Page 2036 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
education to grade 8 in country Victoria, undertook and completed a teaching degree. From an early age I was immersed in a home where education, achievement and community service were highly prized.
Our home also embraced multiculturalism. I am personally proud of the cultural diversity of my own ancestors. My great-great-grandparents came from Ireland, England, China and the Kamillaroi nation.
The cultural mix of my family was further enriched in the 1960s when two aunts married men from Italy and the Netherlands. I was shaped by my close experience of cultural diversity. Of course, we should remember that this country has been multicultural for more than 40,000 years with 300 different language groups and diverse geographic conditions of islands, deserts, mountains and rivers. It has continued to be multicultural despite the support, denial or antipathy of government policy since 1788.
In high school I was attracted to science and I enjoyed working with my hands. Coupled with a strong desire to help others, these interests led me to dentistry. And looking back after more than 30 years that decision was extremely sound.
When I began dentistry at Melbourne university in 1977, the environment was very different to my aunty and father’s times at Geelong Teachers College in the 1950s. By this time it had been recognised that education, and in particular tertiary education, was essential to the sharing of Australia’s wealth and opportunity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Support for Indigenous tertiary education had been instigated by the National Union of Students in the mid-1960s in a program called Abschol. I was able to benefit from these initiatives and with hard work and determination completed my dental degree in 1982, becoming the first Aboriginal dentist in Australia.
My first job as a dentist was with the Victorian Aboriginal Dental Service, travelling country Victoria and southern New South Wales with a dental caravan. It was the beginning of 10 years in public dentistry working in Aboriginal dental services, school dental services and public dental clinics. I also involved myself in community work on Aboriginal education committees and community health. I wanted to capitalise on this experience with additional qualifications so I completed a graduate diploma in public health at Adelaide university. My unease about the career potential of public dentistry and my developing political awareness were heightened during this postgraduate study. This led to two key decisions. I decided to seek employment in private practice dentistry and I joined the Australian Labor Party.
In 1991 I travelled to Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory for a two-year contract providing a private dental practice to the manganese miners and their families and public dentistry to the Andilyakwa people. The contrast between the dental surgeries provided for the predominantly non-Aboriginal mining community and the Andilyakwa people was stark. In the Aboriginal communities the equipment was old and dilapidated; the emphasis was on blood and acrylic—extractions and dentures. It was outrageous and a situation which I complained about loudly. I am pleased to say that the Northern Territory health department was able to refit these clinics with proper equipment during my contract.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video