00:00The health system just didn't seem to look after the people in the north in the same
00:09way that they did the people of the south.
00:12It's the 1950s in Cairns in far north Queensland, and 18-year-old Dulcie Flower is beginning
00:17a career in nursing.
00:19She's a proud Merriam woman.
00:21The culture of the Torres Strait is, in her words, the very core of her being.
00:26Respect for elders is paramount, and when a police officer walked a revered Torres
00:30Strait Islander man known as Old Pop into the emergency department with a busted lip,
00:35she knew something was wrong.
00:38He was hit by one of the policemen, he was belted in the mouth, and his lip was split
00:43and bleeding, and I'd wondered what had happened.
00:47He indicated that he'd been hit by the policeman.
00:50Even Aunty Dulcie's mum, often sought out for her wisdom on treating sick children,
00:54told her there was nothing that could be done.
00:57Nobody even thought of challenging police or taking them to court for assault or things
01:04like that.
01:05It was just accepted.
01:08Dulcie went to the police station to make a complaint.
01:11For her trouble, she was shifted out of the casualty department, but far from damaging
01:15her career, the brave stand was a sign of what was to come.
01:20There was just this feeling that I wasn't going to accept being treated in a way that
01:28was, to me, disrespectful.
01:31See, the old people always talked about respect.
01:33Mum did too, and to me, respect was a two-way process.
01:38Aunty Dulcie moved to Sydney in 1960, where she went on to co-found the nation's first
01:44Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation, the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern.
01:50It was an act of self-determination, an act of saying, OK, well, now, mainstream's not
01:57doing things.
01:58There is a need for a special health approach to the Aboriginal people, because a lot of
02:05the ones going into hospital were faced with a very ignorant attitude on the part of nurses
02:12and doctors who would say, well, the people are uneducated, they don't know any better,
02:17and they haven't got the ability to look after themselves, and you think, well, that's not
02:22right, excuse me.
02:24That can't possibly be right.
02:27Aunty Dulcie's made it her business to stand up for First Nations people.
02:31On a trip back to far north Queensland in the 1980s to visit her mother in hospital,
02:36she realised Torres Strait Islander people with diabetes were suffering needlessly because
02:40of a lack of preventative care.
02:43And happened to go to the nurse's station, and there were photos of Torres Strait people
02:49with crutches and legs missing.
02:54I thought, what on earth?
02:56And here they were, all displayed.
02:59I said to the nurse, what's going on?
03:00Oh, you know, I said, no, I don't.
03:03What's happening?
03:04And I got a bit angry.
03:05I thought, look, if I stay talking to her, I'm going to lose my temper, so I'm sorry,
03:10but to me, that was, just that attitude was just off.
03:15So I went back to mum and said, what's going on, mum?
03:18I said, well, a lot of people are having their legs amputated, and I could not believe it.
03:27Nothing's being done.
03:29It's just accepted.
03:30Nothing's being done.
03:33Dulcie went back to Sydney and lobbied doctors and at medical conferences for change.
03:38It was looking at lifestyle, looking at diets, looking at family history, looking at exercise,
03:45the whole lifestyle thing.
03:47When Dulcie started her career, she was one of a handful of Indigenous nurses.
03:51She's now buoyed, knowing there are thousands.
03:54She's helped young Indigenous health workers begin their own careers at AMS too, and is
03:58proud at what its alumni have gone on to achieve.
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