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Be respectful of other people, they might
not do or think or look the same as you.
But, none the less, mind your manners and
be respectful. Listen. Shut up and listen. I
thinkthatwouldbemythirdpieceof advice.
Something I find surprisingly easy to do.
What has been one of your
best experiences working in
these remote communities?
One of the experiences that was the most
salutary forme in terms of going, ‘aha!’was
having a little epiphany was many years
ago - probably about fifteen years ago. I
was in a remote Indigenous community,
about 500ks north east of Darwin; a
big community, about 3,000 people.
I was working with a couple of women
who were managing a diabetic support
group, a support group for people with
diabetes. We were going up to the other
end of the island that was about two or
three hours drive. Somehow, I ended up
driving the big troop carrier. Amazingly
enough, we started with three people,
ended up with about 15 including my two
kids - they were always coming with me.
Anyway, driving, driving, driving, we get
to this big, what we call a jump up, a bit
over a sandy rise. BANG! Straight into
this wallaby, killed it. I was traumatised!
I was a vegetarian, my oldest son was
traumatised because he hated seeing
things hurt. But the rest of the people
who were there were so happy. That story
is still told today, how after all those
years, Robyn finally did something useful.
That was a real wake up, I thought they
were just laughing at me, which they
were, but the council president came
around and said ‘finally, Yapa, you’re
doing something useful, thank you,
thank you, thank you’. I went: ‘OK, if I’d
have known it was that easy I would have
run over a few kangaroos a bit earlier.’
Did you have any ‘aha’
moments working in rural
and remote areas?
When I realised reasonably early on
‘actually I know very little’. Certainly, 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.
I think also, in order to be a
culturally safe practitioner
you have to be respectful.
That can be really hard
because not everybody is
nice and not every person
you’re meeting with and
engaging with is going
to give you the same
courtesy...
Which is a good thing because it takes
the pressure off and it also means that,
you know, non-Indigenous people have a