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What is different about
working in rural and
remote areas?
There’s a lot of differences. I think
probably the main thing, at least for
me, and the people that thrive in those
situations, is the fact that in a rural
and remote context, you have the
opportunity to develop relationships
and engage with the community. In
fact, it would be really hard to avoid
that when working in a remote context.
In an urban context, you tend to be in
your little work bubble and then you’re
home or your social life bubble, and the
two don’t often connect. It’s easy to stick
with your own kind in an urban context.
What advice would you give
to students going on a rural
or remote placement
?
Number one, know who you are and
have a strong sense of self. Know exactly
who you are, that doesn’t necessarily
mean knowing where you come
from or how you are, not the prosaic
stuff, but more knowing who you are.
Your professional, cultural identity, that’s
really important because things tend
to be heightened in a rural or remote
context and you need to know who
you are because you’ll be thrown into
situations where you need to be able to
fall back and know yourself and be strong.
You need to be strong and be
independent and be a culturally safe
practitioner; it’s absolutely crucial.
So that would be the first thing, to
know yourself and know who you are.
Secondly would be to find out a bit about
the place where you’re going. Do your
homework, do a bit of research. Is it a
farming community, a mixture of hippies
and farmers and rural politicians that
only visit come election time or is it an
Indigenous community? Was it a reserve?
Just get to know a little bit about it so you
know what you’re getting yourself in for.
So you don’t get there and find out, much
to your shock and dismay, that there are
no caravan parks of hotels or shops with
interesting little bits and pieces in there.
The third thing would be, to mind your
manners. By that I mean to be respectful.
Most of the things that you will think of
when you go out there, people would
have done before or at least thought of.
So it’s part of finding out the history.
‘After spending long
amounts of time in
rural and remote
communities I realised
that I actually knew less
than when I started. I
think that was probably
a key moment.’