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grown and met that challenge. That’s
incredibly satisfying and rewarding.
What have you experienced
in remote Australia that
has changed your world
view?
Some of the experiences of rural and
remote practice that I’ve learnt the most
from, that have altered how I work and
how I approach mental health practice
in general, have actually not necessarily
happened in rural and remote settings,
but happened with people from
rural and remote areas of Australia.
I worked in a custodial setting once in
a men’s prison and watching some of
the men in that setting who were from
very remote parts of Australia. Being in a
custodial setting, their grief for their land
and their culture really taught me a lot
about what their land and their culture
meant, how that changed and developed
their ideas of who they were and seeing
them connect with other people from
their area - there’s no way to duplicate that
in a clinical sense from my perspective.
‘It’s about understanding
who you are, being able to
take ownership of who you
are, develop who you are,
but also, allow yourself to
be changed’
So, that’s really changed how I approach
and how I understand culture, how I
understand land and what it means
for people in Australia. It’s, particularly
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people, a completely different concept
than buying and selling homes and
that kind of thing. So, watching people,
learning from people about their
connection to themselves, their culture,
their land, it’sall aboutbeing inthoseareas.
