International Women’s Day (IWD) will be celebrated today across all our 304 Aboriginal community controlled health clinics and 8 affiliates , where thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman are involved daily in all aspects and levels of comprehensive Aboriginal primary health care delivery. Professional and dedicated Indigenous Woman CEO’S , Doctors, Clinic Managers, Aboriginal Health Workers , Nurses, Receptionists etc.
IWD is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The theme this year is #PressforProgress, a call to action for accelerating gender equality. Our ACCHO workforce is leading the way.
We can all play a part in improving outcomes for women and this year’s theme provides an opportunity to press even harder for progress in our ACCHO’s
These woman in our tribute today represent the 45 years of ACCHO’s advocating for culturally respectful, needs based approach to improving the health and wellbeing outcomes of our people in the past and now into our healthy futures .
1.NSW : Dr Naomi Mayers one of the founders of Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern ,AHMRC and NACCHO
2. VIC: Jill Gallagher AO VACCHO CEO 2001-2018
3. QLD : Pamela Mam establishment of the Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service and Jimbelunga Nursing centre
4. SA : Mary Buckskin (1955 – 2015 ) CEO of AHCSA for 8 years
5.NT : Donna Ah Chee CEO Congress Alice Springs , NACCHO Board Member, Chair AMSANT former CEO NACCHO
6.WA : Vicki O’Donnell. Chair AHCWA : CEO – Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services.
7.ACT : Julie Tongs OAM CEO Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service, NACCHO Board Member,
8.TAS. Heather Sculthorpe CEO Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre
10.Read over 336 NACCHO Aboriginal Women’s Health articles published in past 6 years
1.NSW : Dr Naomi Mayers one of the founders of Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern ,AHMRC and NACCHO 
The University of Sydney recently conferred a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) upon Naomi Mayers OAM, for her work delivering and transforming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care
“We’ve come a long way since the Aboriginal Medical Service first opened its doors, thanks to the efforts of so many people,
Of course there remains much work to be done and I urge the younger generations to continue fighting to close the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes.”
Dr Naomi Mayers in 1972 one of the founders of Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern and a founding member of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW and the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation (now NACCHO )
“Australia owes a debt of gratitude to Dr Mayers, for her impressive contribution towards improving health care policy, system delivery and access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
She dedicated her working life to achieving health equity, and the empowerment of her community, in Redfern and beyond.”
Congratulating Dr Mayers, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services) Professor Shane Houston said her work had made a tangible difference to countless people.
An advocate, leader and reformer, Dr Mayers has been at the forefront of change in health service provision to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities at local, state and national levels for over 40 years.
One of the founders of the first Aboriginal community-controlled health service in Australia in early 1972, the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, Dr Mayers worked as its Administrator, Company Secretary and finally Chief Executive Officer until her recent retirement.
Over 40 years, she guided its transformation from a small shop-front into a nationwide network of services.
Dr Naomi Mayers at the University of Sydney.
A Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri woman, Dr Mayers was also a founding member of The Sapphires, the all-Aboriginal music group from country Victoria that formed the basis of the popular 2012 film of the same name.
Laurel Robinson, Beverly Briggs, Naomi Mayers and Lois Peeler are the women behind The Sapphires
Presented with the honour during a graduation ceremony at the University’s Great Hall, Dr Mayers acknowledged the importance of collaboration and persistence in achieving change.
At the age of 18, Dr Mayers began her work in health as a nurse, at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, the Home Hill Hospital in Queensland and St Andrews Hospital in East Melbourne. She was also a board member of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
She was a founding member of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW and the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation (NAIHO, now the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation); founding president of the Federation for Aboriginal Women; and a member of the first Australian and Torres Strait Islander Commission Regional Council (Metropolitan Sydney).
Dr Naomi Mayers.
She was a witness during the inquiries of the 1977 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Health, and in 1981 she was appointed as a consultant by the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists.
Dr Mayers was also Chair of the National Aboriginal Health Strategy Working Party, which authored a pivotal report that introduced innovative Aboriginal health sector reforms which helped shape the 150 Aboriginal Medical Services across Australia today.
She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1984 in recognition of her services to the community and holds a doctorate in Aboriginal Affairs from Tranby Aboriginal College in Sydney.
2. VIC: Jill Gallagher AO VACCHO CEO 2001-2018
Update 2018
Jill Gallagher named Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner
Ms Gallagher AO, a Gunditjmara woman from Western Victoria who has worked within, led and advocated for the Victorian Aboriginal community all her life, has been named Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner.
The Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner is a newly created role entrusted with taking the lead in preparing to negotiate the first ever treaty between Aboriginal people and an Australian government
A champion for health, culture and community
Jill Gallagher AO has never hesitated to seize opportunities to support her community in the pursuit of better health, community autonomy and reclamation of the traditional culture and society of Aboriginal Victorians.
