Songlines for reforms

The global movement of Black Lives Matter has united people from all walks of life, who have joined forces in their desire for justice and equality.

In Australia, the movement has also taken hold in all sectors, including health care. 

A recent publication led by Dr Lynore Geia, James Cook University and adjunct member of UTS Health, in collaboration with over 100 Australian nursing and midwifery leaders, has called upon nurses and midwives in Australia to support Indigenous curriculum reform in health care education.

Addressing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous nurses and midwives, Dr Geia and colleagues are urging Indigenous and non-indigenous health professionals to work together to ensure the development of meaningful Indigenous health curricula that contributes to dismantling structural racism inherent in the Australian health care system.

She writes, “Now is the time to link arms, move forward together, to create new songlines of reform”.

The call to action has asked for Indigenous and non-Indigenous nurses and midwives to take a stand together in their teaching, learning and practice. This will help a better, culturally safe nursing and midwifery workforce in Australia – which will be reflected in the patient experiences and health outcomes of Indigenous Australians.

Dr Tamara Power, Senior Research Fellow at the UTS Faculty of Health, says that Dr Geia’s call to action resonated with herself and her colleagues at the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

“The Faculty of Health at UTS, has a long history of commitment to improving the cultural safety of our graduates and contributing to improving equity in health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities,” she says.

We look forward to a national collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples health is everybody’s business.
Dr Tamara Power, UTS Faculty of Health

“We in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at UTS, have gladly joined with Dr.Geia in her call to reform Australian Nursing and Midwifery curricula.”

Dr Power says that this movement towards culturally safe Indigenous health curricula has been a long time in the making.

“Despite many positive developments over the past decade in higher education, there is little evidence that current efforts are resulting in increased cultural safety in graduates and decreased institutional racism in our health care system,” she says.

We look forward to a national collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous colleagues to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples health is everybody’s business.

Find out more about Dr Geia’s call to action: A unified call to action from Australian Nursing and Midwifery leaders: ensuring that Black Lives Matter (opens external site).