Estella brings strength and resilience to family in remote life with disability

ABC NEWS (Australia)

For this year's International Day of People Living with Disability, we visit the outback town of Tennant Creek, which is home to Amy James and Estella Jones. Both young women live with disability. Our guest reporter Amy interviews her friend Estella and her mum on growing up in the Barkly Region.

Transcript

00:00My name is Amy James. I am a proud Wocamore woman and my home is Tennant Creek. I can share

00:11the story with you with my good friend Estella. Estella was born here. So Estella is a Warramungu

00:18and Walpuri woman. She was a little fighter, so she was born with some complications. Estella

00:27came into our family because both Darren and I have a health background and worked in the

00:32local hospital. She'd come in with Grandma and have some of her therapies done. There

00:37came a time where Grandma struggled to have Estella at home because she couldn't have

00:42the resources that she required. She came and saw us one day and said that she'd like our

00:46help growing Estella up. So Estella was coming for a few weeks and Estella is now 19 this

00:51year and she is still with us. What is good about having Estella in your life?

00:58Estella is resilient. She is strong. Watching Estella navigate her world with everything that

01:06has gone on with her makes her the greatest inspiration that I could have in my life.

01:11Estella, how do you stay in touch with your culture? How do you stay in touch with your culture?

01:18We live here. Mainly by staying in Tennant Creek through activities like the Desert Harmony,

01:27going to Barclay Arts. She meets a lot of her family there. Estella requires someone with

01:34her all the time. So finding a care worker to meet your needs, in Tennant Creek at least,

01:41has become very, very difficult and that's where informal supports come into place. So

01:47someone else in the family would be doing that side of the care.

01:51Anything else you say, Estella?

01:53Hi.

02:01There is one thing I know Estella would like and that's for people to see her as a person,

02:08not as her disability.

02:14Estella's grown up here so they forget how old she is.

02:17So she has challenges with that.

02:20And touching. People have this weird thing where they need to pat or touch like this.

02:27And as you can see, Estella really doesn't like that. But we see it with a lot of people.

02:34So I think being treated like you'd want to be treated, how anyone would want to be treated

02:38in an everyday environment is what Estella would like.

02:41Yes.

02:59I think being treated with It.

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