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Nathan Hawke
Nathan Hawke

Nathan Hawke

Indigenous Health Scholarship

Monash University, VIC

Bachelor of Paramedicine
Scholarship Awarded 2022

Sponsored by:
Rotary District 9790 Group

Indigenous Health Scholarship Program

How will I contribute to improving Indigenous health as a qualified medical practitioner or health worker?

No one ever calls a paramedic when they are happy. Paramedics are called upon in distressing times, when someone needs vital, time critical, emergency support. Yet when an Indigenous person is facing such times, they are less likely to call for help due to a general distrust form emergency services. This puts our Indigenous population – my mob – at a greater risk of severe injury or death. As a front-line health worker, I want to change this and I want to change the stigma attached to emergency services among the Indigenous community. This is how I hope to improve Indigenous health as a qualified medical practitioner.

By becoming a paramedic, I will be an Indigenous front-line worker, solving problems as they unfold. Though this means I am not necessarily implementing upstream interventions, I believe my experience as an Indigenous paramedic can be utilised to help our profession further improve Indigenous health, and upstream interventions as a while. Also, as a paramedic we can refer to secondary Indigenous health services. This allows for engagement even after the call out. I am in a privileged position as a first responder to show understanding, empathy and compassion towards our mob, and also develop a repport by understanding cultural differences.

Through this career path, I want to be a role model amongst my community and I want to show that paramedics can be trusted when help is needed. I hop to engage with my mob, volunteer at Indigenous community centres, and volunteer my time to further my long-term goal of improving the health of our First Nations people. Through these engagements, I would like to show that paramedics can be role models and friends. This will not only help our Indigenous people of today, but it will break down barriers for further generations.

Current Progressive Report

Since the last update I am happy to say I passed the subject that I failed and am in my 3rd and final year now.  The semester went by super quick which I feel was a good thing, but also posed some troubles in that doing only a single subject made it harder to get into a learning headspace. Though this didn’t hamper the results it was something that I had to learn how to do with my studies. I am looking forward to getting back into full time study and finishing it all this year!

Outside of studying life was good, was just working and enjoying the free time. Over the holidays I got to participate in the Evonne Goolagong Foundation Tennis Camp. I have been lucky enough to be part of the program since I was 16, and it’s always a privilege to be able to help mentor the younger generation of Aboriginal kids coming through. One of the highlights this year was having Ashleigh Barty, Kathy Freeman and Evonne Goolagong have yarn with us all and do a Q & A with all the kids.

The camp was held at Monash University and with that the William Cooper Institute asked me to give a presentation to the kids about my journey into university and the other pathways that are available to get into university. This was a great opportunity for me to pass on my experience of not going to university straight out of high school, but as a mature age student having tried many different jobs and having many different experiences.

This year I have also been asked by the William Cooper Institute to be an Aboriginal student ambassador to 1st year students at the university which I happily accepted. My first event is a 1st year’s student camp, where the first year will get the opportunity to meet other first year, share storied with elders, visit cultural site and plenty more. I feel very lucky to be given this opportunity to be able to pass on my experience and help those younger than me.

This coming year I am excited for and ready for the challengers it will bring and excited for the opportunities I have been given through the William Cooper Institute.

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