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@ElsevierAUS
there’s nothing in sight except for bush
and hills and land and the water, and to
be able to just sit and feel the country
and hear it breathing around you. So
there are those sorts of opportunities.
What have you experienced
in remote Australia that
has changed your world
view?
One of the big ‘aha’ moments in working
in Aboriginal health and rural remote
health was probably the first time I
went to Thursday Island, to the Torres
Strait, and I was only going there from
North
Queensland
but
it
was
a
saga
to
get
there.
You spent the whole day, you’d be on the
plane then you’d be on the bus, then you’d
be on the ferry, and it really brought home
to me the cost of traveling in rural and
remote communities for peoplewho aren’t
on the tax payers dollars, who aren’t part
of health care systems or service providers
who are paying for them to get out there.
And so for people in rural remote
communities, the cost of getting back
and forwards to regional centres for
health care, for family community
business, for funerals, for bringing
somebody’s body home after they’ve
passed away - all of those things are
immense costs to our communities
and they take a toll and people make
choices about whether or not they will
get care based on those costs often, and
based on what their families can afford.
And so we’ve got to remember that a
lot of people living in rural and remote
communities, particularly the Indigenous
people, have poorer education standards,
poorer opportunities for employment,
often living ingreater situations of poverty.
And so their health is worse and that’s a
large burden on the health care system.
But giving people more help to get to the
health service, to be able to engage it, I
think is critically important and I think that
was one of those ‘aha’ moments for me.
The other thing that I’d like to add
about working with Aboriginal Torres
Strait Islander people is understanding
and having a commitment to the
principles around self-determination
and sovereignty for Indigenous peoples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people have been really powerless over
‘Out in the lake Argyle
region of Kununurra,
where there’s nothing
in sight except for bush
and hills and land and
the water, and to be
able to just sit and feel
the country and hear it
breathing around you...’