The symposium’s theme, ​‘Sto­ries that mat­ter: reflect­ing and col­lab­o­rat­ing for change’, drew lead­ers, health pro­fes­sion­als, researchers, inter­preters, and com­mu­ni­ty advo­cates togeth­er to address press­ing gaps in health com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Pre­sen­ta­tion top­ics cen­tred around com­mu­ni­ca­tion prac­tices in Cen­tral Aus­tralia, cul­tur­al­ly safe con­ver­sa­tions in clin­i­cal prac­tice, lan­guage and mean­ing in health com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and cul­tur­al safe­ty in the med­ical cur­ricu­lum and pro­fes­sion­al development. 

Many ses­sions empha­sised the impor­tance of acknowl­edg­ing the ongo­ing injus­tices and suf­fer­ing expe­ri­enced by First Peo­ples, as well as the urgent need for hon­est dia­logue and truth-telling. These con­ver­sa­tions are essen­tial to rais­ing aware­ness about the his­tor­i­cal events that have shaped cur­rent health dis­par­i­ties and the com­plex­i­ties sur­round­ing the con­cept of ​‘clos­ing the gap’, a phrase that is often used with­out ful­ly appre­ci­at­ing its depth and implications. 

Keynote speak­er Car­ol Christo­phersen deliv­ered a deeply mov­ing address on her work repa­tri­at­ing ances­tral remains that had been stolen from local lands and relo­cat­ed to the UK.

The endur­ing impacts of his­tor­i­cal prac­tices com­mit­ted in the name of West­ern sci­ence con­tin­ue to cause ongo­ing trau­ma for indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties. Christophersen’s pre­sen­ta­tion, rich with pho­tographs, reflec­tions, and emo­tion­al insights, high­light­ed the long-last­ing effects of these his­tor­i­cal atrocities. 

Anoth­er stand­out pre­sen­ta­tion focused on the vital role of inter­preter ser­vices in health com­mu­ni­ca­tion, fea­tur­ing the Plain Eng­lish Health Dic­tio­nary devel­oped for Abo­rig­i­nal Inter­preter Ser­vices (AIS) in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. While this resource was designed for inter­preters, the pre­sen­ta­tion high­light­ed that it is also a valu­able tool for any­one seek­ing to com­mu­ni­cate more effec­tive­ly with Abo­rig­i­nal and/​or Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ple in health­care set­tings. The free, down­load­able resource trans­lates med­ical Eng­lish into plain Eng­lish and aligns close­ly with the lex­i­con, syn­tax, and dis­course of Abo­rig­i­nal languages.

It includes illus­tra­tions of body parts and med­ical equip­ment to sup­port clear­er under­stand­ing dur­ing con­sul­ta­tions, address­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion bar­ri­ers that can have seri­ous health consequences.

Sal­ly Sena, inde­pen­dent con­trac­tor and for­mer Abo­rig­i­nal Liai­son Offi­cer, and Emi­ly Arm­strong from the North­ern Insti­tute, pre­sent­ed research on cul­tur­al­ly con­gru­ent process­es for col­lect­ing patient sto­ries from speak­ers of Abo­rig­i­nal lan­guages in Cen­tral Aus­tralia. Their work, part of research led by Anne Low­ell and Robyn Aitken titled ​‘Explor­ing and improv­ing process­es for speak­ers of Abo­rig­i­nal lan­guages to influ­ence the safe­ty and qual­i­ty of their health care (EQuaLS)’ revealed major com­mu­ni­ca­tion fail­ures with seri­ous health con­se­quences. Even for peo­ple who speak Eng­lish as a first lan­guage, their research demon­strat­ed sig­nif­i­cant mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Improv­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion between health­care staff and Abo­rig­i­nal patients is a cru­cial ele­ment in clos­ing the gap in health out­comes and achiev­ing cul­tur­al safe­ty in health care.

The sym­po­sium rein­forced that improv­ing First Peo­ples’ health­care expe­ri­ences requires more than pol­i­cy or train­ing modules. 

Speak­ers called for ongo­ing com­mit­ment from health work­ers to build trust and work col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with First Peo­ples, both indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties, to cre­ate mean­ing­ful change. 

Helen Guyupul Wunung­mur­ra empha­sised the col­lab­o­ra­tive approach need­ed for mean­ing­ful change, pow­er­ful­ly stat­ing, ​“Stand up and walk togeth­er. Be with them, walk with them – to make them feel comfortable.” 

The symposium’s pow­er­ful mes­sage – that effec­tive health com­mu­ni­ca­tion requires walk­ing togeth­er, not just talk­ing about col­lab­o­ra­tion – rein­forces CRANAplus’ com­mit­ment to mean­ing­ful cul­tur­al safe­ty in our education. 

While CRANAplus already embeds cul­tur­al safe­ty prin­ci­ples through­out our pro­grams and rec­om­mends par­tic­i­pants also com­plete the Mur­ra Mul­lan­gari: Intro­duc­tion to Cul­tur­al Safe­ty pro­gram through CATSI­NaM, the symposium’s insights will fur­ther inform and inspire our edu­ca­tion­al approach­es as we con­tin­ue to devel­op and improve our edu­ca­tion, to ensure rur­al and remote clin­i­cians are skilled to pro­vide safe and acces­si­ble health care for First Peo­ples communities.