Student,
staff member,
Sistergirl

“At the time I was just thinking about the quickest way to let everyone know at once, not to make a statement,” Ms Duncan says.

“I couldn’t believe how positive the response was.

“People who I hadn’t spoken to since primary school were getting in touch to congratulate me and offer encouragement.”

A similar response greeted her email to colleagues.

“My inbox was inundated with supportive messages,” Ms Duncan says.

“It turns out I was worrying over nothing.

“I even had a colleague walk me from the bus stop to the office the first time I presented as a woman.

“That day was nerve-wracking, but people went about their business and didn’t stop and stare at me or anything like that.”

While Ms Duncan’s experiences have been overwhelmingly positive, she is more than aware that it is not the same story for all gender diverse people.

Through her mentoring work with the Brisbane Gar’band’dje’lum Network Committee, she aims to provide a safe space and support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Sistergirl and Brotherboy Community (GLBTISB).

“I have been contacted by people who have a genuine fear of being discriminated against when they come out,” Ms Duncan says.

“Most people are fully accepting, but it’s hard and it sucks that there are others who only want to be critical.

“While I have never had an issue face-to-face, I have had people tell me online to kill myself or that I’m a ‘freak of nature’.

“Thankfully, I’m strong enough in my sense of self that I know those type of people are uneducated and that they won’t have any greater impact on my life.

“Being Aboriginal, I already know what it is like to be stereotyped and misrepresented. I take those opportunities to educate ignorant people.

“But of course, I have down days like everybody.”

Sistergirl is a term Indigenous Australians use to describe somebody who was born a male, but identifies as female.

Ms Duncan says the word has softer, more playful and positive connotations than Anglicised terms commonly used in Australia for transgender people.

"Within Indigenous culture, everything is about kinship. It's the over-arching philosophy," she says.

"Every community has its own issues when it comes to gender representations, but kinship overrides any adversity.

"I anticipated difficulties, because Indigenous culture does have very distinct men's business and women's business and there is no middle ground.

"But it is very special to me that I have been welcomed into women's business and I get to be around those gatherings of female energy."