Synopsis:
This year’s NAIDOC Week Theme, ‘For Our Elders’ celebrates the valuable contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders in all areas of Australia. Please join Melbourne Children’s Campus leaders in Aboriginal and Torres Islander healthcare in a panel discussion about the crucial role that Elders play in our services, programs, care and research. The panel aims to acknowledge and celebrate the often hidden guidance, influence and advocacy of Elders in health.
“Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families.
They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones.
Our loved ones who pick us up in our low moments and celebrate us in our high ones. Who cook us a feed to comfort us and pull us into line, when we need them too.
They guide our generations and pave the way for us to take the paths we can take today. Guidance, not only through generations of advocacy and activism, but in everyday life and how to place ourselves in the world.
We draw strength from their knowledge and experience, in everything from land management, cultural knowledge to justice and human rights. Across multiple sectors like health, education, the arts, politics and everything in between, they have set the many courses we follow.”
NAIDOC Week 2023
Speakers:
Selena White is an Iman woman from Central Queensland and Manager of the Wadja Aboriginal Family Place. Selena has over 30 years of experience working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care. She currently leads support of RCH Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients and families with cultural support and safety throughout clinic and ward consultations. Selena is a leader of advocacy in First Nations healthcare, including as the Co-Chair of the RCH’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee, the cross-community body that ensures the hospital provides equitable, culturally safe and responsive health care, and promotes improved health outcomes for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families.
Sharon Mongta is an Aboriginal Case Manager at Wadja Aboriginal Family Place. Sharon’s background is Aboriginal and Maltese. Sharon’s Aboriginality is Monero from the Southern Monero Ngarigo country. Sharon has more than a decade of experience providing a culturally sensitive service for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, including children. Sharon has held positions as a Social Worker focusing on First Nations Health at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Forensicare at Ravenhall Correctional Centre as their inaugural Aboriginal Health & Wellbeing Worker and at The Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), a state-wide Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) servicing children, young people, families, and community members. Sharon is deeply involved in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advocacy at the Royal Children’s Hospital, including in her work as a member of the RCH Aboriginal Advisory Committee.
Professor Sharon Goldfeld is a paediatrician, researcher and policy advisor focussing on child development and health equity. She is Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital’s, and Theme Director for Population Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. With a decade of experience in state government as a senior policymaker in health and education, including holding the role of Principal Medical Advisor in the Victorian Department of Education and Training, Sharon is uniquely positioned to seamlessly straddle research, policy and practice. Her expertise is highly sought after with appointments to government Expert Advisory Groups in health, education and social services departments including her recent appoint to the National Early Years Strategy Advisory Group.
Dr Mick Creati is a Paediatrician / Adolescent Physician. He has for the last 10 years worked as a Paediatrician at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and in December last year was appointed as Clinical Lead, Wadja Aboriginal Family Place, Royal Children’s Hospital. Prior to starting at Wadja, Mick worked as a clinician for 23 years as with the Department of Adolescent Medicine RCH. Mick has an intimate knowledge of the health needs of children in both the Youth Justice and Child Protection systems and has provided evidence to both the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory as well as the current The Yoorrook Justice Commission in Victoria. Mick is the RACP Spokesperson for Raising the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility.
Robynne Nelson is a proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Waywurru and Wiradjuri woman from Shepparton. She is Managing Director of Healing the Spirit Pty Ltd, trading as Mulana Kaalinya Consultancy Services along with her husband. Her vast experience includes a broad range of community development consultancy projects across Victoria/NSW over the past 26 years, including a review of the Royal Children’s Hospital Koori Mental Health Service. She has delivered Aboriginal cultural competency training to near 100,000 people from a wide range of agencies/services and sectors such as Child Protection/DHHS, Department of Justice, Victoria Police, and hospitals including boards and staff.