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‘It’s completely filled my cup’: PRIDoC 2024 wraps up


Michelle Wisbey


6/12/2024 3:38:51 PM

The Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress was an opportunity for ‘transnational knowledge sharing and solidarity building’.

Four doctors standing in front of PRIDoC sign.
(L–R) Dr Joshua Preece, Dr Jay Dargan, Dr Sarah-Rebekah Clark, and RACGP President Dr Michael Wright at PRIDoC on Kaurna Country.

Hundreds of doctors and medical students from across the world have gathered in Adelaide, on Kaurna Country, for an inspiring, emotional, and motivating Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress (PRIDoC).
 
Meeting for the 11th time, the 2024 congress brought together Indigenous doctor member organisations from across the Pacific, hosted by the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association.
 
Other attendees included ‘Ahahui o nā Kauka, the Association of American Indian Physicians, the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, the Medical Association for Indigenous People of Taiwan, and Te Ohu Rata O Aotearoa.
 
With panels, presentations, and discussions taking place across the five-day congress, each one centred around this year’s theme of Ngadluku Warra, Ngadluku Tapa Purruna, Ngadluku Purruna (Our Language, Our Culture, Our Health).
 
Dr Sarah-Rebekah Clark is a proud Aboriginal woman and a New South Wales GP at the Aboriginal community-controlled health service, Awabakal Medical Service, and described being at PRIDoC as ‘like visiting family, restoking the fire’.
 
‘We’re working in a system that can feel like you’re constantly fatigued trying to carry a cultural load, so it’s revitalising being able to be encouraged by everyone from across the seas, we call them brothers and sisters from all the nations,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘I love how it’s just natural for people to walk around in their cultural dress and colours and it’s that sense of community that you crave.
 
‘Sometimes, depending on where you come from, you can lose a sense of your culture and language and identity, and it’s helping to rebuild it together.’
 
Dr Joshua Preece, a Torres Strait Islander registrar and RACGP GP in training, told newsGP that PRIDoC offered a space ‘made by Indigenous people for other Indigenous peoples’.
 
‘It’s pretty unique in its transnational knowledge sharing and solidarity building amongst Indigenous peoples,’ he said.
 
‘It’s interesting to hear about similar struggles, similar challenges, and then also the great success stories as well, and then learning from each other as to what different people have done in different communities and what has worked or hasn’t worked.
 
‘It’s quite inspiring to keep your gaze up from your own immediate problems to what’s happening in other parts of the world.’

PRIDoC-article.jpgRACGP President Dr Michael Wright and RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Chair Dr Karen Nicholls.
 
This year’s congress comes just weeks after the launch of the fourth edition of the NACCHO-RACGP National guide to preventive healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural and Health Training Framework.
 
Both are landmark pieces of work, designed to ensure GPs can ‘meaningfully engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people‘ and medicine, health, and healing.
 
Dr Karen Nicholls, Chair of RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, said the conference was not only an opportunity to learn about other people’s cultures, but to connect on similarities.
 
‘Whilst it’s lovely to learn about culture, it’s that relational aspect that’s really valuable for me,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Understanding how colonisation has impacted my brothers and sisters from around the Pacific is also important, because again, it impacts their similarities, their empathy as they overcome those challenges with the strengths-based perspective is really important.
 
‘It’s completely filled my cup.’
 
For RACGP President Dr Michael Wright, it was his first time attending PRIDoC and he described the experience as a ‘real privilege’.
 
‘I’ve been blown away by the warm welcome of the attendees and the open sharing of knowledge that I heard,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘I’ve heard a lot of positive stories from GPs who have felt really supported by the college and its networks to take on a career in general practice, and it was inspiring to hear the stories of these GPs, many of whom are now working in rural and remote communities.
 
‘It has just been a really good vibe of people saying, “We know there are problems, but by connecting and working together, we can have a great professional life as well as meet the health needs of our communities”.’
 
And as Dr Clark prepares to leave from PRIDoC for the year, she said the 2024 conference has been an especially meaningful one for her.
 
‘It’s that feeling that I have the strength and energy to continue representing our people and community, and it gives me the words to be able to, when things come up, express this point of view so they can understand our Indigenous perspective,’ she said.
 
‘It gives me hope that I can go into areas where I might have felt that I wasn’t welcome or it’s too hard, because I’m able to see role models in research, and public health, and other specialties.
 
‘It’s sparked me thinking, “what’s next?”.
 
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health AIDA Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association


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