My Rural Story - Week Five - Robyn Williams

AUSTRALIA’S RURAL, REMOTE AND INDIGENOUS HEALTH #MyRuralStory

Featuring Interviews from the brand new 3rd edition of Australia’s Rural, Remote and Indigenous Health by Janie Dade Smith

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-Week Five -

R obyn Williams Bachelor of Health Sciences Coordinator Charles Darwin University

Robyn Williams

@ElsevierAUS My name is Robyn Williams and I have lived and worked in the Northern Territory for the better part of 35 years. I first went to Darwin to do my nursing training over 35 years ago, because I had an interesting but useless Arts Degree, and I didn’t want to be an Anthropologist, still don’t. I wanted to do something that was both practical and useful, being a third generation do -gooder, and that seemed to be the best and quickest way to do it. In those days, Nurses were the main work force apart from the Aboriginal Health Care workers. So I did that for a few years, came back into Darwin to do my Graduate Diploma of Education, went back out bush teaching, then combined both

of those at what was Bachelor College teaching Aboriginal Health Workers, writing the original Aboriginal Health Workers courses and teaching those for a few years. So, it all came together like some grand plan but, wasn’t actually. I think it was also a matter of knowing what I didn’t want to do but broadly where I was working. So, I’m now coordinating the Bachelor of Health Sciences at Charles Darwin University and again, that’s another nice amalgamation of my experiences from my time, and one of those units is Rural and Remote Health which I just love.

What is different about working in rural and remote areas?

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.

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 ‘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.’

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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...

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.

Which is a good thing because it takes the pressure off and it also means that, you know, non-Indigenous people have a

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shelf life in Indigenous communities. Like a celebrity sports star, you need to know when it’s time togo, when it’s time to retire. The other thing that came with that was, I knew that leaving a particular community wasn’t the end of my relationships. We’ve had a long many decades, three decades of family connections with many communities, and we still have those connections. One of my favourite brothers is a Yolngu man from one of the communities. My kids grew up out in these places. They’ve had experiences no one else would have. In fact I think the youngest at 21 is convinced, well he’s not convinced that he’s not Aboriginal, just because that was the way he was brought up. How can someone ensure that they are working towards being culturally safe? Being a culturally safe practitioner is about first and foremost, knowing who you are and the impact of that on the people that you are engaging with. Whether it’s working or they’re your clients or it’s just on a day to day interaction. So, knowing who you are and the impact of that. For example, I’m a third generation do- gooder, I’m also a Collingwood tragic for those of you who know or care about AFL, that absolutely has an impact on who I am and the way I can engage with people. I remember going out to an Indigenous

community many years ago and the entire community were Collingwood fans and I thought, ‘Yes! Give me a job, I’m coming to work here.’ So, knowing who you are and the impact that has. 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, particularly if you’re in a stressful or an acute clinical situation. It can be really hard to be nice to someone, and be respectful and acknowledge what they bring to the table. Can I just give you a classic example? When I was teaching the Aboriginal Project Officers course, it was mostly urban Aboriginal people and I’m an interactive teacher so I’d say to them ‘what do you think?’ And, this young man who had come in from one of the mining

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communities, an Aboriginal man, he was earning a lot more money than I was as a mechanic. He came in to do the course because he wanted to change his work and he just slammed his fists down on the table and he said ‘I didn’t come to university to be asked what I think! You need to tell me, that’s your job!’ I thought, OK, here I was thinking that I was being culturally safe but no, I hadn’t actually engaged the person, the recipient in the sort of care or the sort of education that they wanted. That for me was a big moment and that was when I first really started thinking about how it doesn’t matter if you’re

teaching nursing or landscape gardening, you need to work in a culturally safe manner so it’s actually engaging with the person and negotiating with them. I think it’s absolutely critical. Certainly, as health professionals we’re taught, in particularly if you’re a medical practitioner, you’re taught that you’ve got the answers and you tell people what to do and I think it’s unlearning that in many ways and taking that on board.

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I was workingwith 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 peoplewhowere therewere 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!’ ‘

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Featuring Interviews from the brand new 3rd edition of Australia’s Rural, Remote and Indigenous Health by Janie Dade Smith

Share your rural experience now to win a copy of the book @ElsevierAUS #MyRuralStory Please note, the transcripts featured within this publication have been taken from live interviews. Any alterations have been made for the purpose of clarity and do not change the overall meaning of the speaker.

To find out more about this, and many other local Elsevier titles, visit elsevierhealth.com.au