Episode 12 - Joe Williams

The Deep End with Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn

Joe Williams is a Wiradjuri and Wolgalu man born in Cowra and raised in Wagga Wagga, Australia. He played in the National Rugby League for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Penrith Panthers and Canterbury Bulldogs before moving to professional boxing in 2009. He is a two-time World Boxing Federation World Junior Welterweight Champion and won a World Boxing Council Asia Continental Title. After a traumatic suicide attempt in 2012, he dedicated his career to helping people who struggle with mental illness. He was named the 2015 Wagga Wagga Citizen of the Year for his committed work in mental health and suicide prevention. His excellence in this field has also been recognised through a Suicide Prevention Australia LiFE Award in 2018 and an Australian Mental Health Prize in 2019. His book, Defying the Enemy Within, was published by HarperCollins in 2018. He completed a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Trauma and Recovery Practice at the University of Wollongong in 2019 and, this week, became the very first PhD candidate in Indigenous Knowledge in the University of Melbourne’s Indigenous Knowledge Institute. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Queensland.

Producer: Patrick Telfer. Line Producer: Samuel Curkpatrick. Music composed and performed by: Cameron Deyell and Reuben Lewis. Image credit: Celeste de Clario. Director: Aaron Corn. Executive Producer: Marcia Langton.

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