COVER STORY
ADELINA STANLEY The devoted CEO of Mamu Health Service Limited
Born in Townsville and raised in Innisfail, Adelina Stanley is a proud member of the Saisarem Tribe of Darnley (Erub) Island, situated in the Eastern Island group of the Torres Strait, and of the Kuku Yalangi, the people of the Daintree region. Being raised by parents who were both marginalised, Adelina developed a strong sense of social justice. Her father had immigrated from northern Italy in the 1950s and met her mother when working on the cane farms where Italian immigrants and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people worked together cutting cane. Her parents instilled in Adelina and her siblings the importance of family and culture.
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Sector Leader M AG A Z I N E
| November/December 2020
Adelina has fond memories growing up in Innisfail, she remembers her backyard resembling ‘little Italy’ where the tropical climate was perfect for her father to grow all the food the family needed including chickens, ducks and pigs. She also grew up eating a lot of seafood including fish, crabs and squid, her father worked hard to ensure that his family ate a very healthy diet. A lot of her mums’ traditional food also made their family menu, including crayfish and turtle and at times would be a mixed cultural cuisine such as eating turtle spaghetti. The link between healthy eating and wellbeing is indisputable. Adelina says a healthy diet is essential when looking at the health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and feels fortunate to have had an early education into healthy eating and knowledge of ‘eating out of your own backyard’. Her father’s teachings about healthy eating has stayed with Adelina, where she has shared this appreciation with her own children. To the presentday Adelina still enjoys gardening and even has chickens of her own.
