Key points:

- Brooke Blurton will be a keynote speaker at the 2026 Aboriginal Health Conference in Boorloo / Perth

- Rural Health West and WA Country Health Service will host the conference

- The event will focus the themes 'Healing Ourselves, Healing Country, Healing Community'

First Nations mental health advocate and media personality Brooke Blurton will return to Perth next month to speak about healing in the place where much of her own healing began.

The Noongar-Yamatji woman will be a keynote speaker at the 2026 Aboriginal Health Conference in Boorloo / Perth on August 15 and 16.

Rural Health West and WA Country Health Service will host the conference under the theme Healing Ourselves, Healing Country, Healing Community.

Born in Carnarvon and now based in Naarm / Melbourne, Ms Blurton calls the event a 'full circle moment.'

Her keynote will focus on healing through storytelling and truth-telling, drawing from her experiences of disconnection, representation, and reconnecting with family, country, and culture.

"When people see themselves, or their sexuality or their culture represented, they feel heard and seen," Ms Blurton said.

She made history as the world's first LGBTQIA+ and First Nations Bachelorette, becoming a familiar face to Australian audiences.

Since then, she has published her memoir Big Love and two young adult fiction novels.

Behind the public profile is a story shaped by early disconnection.

Ms Blurton said she was often separated from her family and placed in foster homes, before moving to Perth at a young age to live with her non-Indigenous father.

She said those experiences left her cut off from parts of her identity, Country and community.

As a teenager, she set out to understand her roots, visiting places her grandmother, born in Quairading, had described.

"For me that was quite healing. I went to the mission she often spoke about and just stood there, understanding the impact this has had on my family," she said.

By listening to others' stories, Ms Blurton said she began to reconnect with her family, community and culture.

"It made me feel so much more whole and healed," she said.

Ms Blurton will also reunite at the conference with one of her biggest mentors, Whadjuk Balardong Noongar woman and conference MC Ingrid Cumming.

The pair first met when Blurton was in her early 20s and playing football.

At the time, Ms Blurton said she was struggling with her mental health after being made redundant from a mining job.

"I was going through a pretty tough time, mental-health-wise, after I was made redundant from mining," she said.

With no job and little family support, Ms Blurton said Ms Cumming helped her find her first role in the youth mental health sector.

"Ingrid gave me a foot in the door and helped me gain an admin assistant role at headspace," she said.

"It actually inspired my interest in youth work, and later in that organisation I worked in community engagement, running NAIDOC Week events, First Nations community festivals, and queer youth reference groups."

She said returning to WA to share her story in front of a "home crowd" felt especially meaningful.