I am a proud Ngemba woman currently living in Sydney.   I have previously completed a Bachelor of Public Health at the University of Wollongong in 2021 and am starting my Master of Public Health.  I have always been passionate about public health, specifically health promotion that aims to prevent chronic illness by educating people about risk factors for certain chronic diseases.   I have always been interested in taking the skills I learned in my undergraduate degree and working in the Aboriginal health sector to give back to my community.   Throughout my undergraduate degree, I have had the chance to intern with the National Health and Medical Research Council working with the public health team.   This internship involved working on the scoping review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sue of the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Indigenous Guide to Healthy Eating.

Through this internship, I was ale to learn about the most prominent issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition including food including food insecurity, lack of education and limited financial resources.   I also interned at the Thurru Indigenous centre at the University of Newcastle where I had a chance to co-author the development of the Trauma Response in Public Health journal article written by the University of Newcastle that looked at relevant chronic diseases in Aboriginal communities.

I began working for the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC) as a community engagement officer in the policy team.   Throughout this time at AH&MRC I have developed a knowledge and skill base across relevant domains of health positive under the Closing the Gap initiatives.   I had the opportunity to go into communities across New South wales to hear about common health issues people are facing.   This allows our team to work with government to over come these issues.   I will continue to work at AH&MRC whilst I study as my master’s degree to continue contributing to the Aboriginal health sector and developing my workplace skills.

Reflecting on the first semester of my second year in my master’s degree, I am once again grateful for the support of the ARH Indigenous Health Scholarship. This semester presented new challenges as I ventured into subjects outside of my comfort zone. Although I was unfamiliar with some of the content, I found the exploration of Indigenous methods and evaluations very interesting. Applying these learnings to different situations and hearing the thoughts of my peers within my classes was very interesting.

One of the highlights of this semester was my online classes, which allowed me to connect with many new students from diverse work backgrounds. As these classes were part of my Indigenous health specialisation, many of the students were not in my core public health subjects. It was great to discuss our current work outside of university and share our goals for beyond our master’s degree. I also enjoyed the group assignments, which provided an opportunity to think differently and gain a better understanding of the course content.

In my subject on Indigenous evaluation, we examined various methods for evaluating academic studies and what constitutes a good study. I found this very helpful and plan to apply these principles in my current role as a policy officer to ensure studies are culturally appropriate and effectively evaluate their intended outcomes. I also plan to use these methods in my next semester to ensure my research and references are robust and serve as strong evidence in my essays and work. Similarly, my subject on Indigenous research methods was very interesting. It focused on appropriate research methods for studies involving Indigenous people, such as yarning circles and qualitative approaches, to ensure Indigenous voices are heard rather than just analysing data.

As I move forward in my academic journey, I aim to carry these learnings into my last semester and future work to ensure studies are conducted and evaluated correctly. I am excited about starting my final semester and am pleased with the two distinctions I received last semester. I am very grateful for my scholarship, which has allowed me to dedicate more time to my studies.

Beyond my academic pursuits, I travelled to Wollongong to attend another Rotary dinner. It was great to present on my studies and background, meet fellow scholarship participants, and connect with the wonderful people from the Rotary Club of Wollongong.