The Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science has Aboriginal students across all schools, each mobilising change in their respective fields of health. Tailored support offered by the Faculty helped them find their feet.
On the face of it, the current Indigenous health environment looks quite bleak: the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians born between 2005 and 2007 is 10 years lower than the rest of the Australian population and many Indigenous Australians suffer from third-world diseases. But there is optimism within this environment as passionate Indigenous students come through to learn specialist skills to enable them to slowly change the health landscape for their communities.
Aboriginal people are now enrolled in various courses across the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences’ five graduate schools, each doing their part to change this health landscape.
Many of these students did not take the traditional academic pathway and may not have studied since year 12. Instead, they have gained recognition of their vast amounts of work experience, often as a substitute to an undergraduate degree.