can help with self-identity, Sullivan says more needs to be done to assist those who would like access to resources and support. Many healthcare service and support providers are not adequately equipped to work with people who are racially, sexuality- and gender-diverse. 

Sullivan is now working on a project that looks at ways healthcare service and support providers can be better educated and informed to help those who would like access to resources and support.