The pre­mière of their col­lab­o­ra­tive video Cul­tur­al­ly safe col­lab­o­ra­tion between nurs­es, mid­wives and Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Health Prac­ti­tion­ers marked a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in health­care edu­ca­tion. Hav­ing worked across remote com­mu­ni­ties, I under­stand first­hand the cru­cial role these pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships play in deliv­er­ing qual­i­ty health­care out­comes for our people.

Miss Cubillo’s Wel­come to Coun­try set the tone for the morn­ing beau­ti­ful­ly. Her per­son­al sto­ry about the impor­tance of fam­i­ly involve­ment dur­ing her daughter’s recent birth res­onat­ed deeply with me – it per­fect­ly illus­trat­ed why Cul­tur­al Safe­ty isn’t just pol­i­cy, it’s about gen­uine under­stand­ing and respect for our ways of caring.

The 15 – 20 minute video show­cased some­thing I have seen almost every day for more than a decade, work­ing in the Abo­rig­i­nal Com­mu­ni­ty Con­trolled sec­tor, and for over five years, work­ing with Sun­rise Health Ser­vice Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion: the vital role Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Health Prac­ti­tion­ers play as cul­tur­al bro­kers. We don’t just pro­vide clin­i­cal care; we bridge worlds, trans­lat­ing not just lan­guage but cul­tur­al under­stand­ing, fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, and com­mu­ni­ty pro­to­cols that are essen­tial for effec­tive health­care delivery.

What excit­ed me most about this ini­tia­tive was its poten­tial to edu­cate new-to-remote clin­i­cians about work­ing col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with Abo­rig­i­nal and/​or Tor­res Strait Islander Health Prac­ti­tion­ers. Too often, our exper­tise in com­mu­ni­ty knowl­edge and cul­tur­al nav­i­ga­tion is undervalued.

This video demon­strates that when nurs­es, mid­wives, and Abo­rig­i­nal and/​or Tor­res Strait Islander Health Prac­ti­tion­ers work togeth­er with mutu­al respect and under­stand­ing, we cre­ate tru­ly cul­tur­al­ly safe envi­ron­ments that ben­e­fit everyone. 

The strong atten­dance from key stake­hold­ers, includ­ing AHPRA staff, NT Health, AMSANT, and edu­ca­tion providers such as the Batch­e­lor Insti­tute, demon­strat­ed the sector’s com­mit­ment to this col­lab­o­ra­tive approach. As some­one who com­plet­ed my Diplo­ma through these very path­ways and is now work­ing as a Clin­i­cal Edu­ca­tor, I’m proud that CRANAplus was rep­re­sent­ed at this impor­tant moment in advanc­ing cul­tur­al­ly safe health­care practices. 

This video isn’t just an edu­ca­tion­al tool – it’s a tes­ta­ment to what’s pos­si­ble when we val­ue all voic­es in the health­care team. 

I encour­age all CRANAplus Mem­bers, par­tic­u­lar­ly those new to remote prac­tice or work­ing along­side Abo­rig­i­nal and/​or Tor­res Strait Islander Health Prac­ti­tion­ers, to watch this impor­tant resource, which is expect­ed to be released online lat­er in the year. It will deep­en your under­stand­ing of cul­tur­al­ly safe col­lab­o­ra­tion and help build the respect­ful part­ner­ships that are essen­tial for deliv­er­ing qual­i­ty health care in our communities.