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Working with and for queer refugee
women
Prepared for STARTTS Clinical Master Class
Tina Dixson
Working with and for queer refugee
women
Notes on the language
Queer:
○ “[…] the label “queer” symbolizes an acknowledgement that
through our existence and everyday survival we embody sustained
and multisited resistance to systems that seek to normalise our
sexuality, exploit our labor, and constrain our visibility” (Cohen,
1997).
○ To disrupt and challenge singularities, binaries and normativies
○ Question of reproducing Western and colonial categorisation
Notes on the language
Refugee:
○ as an adjective
○ as a noun: to denote a social location and reflect on the power
imbalance between a local and the Other.
PhD Research: What does it mean to be a queer refugee
woman? Collective self-discovery through trauma and
empowerment
○ 8 queer refugee women*
○ People who self-identify as
women
○ From 25 to 48 y.o.
○ 6 countries
○ Different visa stages
PhD Research: What does it mean to be a queer refugee
woman? Collective self-discovery through trauma and
empowerment
○ Methodology
○ Autoethnographic narrative
inquiry
○6 months of interviews
○3-days retreat
○ Intersectionality
○ Conceptual frameworks
○ Trauma theory
○ Subjectivity, Agency and
Moving Forward
○ Victimhood and
victimisation
Trauma
Trauma Theory
○ Event-based Trauma (Caruth,
Felman & Laub, Freud)
○ Feminism and Queering Trauma
(Brown, Cvetkovich)
○ Environment-based Trauma and
Biopolitics (Berlant, Ahmed, Butler)
Trauma Layers
○ Primary (in country trauma)
○ Trauma of departure & asylum
○ Post-refugee trauma
Primary (in-
country) trauma
○ Question of identity (queer?)
○ Cultural pressures
○ Gender based violence
○ Homophobic violence
Trauma of departure & asylum
○ Survival
○ Questions of identity (Queer?
Refugee? Other?)
○ Exile
Post-refugee trauma
○ ’This is who I am’
○ Imperative of storytelling
○ Community building
Preliminary Findings
Preliminary Findings
Preliminary Findings
Implications for service provision
○ Visible signage
○ Rainbow Tick accreditation
○ Training & ongoing professional development from bottom up
○ Working with a broader client base on issues related to equality, equity and
human rights
○ Consultation and meaningful participation of community
○ Peer run support / service
○ Cross-sector partnerships
"I learned a lot and found out that I
am definitely not alone and this comforts me.
I thought to myself if you and
others made it, I can make it
too." Z.
Queer Sisterhood
Project is a peer-run
support and advocacy
group aimed to provide
a space of community
and belonging to queer refugee women.
Groups run by Tina &
Renee Dixson in
partnership with Twenty10.
.
https://chuffed.org/project/queer-sisterhood
Thank you!
Questions.
Tina Dixson
www.tinadixson.com.au
