I caught my first small plane ever, when I flew with five oth­er pas­sen­gers from Nhu­lun­buy to Groote Eylandt to begin my place­ment. The scenery was unbe­liev­able and the plane was shaky, so much fun nonetheless!

I spent my first week there with a remote men­tal health nurse, pro­vid­ing out­reach men­tal health ser­vices to sev­er­al Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties across Groote Eylandt. 

Through­out the week I spent some time doing con­sul­ta­tions with clients in the com­mu­ni­ty clinics. 

How­ev­er most of the expe­ri­ence involved vis­it­ing clients in the com­mu­ni­ty. I was lucky enough to meet peo­ple with the most diverse back­grounds and life expe­ri­ences which was extreme­ly humbling. 

Being my first remote expe­ri­ence, I ini­tial­ly expe­ri­enced some cul­ture shock, how­ev­er the more expo­sure and knowl­edge I gained over the first few days, the more I was able to under­stand that each indi­vid­ual has a unique sto­ry to tell which often influ­ences their cur­rent circumstances. 

It felt empow­er­ing to be able to assist peo­ple in these Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties and be the lis­ten­ing ear that some needed. 

On the final day of week one, we trav­elled to a much small­er remote Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ty known as Num­bul­war. I was able to spend the day work­ing along­side the social work­er, which opened my eyes to the way the mul­ti- dis­ci­pli­nary team work togeth­er with­in the com­mu­ni­ty to meet the needs of indi­vid­u­als from a social and emo­tion­al perspective. 

I have to men­tion the flight to Num­bul­war. Our pilot, Dylan offered me the seat next to him as pilot passenger. 

The view from the front was amaz­ing and an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence that I would nev­er have had with­out this place­ment offer. 

I spent my final week of place­ment in Nhulunbuy/​Gove Penin­su­la at Miwatj Abo­rig­i­nal Health Corporation. 

I worked along­side anoth­er men­tal health nurse and car­ried out sim­i­lar tasks to those in the first week. We con­sult­ed with com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers with acute and chron­ic men­tal health concerns.

It was a cul­tur­al tour through­out the week – I vis­it­ed the incred­i­ble Yir­rkala Art Cen­tre, Gar­ma where the famous Gar­ma Fes­ti­val is tra­di­tion­al­ly held, and learned about the local com­mu­ni­ty and cul­ture and the his­to­ry of the Yol­ngu people.

Over­all, my expe­ri­ence from a men­tal health and a remote Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ty per­spec­tive was price­less. I have learned so much about Indige­nous cul­ture that I will car­ry with me through­out my entire career. 

This CRANAplus Under­grad­u­ate Remote Place­ment Schol­ar­ship was spon­sored by Hut­Six soft­ware and web development.