I am Myles McKenzie, a proud Barundji Aboriginal man of the Paroo river, raised in Townsville, North Queensland. Having grown up in regional North Queensland, I became cognizant of the complex health disparities faced in Northern Australia, including the elevated prevalence of untreated mental illness within Aboriginal communities and inaccessibility to culturally sensitive health services. The implications of these health disparities became especially evident during my secondary education, where I learnt that suicide remains one of the leading causes of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, affecting Aboriginal children as young as nine years of age.

These shocking health disparities inspired my passion for mental health, determined to reduce mental illness and suicide in my community. This aspiration motivated my completion of a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) before pursuing medicine. Currently, I am completing my second year of a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery with an expected completion date of December 2028. Following my medical training, I plan to complete a psychiatric fellowship and utilise my diverse mental health skills along with my cultural background to provide culturally sensitive mental healthcare for Aboriginal communities across North Queensland.

As a young Aboriginal man, my medical aspirations were instigated following my Aboriginal initiation at the age of 13. During this time, I began to hear the stories of my community elders where I learnt of the substantial health disparities experienced within remote communities, noting a common theme among my Elders’ stories: a sense that their health had been forgotten.

This experience highlighted the crucial need for accessible and culturally sensitive healthcare on country, and I would love nothing more than the opportunity to implement this approach for my North Queensland region as an Aboriginal doctor. This desire quickly transpired into self-determination following work experience in the remote Hughenden hospital and Townsville psychiatric unit. I realised mental health was often under-appreciated in medicine, with many of my mob left suffering untreated mental illness, unable to access mental health services. This prompted my aspiration to become an Aboriginal psychiatrist in North Queensland and provide culturally sensitive mental healthcare on-country to reduce the soring prevalence of untreated mental illness in North Queensland.

Through this aspiration, I will utilise my medicine, psychology, and cultural background to adapt a holistic approach to patient care, recognising that each component, be it physical, social, environmental, cultural, or spiritual, are crucial to achieve positive patient outcomes. Most importantly, I hope to utilise my traditional Aboriginal Spirituality and medical knowlegde to provide cultural, community-based mental healthcare and finally, reduce the distressing presence of Aboriginal youth suicide.

Now being halfway through my 4th year studies and first clinical year of medicine, I have experienced significant personal growth, gaining difficult, but important insights along the way. This semester brought a whole new way of learning, shifting from the classroom to the hospital, which challenged my knowledge, clinical acumen, and professional confidence. With this change came new learning difficulties, as I struggled to embrace independent-learning with limited academic support, accept clinical mistakes and criticism, and even face rejection or mistreatment from clinicians and patients. However, through frequent self-reflection and guidance from my mentors, I learnt to reframe these difficulties as valuable learning experiences that enhance my professional
development, realising that clinical mistakes strengthen my professionalism and competence, rather than compromise it. Perhaps more importantly, this semester has demonstrated that academic perfectionism does not equate to becoming an effective and competent doctor. This revised outlook re-ignited my self-determination, embracing my academic strengths, cultural identity, and passion for Indigenous health to work towards becoming a culturally-safe and holistic Aboriginal doctor, rather than the “perfect” medical student. Indeed, I have released that my medical journey now requires going beyond studying for exams, focused on learning to utilise my knowledge, clinical skills, and culture to address the complex health needs of my community. This has meant shifting my academic aspirations this year, moving beyond simply striving for academic success in exams, to focus on my clinical development from the perspective of my supervisors and patients.

Moreover, I maintained my dedication to utilising team-based learning during this semester, recognising that my greatest learning comes from my friends, senior students, and patients. This inspired me to embrace peer-teaching and problem-based learning extensively throughout the semester, working with my friends and even new colleagues to support our collective learning and professional development. Similarly, I actively sought to learn from my patients, utilising clinical placements to engage in valuable conversations and learn more about patients complex health concerns from their own lived experience, rather than lectures and textbooks.

This semester also provided opportunities to support the university journeys of my younger Indigenous colleagues, tutoring 1st year Indigenous medical students and co-ordinating within the JCU Winter School, supporting Indigenous high school students to explore medicine and potentially pursue a career as an Aboriginal doctor in North Queensland. Personally, it has been these experiences that have been the most influential this semester, utilising my own hardships and passion to support my younger Indigenous peers on their journey to become future Indigenous doctors.

Despite these positive experiences, this semester highlighted the reality of burnout experienced by many medical students, as I began to notice my passion for and enjoyment of medicine decline. Indeed, maintaining complete dedication to my studies had begun to impact my personal relationships, everyday life commitments, and even my mental health. This prompted a significant revision to my medical journey, realising that while such intensive study may help my
exams, it o en came at the expense of my personal relationships and interests. Subsequently, this semester has seen substantial adjustment to my work-life balance, focused on enjoying my hobbies, interests, and relationships outside of medicine, recognising that these everyday aspects of my
identity are foundational to my long-term well-being and passion to improving Aboriginal mental healthcare.

Finally, to Australian Rotary Health and the Rotary Club of Essendon, I express my deepest gratitude. Scholarships are too o en seen as purely-financial support for students, but the ARH Indigenous Health Scholarship is far more than that. It’s about having the support of Rotarians from all walks of life, knowing they are cheering me on every day of my medical journey. Ultimately, it is this support that keeps me going each semester, working hard towards my aspirations of becoming a valuable, culturally-safe doctor for my community.