CATSINaM Koori Mail Articles

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25 Acts of Individual Black Nurses and Midwives Activism recipients.

First Nations midwives and nurses stand strong

By RUDI MAXWELL IN the late 1990s, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives recognised that they NSW were stronger, together.

So 36 pioneering Indigenous health professionals formed the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM).

Last month, CATSINaM celebrated 25 strong, staunch years at their national conference on Gadigal Country, in Sydney, with the launch of ‘gettin em n keepin em n growin em’: Strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery education reform (GENKE II), and the opening of In Our Own Right: Black Australian Nurses and Midwives Stories Exhibition and a gala ball.

CATSINaM chief executive Professor Roianne West, a Kalkadoon and Djunke woman, told the Koori Mail that the conference had been brilliant.

“We reconnected with the 36 founding members, their families if they had passed – and they all said that they we could not have imagined where we would be today,” she said.

“We now have 2000 voting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practising nurses and midwives and students.”

Prof West said that the original 2002 report, ‘getting em n keepin em’: Report of the Indigenous Nursing and Education Working Group (GENKE I)), aimed to address the detrimentally low numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives in the health workforce.

She said honouring and reviewing this work, this year CATSINaM developed GENKE II 2022, which presented renewed strategies to address the persistent Indigenous healthcare concerns identified in the original report.

“Our workforce remains significantly underrepresented at just 1.4% of the total Australian nursing and midwifery workforce,” she said.

“The GENKE II report recommendations aim to address this shortfall through national strategies that privilege Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery knowledges and embed Cultural Safety across all the domains of nursing and midwifery education.”

And Professor West had a message for any young Indigenous person thinking about nursing or midwifery as a career.

“They’re two of the most honourable professions that you could enter into,” she said.

“And we’re proud to be associated with two important programs, birthing on Country and dying on Country.”

Rikarli and Rayma Johnson, Buuja Buuja Butterfly Dancers.

Kebi Kub Torres Strait Islander dancers.

Professor Kim Usher

National Apology Message Stick.

Uncle Michael West, Dr Lynore Geia and Kenton Winsley.

David Nardoo, Tyla, Ruby and Tayla West.

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Brendan Japangardi Kerin

All dressed up for the anniversary gala.

Rochelle Watson-Pitt Referendum Council co-chair Pat Anderson.

Aunty Emily Marshall and Linda Popple.

Brolga Dance Academy.

Kisani Upward with image of Dr Sally Goold on screen and portrait.

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NACCHO chief executive Pat Turner.

Kenton Winsley and Aunty Pam Mamm Award recipient Aunty Gayle Yarran.

CATSINaM National Exhibition Founding Members, onscreen.

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Apology delivered for nursing’s racist past LAST month Professor Karen Strickland, chair NSW of the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery (CDNM) delivered an apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, for the hurt and harm caused by nonIndigenous nurses and midwives.

Prof Strickland addressed more than 300 delegates attending the 2022 Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) national conference on Gadigal land in Sydney.

The apology acknowledged the historical contributions of nurses and midwives in the implementation of racially discriminatory government policies, that intentionally or indirectly harmed Indigenous people under the guise of ‘care’.

Nurses and midwives were involved in, and in some cases still are, causing harm to individuals, families and communities, and the professions denied Indigenous people entry into and influence within the nursing and midwifery professions and health service delivery.

Bwgcolman woman Dr Lynore Geia responded to the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery National Apology on behalf of CATSINaM. “An apology from the nursing and midwifery professions is welcomed and long overdue,” Dr Geia said.

Professor Karen Strickland, Dr Lynore Geia and Professor Roianne West.

“We know about the roles that nurses and midwives undertook in implementing the punitive government policies that saw the taking of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities, in establishing and maintaining racial segregation within hospital and health services, and through oppressive ‘collegial behaviours’ towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery students, intentionally hindering and in some cases preventing students from becoming nurses and midwives and fulfilling their desire to help

our own people.”

Dr Geia said the apology would mark a new era in the partnership between the CDNM and CATSINaM, one founded on privileging the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives, promoting trust and supporting truth-telling and genuine collaboration for a new way of working.

“Purposeful action includes working together in real partnership for reform, recognising the unique knowledge and skills that Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Island nurses and midwives bring to the professions in developing reforms for better education, research and clinical practice outcomes. An apology means we commit to each other to repair the professional breach and to also maintain a formal process of accountability to each other for the work we need to do and will do.”

The apology was delivered a day after the opening of CATSINaM’s In Our Own Right: Black Australian Nurses and Midwives Stories 2022 national exhibition.

The apology also coincided

with the launch of CATSINaM’s ‘gettin em, keepin em, n growin em’ (GENKE II) report, which outlines strategies for immediate and long-term initiatives that can only be achieved through consolidating strategic partnerships between CATSINaM, the Australian government and nursing, midwifery leadership organisations. l Turn to pages 30-31 for more from the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) national conference.

Racism underpins deaths SYSTEMIC racism underpins Aboriginal deaths AUS in custody and authorities are not doing enough to address it, the Northern Territory Australian of the Year says.

Leanne Liddle called out a range of failings she said contributed to more than 500 deaths since a 1991 royal commission into the issue.

A law graduate and former police officer who is an Aboriginal justice director at the NT Department of Justice, Ms Liddle made the remarks in a speech at Flinders University in Melbourne.

Recommendations from the

Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had never been discussed during her long career at South Australia Police, she said.

“The two most critical recommendations of the royal commission – of arrest and imprisonment as a last resort for Aboriginal people – were not spoken about in any training or deliverable or arrest in my decade plus time in SAPOL,” Ms Liddle said while delivering the Elliott Johnston Oration.

“How does one ignore such an important and integral human right with an ad hoc dismissal when we knew what was at stake?”

Ms Liddle said too much

money had been directed towards infrastructure used by all prisoners and law enforcement staff.

“I saw huge investments and substantial efforts placed into mitigating risks for government.

“Yes, there was new police cells ...yes, there were cultural awareness sessions for new police.

“But I knew that this was all just veneer – because I also knew that little had changed for Aboriginal people.”

Aboriginal communities and representatives were not involved in high-level discussions about how to implement the findings, Ms Liddle said.

“They were just not around the tables. We were invisible,” she said.

More than one in five people who died in custody in Australia in 2022 were Indigenous, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Ms Liddle said every major anniversary of the commission's final report had seen an increase in the rate of Aboriginal people in detention.

“This is the result of sordid party-political competitions to be 'tough on crime' and the overall increase in imprisonment rates.”

Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636

Northern Territory Australian of the Year Leanne Liddle.

The Story of the Moving Image Our centrepiece exhibition.

Journey through the past, present and future of the moving image.

Open Daily Image: The Story of the Moving Image exhibition view. Photograph by Gareth Sobey

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