Chelsea Joanne Ruth Watego is an Aboriginal Australian academic and writer.
15 Facts About Chelsea Watego
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Chelsea Watego is a Mununjali Yugambeh and South Sea Islander woman and is currently Professor of Indigenous Health at Queensland University of Technology.
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Chelsea Watego has five children with her ex-husband, Matt Bond.
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Chelsea Watego studied a Bachelor of Applied Health Science at the University of Queensland, graduating with honours in 2001.
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Chelsea Watego has since worked as a researcher and lecturer at both UQ and Queensland University of Technology.
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Chelsea Watego began her academic career at UQ, and worked there as Principal Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences.
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Chelsea Watego 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.
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Chelsea Watego has worked prominently on the development of the field of Indigenist health humanities, for which she received a $1.7 million grant in 2021.
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Chelsea Watego has written for numerous publications including IndigenousX, NITV, ABC News, Meanjin, SBS, The Guardian and The Conversation.
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Chelsea Watego has 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.
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In 2018, Chelsea 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.
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Chelsea Watego subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of public nuisance.
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Chelsea Watego stated the arrest left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Chelsea Watego later lodged a racial discrimination complaint against Queensland Police with the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, retaining George Newhouse as her solicitor.
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Chelsea Watego withdrew the complaints in 2021, criticising the National Tertiary Education Union for what she described as a lack of legal support.