Palya! I have just com­plet­ed a five-week occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py place­ment with the pri­ma­ry health team at Pur­ple House in Mparn­twe, Alice Springs. Mparn­twe, home to the Arrernte peo­ple, strad­dles the ephemer­al Todd Riv­er, lined with ghost gums, and is sur­round­ed by the Tjorit­ja (Mac­Don­nell) Ranges. 

Pur­ple House is an Abo­rig­i­nal-lead organ­i­sa­tion that works with Abo­rig­i­nal clients who have chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease and are receiv­ing dial­y­sis treat­ment three times per week. It had been on my radar as an excit­ing place­ment prospect since 2020 when I com­menced my studies. 

Lead­ing up to my place­ment, Antho­ny Albanese had also pledged to spend $30 mil­lion on bet­ter renal care in remote com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try. It felt like a poignant time to be work­ing with the organisation. 

Pur­ple House has three sites in Mparn­twe. I was pri­mar­i­ly based at North Side, where a flur­ry of tea and toast is made every morn­ing when clients arrive.

This sim­ple offer­ing seemed to be at the essence of Pur­ple House: small acts of kind­ness, and a real push to cre­ate a non-clin­i­cal, home­ly environment. 

There are end­less oppor­tu­ni­ties to build gen­uine rap­port with clients and pro­vide holis­tic and cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate health care. 

For instance, the clients share their con­cerns over a cup of tea, or around a fire out­side, and they can be seen to by the allied health team avail­able on site: nurs­es, GP, phys­io­ther­a­pist and occu­pa­tion­al therapist. 

Spe­cial­ists such as oph­thal­mol­o­gists and podi­a­trists are reg­u­lar­ly booked to be on site for a day to see clients. 

Clients are also sup­port­ed to see Ngangkari (tra­di­tion­al heal­ers), and bush med­i­cine is always avail­able to them. Rachel, my OT super­vi­sor, and I would pre­scribe assis­tive tech­nol­o­gy, help with social par­tic­i­pa­tion, run func­tion­al ther­a­py activ­i­ties such as paint­ing or cook­ing kan­ga­roo tail, and vis­it clients in hos­pi­tal to help with their reha­bil­i­ta­tion program.

We also trav­elled to two remote com­mu­ni­ties, spend­ing sev­er­al days in Yuen­du­mu, Warlpiri Coun­try, vis­it­ing aged-care clients at their homes, where we exchanged sto­ries over cups of tea, typ­i­cal­ly on people’s front veran­das, and often beside a fire to keep warm. 

We brought donat­ed bean­ies and bush balms with us and could gift these to clients as we pre­scribed assis­tive tech­nol­o­gy to help with their mobility. 

We also trav­elled to Kaltukat­jara, Pit­jan­t­jat­jara Coun­try with two Pur­ple House clients that want­ed to spend time with their fam­i­ly on Coun­try. It was an eight-hour trip to the south­west pock­et of NT, past Ulu­ru and Kata Tju­ta on wash­board roads. 

The hours passed quick­ly as Kuma­nara, grow­ing with excite­ment, shared sto­ries of his child­hood, the his­to­ry of Kaltukat­jara and life as a local police­man. Kaltukat­jara is a very beau­ti­ful com­mu­ni­ty sur­round­ed by euca­lypts and big, rocky ranges. Rachel and I spent an extra day there vis­it­ing dial­y­sis clients before mak­ing the return trip back to Mparntwe.

My place­ment with Pur­ple House was both immer­sive and affirm­ing. After two years of online study in Naarm (Mel­bourne), I was grate­ful to final­ly put learnt skills into practice.

Dur­ing the five weeks I was able to build rap­port with incred­i­ble peo­ple; wit­ness con­sid­ered, cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate health care; learn an exten­sive amount; and feel well and tru­ly a part of the Pur­ple House family. 

Please vis­it www​.pur​ple​house​.org​.au/​o​u​r​-​story to learn more about the incred­i­ble work Pur­ple House do. 

Deep­est respect to the Arrernte Peo­ple, on whose land I learnt, walked, and lived upon dur­ing my place­ment. For Kuma­nara. For­ev­er home in Kaltukatjara.