A Gunditjmara woman, Jill was born in the Australian Capital Territory as her parents travelled looking for work. She was 1 of 10 children. Her mother, Frances (nee Winter) grew up at Framlingham in south-west Victoria. Jill’s father, of Irish descent, was accidentally killed when she was a baby.
There were few supports for women, particularly Aboriginal women
Jill spent her childhood in Gippsland, where her mother, like many Victorian Aboriginal people of the era, found seasonal work picking vegetables. This was a time before the emergence of Aboriginal organisations and there were few supports for women, particularly Aboriginal women. The seasonal camps in which the family stayed became their community. An abiding memory for Jill is of a campsite by a river in the evening, dotted with the glow of dozens of campfires.
Jill’s family moved to Collingwood in 1963 when she was eight and her mother found work in a box factory. They had very little. Jill, who had by then attended 19 different primary schools, finished her primary education at George Street Primary School, but only had a short time in secondary education at Fitzroy Girls School. Rebellious and disobedient, she clashed with teachers and left school at the age of 14 to find factory work.
She grasped the opportunity to reclaim knowledge of traditional culture, language, stories and people
In her early twenties, Jill regretted her lack of education. Now with a child of her own, she wanted more from life than factory work and realised that education would help her to support her family.
Jill was fortunate to come across a training scheme for Aboriginal young people, introduced by then Victorian Education Minister Joan Kirner.
She was thrilled to be accepted and began training at the Museum of Victoria. She took advantage of access to the professional development offered there and later took up a position at the Victorian Archaeological Survey.
More importantly, she grasped the opportunity offered by the Museum’s collections to reclaim knowledge of traditional culture, language, stories and people that had been impacted by white settlement and the devastation it left on Aboriginal people.
She saw an opportunity to rediscover truths about Aboriginal society before European settlement and to pass this knowledge on to young people. Jill became a firm advocate of the importance of Aboriginal voices in the collection and management of their heritage, maintaining this passion in a further role as manager of the Heritage Branch of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria.
Jill was and is still is very passionate about the repatriation of Aboriginal cultural property, and the return of ancestors for reburial, being very active in this field since its beginnings in the 1980s.
She worked at the Museum of Victoria when the Aboriginal Legal Service fought to have the Murray Black collection of Aboriginal remains returned to Victoria from institutions such as the University of Melbourne and the National Museum of Australia. Although she moved out of the Aboriginal heritage field in 1998, Jill remained passionate about its importance. For many years she continued to serve on the National Committee for the Repatriation of Skeletal Remains.
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
In 1998 Jill’s commitment to Aboriginal community control saw her take up a position at Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), a peak body advocating for the many community controlled Aboriginal health services in Victoria.
Jill was aware that these organisations had been founded to offer meeting places where Aboriginal communities could be visible once again in the landscape. She reinforced VACCHO’s role in supporting its member organisations to stay true to their community beginnings. She also refined and modified their practices to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians.
Since 2000, VACCHO has offered training for Aboriginal Health Workers via its status as a Registered Training Organisation. Constantly seeking ways to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians, VACCHO now collects and analyses data collected by its member organisations in order to strengthen their services.
As the CEO of VACCHO since 2001, Jill has seen the organisation grow significantly with current staff numbers at 75. VACCHO has developed innovative preventative and educational health programs, including the Well Person’s Checklist, the Koori Maternity Services Program, and a successful diabetes education initiative.
Strong and effective leadership
One of Jill’s proudest achievements was gaining bipartisan support for the vital ‘Statement of Intent’ signed by the Victorian Premier in August 2008 on behalf of the State government. This statement pledged to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities.
In 2010 Jill was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. In 2013 she was awarded an Order of Australia in recognition of her strong and effective leadership in Aboriginal health.
She has also been a well-respected member of a number of State government and statutory advisory committees, including the Victorian Early Childhood Development Advisory Committee, the Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria Indigenous Reference Group, the Child Death Review, the Cooperative Research Centre on Aboriginal Health, and the Premiers Aboriginal Advisory Committee.
Jill cites her early career mentors, such as Jim Berg of the Koori Heritage Trust and Terry Garwood of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, as great influences on her life, inspiring her with the confidence to believe in herself. But most of all she continues to be inspired by her mother’s determination and resilience in the face of everything she endured.
3. QLD : Pamela Mam establishment of the Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service and Jimbelunga Nursing centre
Pictured here with her family in front of the IUIH building mural 2018
From the QAIHC HALL of FAME 2008
Pamela Mam was born in Richmond in 1938 but came from Palm Island. Her mother was taken from Cook Town during the time of the stolen generation, and was sent away to Palm Island.
Pam’s husbands name is Steve and her children are Tomasina and Mukubi. She has two grandchildren whose names are Darlene and Rendy, with the Ezra families living on Palm Island also.
