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First Nations Youth Advisory Council
The group provides operational and strategic advice to help guide and advance First Nations Wellbeing and Engagement strategic priorities. Members provide diverse cultural and youth perspectives on issues they are facing, headspace service delivery and within our governance and strategic direction.
headspace honours the self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. We acknowledge each are experts in their own lives and have the right to control their futures, including the right to be actively engaged in the issues that affect them. We have made a firm strategic commitment to ensuring the headspace model of care is safe and appropriate for First Nations young people and their families. Central to informing this strategic commitment is the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.
Please meet the current members.
Tyler is in his third and final year of a Bachelor of Design and Management degree at the University Sydney. He’s deeply passionate about youth mental health, particular after growing up in rural NSW where he saw the impact a lack of mental health services had on his friends and community.
He has a strong desire to create change, also motivated by his own mental health journey, and saw joining FNYAC as an opportunity to work with other like-minded First Nations youth.
Tyler has his sights set on a career that involves giving back to community and experiencing a variety of cultures. His advice to others is not to focus on a singular goal at the expense of appreciating what happens along the way. His advice is, “It's not the pursuit of happiness, but it's the happiness in the pursuit".
Ley aspires to become a counsellor in the future, working with Queer First Nations people, and to work in ocean conservation.
They love to read books of any type – mostly like mental health and psychology books, as well as anime and manga – and they find peace in going on Country and being a part of nature.
The help Ley received in their own mental health journey has driven them to want to give back and help others to receive the same support. Ley has also always wanted to help mob in any way they can, and joining FNYAC is helping them to achieve this goal.
Their advice is that “there is always a part of the community that will be there for you and support you throughout your hard times”.
Joshua is studying a Bachelor of Arts (Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, Indigenous Knowledge, History and Heritage) at the University of Western Australia.
His own mental health journey, and those of his community members, have led him to feel passionately about empowering and strengthening young people, especially those from a First Nations background. He believes the tools for healing are embedded in and learnt from history, community narrative, and individual identity.
Joshua is also passionate about helping to translate and amplify the voices of communities, in spaces where they aren’t always heard. At headspace he has seen how powerful culturally informed psychological practices can be when both First Nations thought and evidence-backed sciences are interwoven.
Joshua’s message to young people is that if you’re struggling, you are not alone. “Your experience gives you the expertise that only you have, and that is so special.”
Jai currently works as a senior consultant for Yamagigu Consulting, an Indigenous owned and led consulting firm that is a subsidiary of Deloitte. He is also undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Psychology Advanced at the University of Adelaide.
He has lived experience of mental health and is incredibly passionate about how First Nations social and emotional wellbeing should be integrated into the field of psychology, to make this world a safer and more inclusive and supportive place for First Nations people to access the support they need to thrive in their own way.
Jai loves everything to do with sport, particularly endurance sports such as running and triathlons. He loves salt water and the beach, reading, cooking and listening to music. He prefers quieter nature-based spaces and is most at peace when he is connecting to Country.
Jai hopes to one day be a registered organisational psychologist with a social and emotional wellbeing business focused on using healthy lifestyle and sports-based clinics in rural and remote communities to improve education of and understanding around Cultural psychology and First Nations Social and Emotional Wellbeing.
His advice to young people going through a tough time is, “I promise it gets better. Let the ones you love support and guide you through this time. It will be tough and it is never easy, but these tough times make the good times so much better, I'm living proof of that.”
