Blazing their trails

Through The University of Melbourne’s Department of Rural Health and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health Graduate Research Program, the women were able to continue their studies without leaving the region.

Betty magazine sat down with three of the women who graduated in August to talk through their work and what it means to them, but also to the wider community.

Dr Sharon Atkinson-Briggs

“Diabetes is a pandemic now, not only for Indigenous people, but everyone has been affected by diabetes because it’s about lifestyle.“

Yorta Yorta woman Sharon Atkinson-Briggs’ PhD — Integrated Diabetes Education and Eye Screening — was based on developing a novel way of delivering diabetes education to First Nations people with type two diabetes.

Sharon worked as an accredited diabetes educator in the Northern Territory prior to beginning her research, and so her passion was already alight.

“I was really interested in learning more about diabetes and in particular, ways to get the message across to Indigenous people,” she said.

“Especially with type two diabetes because it’s lifestyle, it can be reversed — it can't be cured, but you can reverse it.

“I was interested in finding ways to tell the message that was unique to the patient.“

Part of researching diabetes education was incorporating retinal imaging, in which patients would have their retinas photographed in order to detect any diabetes damage.

“You can't feel diabetes, it’s silent,” she said.

“So until you start later on down the track, 20 years time you start to get filled with symptoms and neuropathy, retinopathy and other complications.

“You can be walking around pre-diabetic for about 10 years, damage has already started.”

Sharon said she would “eventually like to get back in the field of health”.

“Health research is what I'm passionate about.

“It's learning more about chronic disease and looking at ways where we can help.”

Dr Karyn Ferguson

In completing her high school education at Mooroopna Secondary College, Yorta Yorta woman Karyn Ferguson left school early.

Now, three years in the making, Karyn has completed the highest level of postgraduate studies.

“A PhD was never in my realm of thinking,” she said.

Karyn’s PhD — Gana Burrai: Applying population data linkage to generate an Aboriginal maternal and infant dataset in the Goulburn Murray Region — provided a comprehensive view of maternal health and birth outcomes across Yorta Yorta Country.

Linking data from hospitals, councils, Indigenous medical services and the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Karyn was the first to collate the data within Yorta Yorta boundaries.

This covered four local government areas, two Victorian health regions and spanned two states.

“To look at Yorta Yorta health in a total population lens is very difficult,” Karyn said.

She said the lack of accessibility to data in the region was a driver in completing her thesis.

“Even when I was doing my literary review chapter, it was really difficult to find regional localised statistics specifically for this region.

“So part of that was using Yorta Yorta boundaries to give us a really in-depth look at what's happening here.”

Karyn’s findings showed patterns and trends of Aboriginal birth outcomes and maternal health, all led by Indigenous researchers.

She said among the results, there was an undercount of correctly identified Aboriginal births.

“Some of the social determinant factors were concerning, like smoking during pregnancy,” she said.

“And things like birth weight were quite good but then when you looked at things together, there was some trends.

“Like having a baby in one location compared to another, this seemed to indicate women were more likely to have a poorer outcome depending on which hospital they birthed at.”

The study reported that Aboriginal births on Yorta Yorta Country for years 2008 to 2017 represented 8.71 per cent of all births.

Dr Raylene Nixon

Completing her PhD, Raylene Nixon of the Gungarri Nation had more than a handful of reasons to be exultant.

She never imagined she would be in a position to do so and looking back, she feels a sense of pride.

“Historically, when you have a look at my mum's generation they were not allowed to get a mainstream education,” Raylene said.

“So really, my generation was the first ones to actually go through mainstream schooling, and even we still experienced a lot of racism and discrimination, and Aboriginal people were still not expected to go to university but given the opportunity, it's been amazing.

“The opportunities — there's a whole other world out there that you actually don't even know exists until somebody opens the door.”

After three years, Prosperity on Country: How to reposition the social, cultural and economic value of Indigenous people in the Goulburn Murray region, was born.

Raylene’s thesis was through the Kaiela Institute, an organisation leading change for First Nations communities.

After attending several Close the Gap forums, Raylene realised the extent of the work that was occurring right on her doorstep.

“The work that they're actually doing here at the Kaiela Institute was really aspirational compared to other communities around Australia,” she said.

“I was lucky enough to sit here for three years over my PhD and capture some of the work that they’re doing.”

The research sought a solution to “address the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples from one regional community’s perspective”, focusing on the use of deficit language and the Institute’s Regional Governance Plan.

In the PhD’s abstract, Raylene wrote: “Indigenous peoples are predominately identified as 'the problem' and positioned as the agents who need to 'fix it', which ignores the influence of dominant culture in maintaining the current position of Indigenous peoples”.

She said The University of Melbourne’s approach was “really innovative” in allowing the women to complete their studies in a cohort.

“I can honestly say, I don't think I would have been able to finish if I didn't have the support of the three other women that went through it at the same time.”