Over the past 20 years, Dr Janine Mohamed has worked in nursing and health policy to improve the outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. As a proud Narrunga Kaurna woman, originally from South Australia, Dr Mohamed has been based on Wurundjeri Country in Melbourne since 2019 as the CEO of the Lowitja Institute – Australia’s National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research.
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00:00 So my life has really been shaped through the experiences of my mum, my nana and the
00:09 community in which I lived.
00:11 My nana suffered from a chronic mental health condition so I was a witness to many hospital
00:18 systems.
00:19 There were amazing moments that I saw where people opened doors for her but there was
00:26 some really devastating experiences that we had that really inspired me to become a nurse.
00:35 In nursing I also learnt about the amazing concept of cultural safety, how it shines
00:40 a light on our blind spots and how it really does unpack racism and what it steals from
00:47 us.
00:48 Cultural safety isn't learning about Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander people which often
00:54 can be quite a comfortable practice to undertake.
00:58 Cultural safety is actually about critical self-reflection.
01:00 It really talks to us about what racism is and all of its harms.
01:08 Understanding systems, who built the systems, who was locked out of them, who benefits from
01:13 them and how we can change things.
01:16 A large part of my working life has been helping people understand the benefits of going the
01:23 Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander health workforce.
01:26 What we know is that when you see a large number of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander
01:31 health workers within a health system, you're absolutely going to see more Aboriginal, Torres
01:36 Strait Islander people using that service and having better health outcomes.
01:42 More recently I've been a part of establishing the National Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander
01:46 Health Worker Association.
01:48 I'm now working in Indigenous research.
01:52 For a long time Indigenous people had research done on them and about them, not for them.
01:58 And so the impacts of that research was devastating.
02:01 I want to achieve Indigenous health equity.
02:04 Equity being that we understand that people don't all start from the same place and so
02:09 therefore we've got to meet people where they're at and give people what they need.
02:14 And we do that by listening deeply.
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