Knowledge sharing for health and wellbeing

A lot of Aboriginal people don’t necessarily feel comfortable accessing health services, explains Gwenda Freeman, Associate Lecturer in Aboriginal Health at the University of Melbourne.

“Whereas you might have been brought up to go to the doctor when you are unwell, for Aboriginal people (going to a doctor) might be a much bigger issue,” she says.

“There might be issues of racism, there might be history of difficulties, there might be hesitancy about western medicine and all sorts of cost and other anxieties that often prevent people from being able to access what we would consider basic health services.”

As a lecturer in the Specialist Certificate qualification in ‘Empowering Health in Aboriginal Communities’, Gwenda says the course provides a pathway for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to undertake the Master of Public Health degree, opening possibilities for Indigenous people to be at the table in organising health services for their own community.

“There’s been a lovely coming together recently of traditional healers – traditional Aboriginal healers – and what you might call western medicine.”

For example some Indigenous healers – the Ngangkari – have been recruited by the South Australian Health Department to work in hospitals and health services in Adelaide alongside mainstream medicine.

“They’re very happy to because Aboriginal people can see that western medicine offers some things that traditional medicine doesn’t. But also, that traditional medicine covers things that western medicine neglects. So, it’s a good coming together.”

Episode recorded: October 7, 2019.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, editor and audio engineer: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

The Ngar-wu Wanyarra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Conference will be held in Shepparton, Victoria, on Wednesday 16 October 2019.

Banner: Getty Images

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