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.

I have been involved in the refurbishment and up keep of the local Aboriginal cultural centre where I volunteer and work. I have also had an involvement in the back to Pinjarra day that is on the Anniversary of the Pinjarra Massacre. I have been doing this with my family since I was a small child. I was one of the first students to join the cooking with kids class that was in partnership with Murdoch University over 5 years ago. This was to benefit the Nyungar kids to teach them the quality and benifits of healthy foods. Being a young adult now I am part of the Deadly Yorgas (strong women) cooking group, this benefits the adults to broaden their understanding of healthy food so they understand the importance of healthy eating and also provides them with safe place to talk. I understand this this experience addresses primary health care in the form of prevention of chronic health issues such as diabetes and chronic heart disease. The collaborative engagement of the community also helps mental, physical wellness and a sense of belonging.

Semester one of 2021 was definitely a different experience for me as I was only doing one nursing unit and 2 other non-related units, I struggled so much with this semester with dealing with doing online and non-contact units. The semester started off well until another set of COVID lockdowns started in the Perth region this also didn’t help with my on going mental health issues.

The semester was a third year unit that was changed to an online unit while the university rewrote the nursing curriculum which I struggled to understand the concept of the unit as it was written as a in class unit and they had changed it after this year. If you need any letters from doctors or letters of support from my new tutor I am able to supply these.

Although dealing with my personal issues I tried to keep up with uni but was able to finish the semester out. Starting my next semester I have now started a new plan that I have formed in collaboration with a registered nurse and my psychologist to finish off my last year and a half of study to finally be able to become my dream of being a registered nurse.

I don’t know where I would be without your support through all my years being with you and that you’ve always helped me even when I’ve had to extend my studies years extra, you’ve only ever been really supportive of me and my dream.