Last year we held a referendum in Australia to establish an indigenous voice to parliament – an opportunity to build on the 1967 referendum and the broader reconciliation movement of the past 30 years to recognise some of the injustices of the past. Unfortunately, that referendum failed.
Why is this important for us in the dental profession? Because there still exists a significant gap in oral health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country, and therefore there is an important need to ensure that as health professionals, we have a good understanding of the broader history of colonisation in Australia and the ongoing impact that has on health.
In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I speak to Patrick Mercer. Pat is a Wadawurrung Kulin man with family connections to Ballarat and Melbourne in Victoria. He currently works as a Lecturer in First Nations Health at the Melbourne Dental School and as a tutor within the Wurru Wurru First Nations Health team at the School of Medical Education at Melbourne University.
We discuss the importance of understanding our history and the role of the built environment in both perpetuating the impacts of colonisation but also in providing an opportunity to tell a different story, particularly in the form of statues and building names. Understanding this history is particularly relevant given that the Australian Dental Council competencies for newly graduating dental practitioners includes the requirement to acknowledge colonisation and systemic racism; address individual racism and biases; foster a safe working environment; and provide culturally safe care to diverse groups and populations.
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In case you missed it, you can catch up with the previous episodes of the Dental As Anything podcast here and read news articles here.
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