A lifetime of support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) nursing and midwifery students and the health of ATSI communities has earnt humble UNE Professor of Nursing Kim Usher a major national award.
Kim has become the first recipient of the Lifetime Ally Award from the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM). The award, presented at its recent 25th anniversary dinner held in Sydney, was in recognition of Kim's respectful and culturally appropriate collaboration and support over more than 20 years.
Kim was a member of a small group - the Indigenous Nursing Education Working Group (INEWG) - that delivered the Gettin em n keepin em report in 2000. A seminal work, it identified inadequacies in the nursing education system and recommended strategies to help attract and retain ATSI nursing students. INEWG members recognised that the only way to improve the health of ATSI people across Australia was to have a greater number of ATSI registered nurses working across health services.
This report singlehandedly changed nursing education across Australia. As a result of its findings, every school of nursing was eventually required by the nursing credentialling authority to include in its curriculum a unit discussing ATSI health, culture and history.
Since then, Kim has mentored and supervised many ATSI students, including seven PhD students - current CATSINaM CEO Professor Roianne West and Elders Advisory Circle member Dr Lynore Geia among them.
It has been important to me all my life. I grew up recognising the inequity for Aboriginal people in this country. As I got older, I was appalled at the injustices and the systemic racism in health and I wanted to make a difference, in whatever little way I could.
"Unfortunately, there are still nursing and midwifery students being impacted by racism and this has to be stopped. We need to create safer environments for students and until we achieve parity in the number of ATSI people in nursing and midwifery there will not be a change in Australia. We need them working in communities, in hospitals and services, to make it more likely for ATSI people to attend, and to feel that it's a safe place to access healthcare.
"That's why my research with ATSI people is so important to me and is what pushes me on to keep going at my age, when other people are retiring and heading off in caravans. There is so much to be done, including my recent review of what has been achieved in the past 20 years since the release of the Gettin em n keepin em report, in the recently released Gettin em n keepin em n growin em report that will lead us forward."
One of Kim's current ATSI students, PhD candidate, artist and registered theatre nurse Kisani Upward was also honoured during the CATSINaM conference. Her painting of 84-year-old Dr (Aunty) Sally Goold OAM, who is believed to be NSW's first registered ATSI nurse, who helped found both the Congress and the Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service, was on show across the weekend. It was part of the exhibition In Our Own Right: Black Australian Nurses and Midwives' Stories, which paid tribute to trailblazers and role models.
Kisani with painting of Dr (Aunty) Sally Goold OAM.
Kisani is also using her artistic talents as part of her PhD, which is linked to Professor Usher's Medical Research Future Fund project on the impact of the recent bushfires on locally affected ATSI people.
Kisani's PhD project is cross-cultural, investigating how art can help people to express themselves and heal following trauma. Using art-based forms and workshops, she aims to illustrate how far we have come in terms of health academia embracing ATSI culture and ways of knowing.
"We are no longer only focusing on westernised ways of conducting health research; we are being allowed to use our own ways of knowing and doing and it's being recognised as a legitimate form of research," Kisani said.
"I am keen to show other ATSI students that the world is your oyster when it comes to health and nursing research."
And as for her relationship with Kim?
"She has been a great mentor and friend," Kisani said. "It was brilliant to see her recognised through the ally award."
