
Maya Stasiuk
Indigenous Health Scholarship 2023
University of Western Australia, WA
Doctor of Medicine
Scholarship Awarded 2023
Sponsored by:
Rotary Club of West Perth
How will I contribute to improving Indigenous health as a qualified medical practitioner or health worker?
As a proud Minag-Wadjari Noongar woman, I strive to strengthen the representation of Indigenous women in the health field, as building a stronger workforce of Aboriginal clinicians, is essential to providing culturally secure care in Indigenous patients.
Throughout my time in medical school, I have naturally been drawn to the teaching of cultural awareness and cultural safety, particularly through the frameworks of clinical yarning and country healing. As a medical student, I have dedicated time into projects tat further the education of cultural safety teaching, particularly through my role as a Aboriginal cadet at Fiona Stanley Hospital, and as the Indigenous Chair on the WAMSS (Western Australian Medical Students Society).
Through my work as (hopefully) an Indigenous paediatrician, I would like to focus a large part of my career on the Indigenous youth, looking directly at diseases and inherited disorders that disproportionately affect our Aboriginal children. In particular, I wish to dedicate my studies and research project in Year 3 of medicine, to studying Rheumatic Heart Disease an its disproportionate effects on First Nations children. Through my time at Perth Children’s Hospital with the Aboriginal Doctors Immersion program, I met with inspiring epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists who are looking to work with Indigenous doctors and med students to research and ameliorate the outcomes that these disease have on our youth.