Samantha's Story - a Koori woman from Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri country and closing the gap.

Samatha's story is the final episode of 2020 where I started out to interview a nurse a month as part of the 2020 International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Most of my interviews have been with nurses working in Australia and it seemed only right to include the experience of an Australian nurse who identifies as being an Aboriginal woman. This experience needs to be heard and understood and more importantly, storytelling is a large part of Aboriginal culture. Samantha describes "being caught between two worlds, a love of my people and a love of the frontline and trying to find the balance." Samantha is a Koori woman from Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri country. Samatha is passionate about wanting to increase access to health services through telehealth for Aboriginal people and importantly for Aboriginal people to be able to speak to a health care worker who identifies as Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander. Closing the Gap is something that Samantha references throughout her interview. The Australian Government describes 'Closing the Gap' as being "underpinned by the belief that when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a genuine say in the design and delivery of policies, programs and services that affect them, better life outcomes are achieved. It also recognises that structural change in the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is needed to close the gap" Samantha's interview highlights that there is still much work to be done if the trust is to be rebuilt amongst Aboriginal communities to facilitate and sustain aboriginal community engagement that addresses their health needs and influences the services that need to be developed as a result. Samantha advocates and articulates passionately the health issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and has a dream to establish a mentoring program that can help and support Aboriginal nurses to remain in their country through accessing remote learning and mentorship from qualified nurses who identify as Aboriginal Torress Strait Islander. If you can help Samantha realise this dream please get in touch and I would love to connect you both.