ABSTRACT
In 2009 I set off on a research journey to explore the influences on participation in physical activity amongst a group of older Somali women living in Melbourne, Australia. Over a three-year period, qualitative data were gathered through conversations, observations, journaling, photography and art undertaken within a weekly health group established for older Somali women at a local community service. The research revealed that older Somali women are not meeting the National Physical Activity Recommendations for Older Australians and Western concepts of activity are not transferable or relevant to their lives (Sims et al. 2006). Most participants were active in Somalia, where physical activity was entwined in daily gender, maternal and cultural roles. In Australia, the women lead a sedentary lifestyle, where physical activity is constrained by factors such as lack of money, time and a private space to exercise; tiredness and illness; racial abuse and Islamophobia; limited transport and formal exercise facilities; and community and dominant cultural perceptions of older Somali women participating in exercise.
