Charlotte Coulthard-Dare knows that some people have a problem with their very existence.
“How would anyone else feel if they were put in a box inside a box inside a box? And that’s almost me,” he says.
For Mrs. Coulthard-Dare, simply living her identity as a transgender indigenous woman is a kind of activism she has no choice but to accept.
“I’m a black person, that’s my core; I’m an aboriginal person,” he says.
“Then people label us like, they mean,‘ Oh, we’re cis [those who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth] o gai? and nothing.
“Then we come out as trans: we’re those Russian dolls where we have all these different layers.”
The woman Adnyamathanha, Barngarla and Yankunytjatjara lives in Adelaide.
Ms. Coulthard-Dare is pursuing a media career that she hopes will contribute to transgender visibility, which has helped her on her own journey of self-discovery.
Mrs. Coulthard-Dare says that even when she doesn’t feel like it, she puts on makeup and faces the world. (ABC North and West SA: Georgia Roberts)
Born to a father who was a pioneer of Aboriginal community radio in Port Augusta, Mrs. Coulthard-Dare spent her formative years venturing outdoors in the Flinders Ranges.
He says his indigenous heritage has given him strength to continue fighting for transgender rights.
“Some of those days, when I just want to sit at home … and not put on makeup, and not go outside, and you know that sometimes you just have to do it,” Ms. Coulthard-Dare says.
“As if I had to put on this armor and say to the world, ‘Do it.’
“It’s hard, but we live with it: the aborigines and islanders of the Torres Strait have been fighting for our rights since 1788, and we’ve been warriors all our lives.”
Getting out of the closet slowly
Ms Coulthard-Dare says her departure was not the spontaneous announcement that many people imagine it to be.
Instead, it happened for several years.
“Well, the first time I came out of the closet, the first time, was at 16, at my cousin Tanya in Stirling North,” she says.
“So the second coming, so to speak, sounds very strange. It would also have been in 2013, I was just looking for myself, redefining myself.”
Ms. Coulthard-Dare was named the LGBTQI + NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2019. (ABC North and West SA: Georgia Roberts)
Mrs. Coulthard-Dare did something that many in the LGBTQIA + community can relate to: she searched Google for her identity.
“I was actually searching Google on the bus because I was thinking,‘ Um, am I really gay? ’” She says, “and obviously I was just looking at the acronyms for LGBTQIA + … [and] When I looked up the meaning of transgender, it seemed a bit off to me.
“I was actually looking back on my life from when I was little until then, and I think I’ve always known I was trans all my life. Without knowing it obviously until I was 25.”
Coming out as a transgender on television
It was a NITV documentary that revealed the new identity of the station and the personality of the media to most of her family, her community and the world.
His NITV segment Our Stories was published at a key time for the visibility of transgender people in popular culture.
Mrs Coulthard-Dare says she found her love of radio on the Aboriginal radio station Umeewarra Media. (Provided by: Charlotte Coulthard-Dare)
He found strength in the visibility of the journey of a rather unlikely person, Olympic star and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner.
“I think maybe a few months passed before that,” Caitlyn Jenner said [transgender]and her series came out, and I was … pretty obsessed with that series because it comes out publicly, ”Ms. Coulthard-Dare said.
“Obviously, I also went out publicly and with a different end, without any of the privileges Caitlyn had in her life.”
Ms. Coulthard-Dare also attributes many members of the LGBTQIA + community who have come before her as a source of strength.
It is inspired in particular by the icon and transgender civil rights activist Marsha P Johnson, who is said to have played a pivotal role in the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots, when customers of a New York gay bar they rose up against police harassment.
Mrs. Coulthard-Dare says her father, Barngarla’s elder, Harry Dare, has been one of her biggest supporters. (Supplied)
Mrs. Coulthard-Dare’s transition was accepted and supported by most of her family, including her father, Barngarla’s prominent elder, Harry Dare, to whom she spoke during the filming of the documentary.
“I laughed in my face because I was saying, ‘What is transgender?’ It puts me in place, and I’m like laughing, I say to myself, “How can I explain this to my dad, what’s transgender?” He says.
“But yeah, it’s been one of the biggest supports, that could say.”
Despite some nasty comments from other people, he says the vast majority of people in his life reacted well.
“There’s been a few setbacks. I won’t deny it,” Ms. Coulthard-Dare says.
“There have been some sarcastic comments, but in the end, it’s me living my life and if they don’t like it, then, you know, I don’t have the skin of my nose.”
‘Growth hurts’
After more than 18 months of what will be a lifelong hormone replacement therapy, she is still ecstatic about the drastic changes in her body.
Ms. Coulthard-Dare says she has relied on the LGBTQIA + community during her transition. (ABC North and West SA: Georgia Roberts)
“I just look at myself in the mirror every day like, more cheeky. I look at myself with a strong look, and I say, ‘Wow, I’ve changed,'” says Mrs. Coulthard-Dare.
“The only downside I can say about this is growth. Growth hurts.
“Now I have a tramp, now I have breasts, and yes, it is, I really can’t explain it. It’s fascinating.”
Ms. Coulthard-Dare balances her daily work as a co-presenter and producer of Nunga Wangga Radio on the community radio station Radio Adelaide with her own activism.
Mrs. Coulthard-Dare with Gina Rings (back row), Zaachariaha Fielding (left front) and Uncle Eddie Peters in the Radio Adelaide studio. (Provided by: Charlotte Coulthard-Dare)
She was named NAIDOC SA LGBTQIA + Person of the Year in 2019 and has been an ambassador for the Adelaide queer festival, Feast.
Mrs. Coulthard-Dare says she doesn’t know what’s next, but she knows the world is at her feet and she’s paying attention.
“Maybe turn on my own radio station. Maybe be a spokesman for black queer issues. I don’t know. Maybe governor? Prime Minister?” she says jokingly.
“Australian Prime Minister Charlotte Coulthard-Dare?”
Posted 58 minutes ago 58 minutes ago dig. July 10, 2022 at 8:04 pm, updated 46 minutes ago 46 minutes ago dig. July 10, 2022 at 8:17 p.m.