Trangie professor takes on the world
WIRADJURI yinaa (woman) Dr Faye Mcmillan kick-started her career as an assistant working at the Trangie Pharmacy.
Today she can lay claim to being the country’s first Indigenous pharmacist and now works as director of the Charles Sturt University Djirruwang Program, specialising in mental health, and is associate professor with the CSU School of Nursing and Midwifery and Indigenous Health.
Her latest high achievement is to have joined the first full global cohort of change makers with the Atlantic Fellowship program, a community of 267 leaders from five continents tasked with advancing fairer, healthier and more inclusive societies.
Dr Mcmillan is an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity and is developing a mental health app that creates a community of support based on people identified within an individual’s mobile phone contact list.
“The aim of the app is to address the loneliness people can feel when they are disconnected and isolated, in conjunction with counselling and interventions to address acute mental health issues.”
Fifteen people were chosen from Australia for the intensive 12-month, 91-day program in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa and the United Kingdom.
“Whilst the Fellowship program wasn’t only open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, it certainly looked to elevate the voice of the world’s oldest culture.
“Being part of that has meant the lived experience and lived history of this country is such a great gift, that all people should be able to benefit from,” she said.
The broader goals of the Atlantic Fellowship aim to reduce the impact of dementia worldwide, achieve health equity, advance racial equity, and in Australia and the Pacific, improve the well-being of communities by drawing on the knowledge and expertise of Indigenous people.
The CSU Djirruwang program is well suited to this aim as NSW’S only Bachelor degree program for Aboriginal people leading to the mental health worker qualification offered by CSU.
“The Djirruwang Program is contributing a workforce that doesn’t just work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These are highly skilled health professionals in their own right.”
Developing professional opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is also a way to work towards equity.
“We should be creating opportunities for all people. There is a stereotype here, but there are so many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that don’t fit into that stereotype.
“We fear what we don’t know or don’t understand and need to try to change fear to being fearless. How do we do that? We have to empower people. That has the flow-on effect of everybody celebrating successes,” she said.
“Djirruwang looks to change the way people view Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so communities see education and opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as normal, not just one-offs,” she said. OWNERS and managers of Australia’s National Heritage List sites and other organisations can now apply for funding to help protect Australia’s national heritage.
Grants ranging from $25,000 to $400,000 will help conserve and raise awareness of the national heritage.
For the first time, this funding round includes Indigenous and natural heritage places, and those with historic heritage values.
Interested organisations can find more information at www. grants.gov.au. Applications close December 19.
The National Heritage List protects more than 100 of Australia’s outstanding natural, historic and Indigenous heritage places, including ancient rock art sites, colonial buildings, beaches and parks.