Indigenous Health Scholarship Program

I have set my goal to work in remote and rural Aboriginal communities in WA to help improve and implement health strategies. This includes primary health care and prevention of chronic health disease, by using education to empower and facilitate good health attitudes. One of the communities that I am keen to work in is Lombardina near Broome, which I have family connections. My motivation to complete the bachelor degree in nursing so that I can assist Aboriginal women to stay on country during the birth process and be there to support the women during this. Therefore helping them with their spiritual and cultural journey and keeping iwht their health belief model and their connection to country. As the first person in my family and extended family to go to university and the first Bindjareb women to enrol in the nursing degree I hope to inspire and motivate many other young Nyungar women to follow my lead so that they can excel and be stronger person within their communities and families.

Through my work in 2019 as a research officer with UWA working on two Aboriginal health projects related to ageing and the brain, I met many Elders from the Perth Indigenous community who have expressed the need for more Indigenous doctors with more cultural understanding/sensitivity. Many doctors from non-Indigenous backgrounds sometimes lack the knowledge of how an Indigenous family and lifestyle is structured, and do not quite understand the values and needs of an Aboriginal person or community. I would like to contribute to the community by providing safe and supportive care that is culturally appropriate and understanding, whilst also educating other health professionals on how they can be most appropriate as well.

Indigenous health has always been something I have been incredibly passionate about. Growing up in Broome, a rural community in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, I have long been witness to the ongoing disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and well being outcomes.

As a young Indigenous male training to become a medical doctor I would like to see the health gap between the indigenous and non-Indigenous population closed within my lifetime. It is a huge injustice within our society that being born Indigenous reduces both physical and mental health outcomes. One of my main goals as a health practitioner will be to improve these outcomes and reduce disease burden within the Indigenous population. The health gap is a multifactorial and complex problem and achieving closure of the gap will require a multifactorial solution that I personally do not have all the answers for. Through my studies in medical school, research and through indigenous patients I aim to improve my understanding and work towards providing equitable health care for Indigenous Australians.

One of the main areas I would aim to improve the health of Indigenous Australians would be in maternal and newborn health. This area I believe has some of the biggest discrepancies between Indigenous and non-indigenous health despite having some very preventable health conditions which could greatly improve the lives of many Indigenous women and their children. My interest for maternal and newborn health was solidified when I was able to be in the room with my sister-in-law when she gave birth to my niece. During this experience I saw need for good health care professionals to be present and how they can stop things from going south quickly and therefore I understood how fortunate my niece was to be born in the city, but this just highlighted that there is many indigenous women who do not have access to the same care and support because they aren’t in the city.

I am a proud Kija woman from the East Kimberly. I was raised in Kununurra, a town situated on Miriuwung Gajerrong country, a town which I consider my home and the local people my family. I completed my primary education at the renamed, East Kimberly College and attended boarding school at Iona Presentation College, in Mosman Park. It was from this adjustment in location, that I truly understood how my culturally rich upbringing had influenced my perspective on social norms and idea of community.

2022 will be the beginning of my post graduate education in medicine and y the start of 2026 I will be a fully qualified Doctor. Four years is a lot of time for experiences and opportunities to occur in, so, while I have ideas of where I would like to apply myself, I am still staying open to what the future may bring.

I have worked in Indigenous health for three years and throughout this time have known that my career will be in this area. During this time, I have dedicated myself to making positive changes in Indigenous health. I volunteer as a member of a national youth health and wellbeing committee which is completely Indigenous youth led, as one of two WA representatives. I work for an Aboriginal health organisation promoting and implementing an Aboriginal youth health strategy with the aim to improve health outcomes for Indigenous young people. I have worked with Aboriginal Medical Services across the state and have met many inspiring Indigenous people working in health, including doctors and medical students.

I believe that there is and has been significant gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples health in Australia. One major area which has been avoided for a long time in Indigenous people’s health is Ocular Health, with having less than 15 Indigenous Optometrist within Australia it makes it hard for Indigenous people to find a culturally safe space to go to for regular eye assessments.