Pamela started working as a Nurse Aid in Palm Island Hospital and continued to work there for four years. She completed her general training at Townsville Hospital between the years 1954 and 1959. She then went on to Midwifery at the Royal Women’s Hospital.
In 1973 Pamela began work in the Raff Ward of the Royal Children’s Hospital. She was strongly encouraged by her husband to work in a field that would allow her to truly help her people in the area of health. She has been working in this area ever since and this year marks her 55th year in the field. This is a truly remarkable and outstanding feat.
Pamela has said in the past that nursing has at times been a real challenge for her. Though against all the odds and her limited high school education, she has succeeded tremendously in both her personal and her professional life and has forged a career in the difficult and complex world of health.
Being a role model for Indigenous people, and encouraging them to achieve in the way that she has, dispute the challenges, has been a real highlight for Pamela.
Her greatest achievement can be seen in the establishment of the Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service and Jimbelunga Nursing centre.
4. SA .Mary Buckskin (1958 – 2015 ) CEO of AHCSA for 8 years.
Mary had a nursing background with qualifications as a registered nurse, registered midwife holding a Diploma of Nursing and an Advanced Diploma of Community Services Management.
She was a board member of Nunkuwarrin Yunti Aboriginal Health Service (Adelaide) and past board member of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service (ACT) and the Aboriginal Elders and Community Care Services Inc (Adelaide).
5.NT : Donna Ah Chee CEO Congress Alice Springs , Chair AMSANT former CEO NACCHO
Ms Ah Chee is the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Aboriginal Corporation, the Aboriginal community controlled primary health care service in Alice Springs.
Ms Ah Chee is a Bundgalung woman from the far north coast of New South Wales and has lived in Alice Springs for over 25 years.
She has been actively involved in Aboriginal affairs for many years, especially in the area of Aboriginal adult education and Aboriginal health.
In June 2011, Ms Ah Chee moved to Canberra to take up the position of Chief Executive Officer of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation before returning to Congress in July 2012.
Ms Ah Chee convened the Workforce Working Party under the Northern Territory Aboriginal Health Forum, was Chairperson of the Central Australian Regional Indigenous Health Planning Committee, a member of the Northern Territory Child Protection External Monitoring Committee and jointly headed up the Northern Territory Government’s Alcohol Framework Project Team.
She currently sits on the National Drug and Alcohol Committee and at a local level, represents the Congress on the People’s Alcohol Action Coalition.
In 2016 Associate Professor John Boffa and Ms Donna Ah Chee were recognised by the AMA with its Excellence in Healthcare Award for 2016 for the enormous contribution to reducing harms of alcohol and improving early childhood outcomes for Aboriginal children
See Media Coverage
“This award recognises and acknowledges Professor Boffa and Ms Ah Chee’s unwavering efforts to achieve the best possible health outcomes for Aboriginal people, For almost two decades, they have formed a crucial partnership, working together to implement core services and reform Aboriginal primary health care in the Northern Territory.
They had made a significant contribution to the health of Aboriginal people through their involvement with primary care, research, education and public health.”
Outgoing AMA President, Professor Brian Owler, presented the award at the AMA’s National Conference in Canberra
The Excellence in Health Care Award recognises ongoing commitment to quality health and medical care, policy, and research, and is awarded to an individual or individuals who have made a significant contribution to improving health or healthcare in Australia.
Associate Professor Boffa is the Chief Medical Officer of Public Health at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Aboriginal Corporation and has worked in Aboriginal primary care services for more than 25 years.
Ms Ah Chee is the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and is the former CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
Professor Owler said the pair had gone above and beyond in their commitment to improving the health of Aboriginal people.
“Professor Boffa and Ms Ah Chee have worked tirelessly together to bring about reforms and accountability in Indigenous Health,” Professor Owler said.
“Their service model on alcohol and drug treatment, which focused on three streams of care including medical, psychological and social and cultural support, resulted in a major alcohol treatment service being funded within an Aboriginal community controlled health service.
“They have initiated major and highly significant reforms in not only addressing alcohol and other drugs, but in collaborating and overcoming many cross cultural sensitivities in working in Aboriginal health care.”
6.WA : Vicki O’Donnell. Chair AHCWA : CEO – Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services.
Chairperson: Vicki O’Donnell (second from left ) with AHCWA board members Deputy Chairperson: Raymond Christophers Secretary: Fabian Tucker Treasurer: Susan Oakley
I am a Nyikina Mangala Aboriginal woman from Derby where I grew up.
I have worked as a Strategic Leader in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health for the past fifteen years.
This is demonstrated currently in my position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (KAMS) in Broome and my previous role as the CEO of the Derby Aboriginal Health Service for 12 years.
KAMS (Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Ltd) is a regional Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service (ACCHS), providing a collective voice and support for a network of member ACCHS from towns and remote communities across the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
KAMS was first established in 1986 as a cooperative between the Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service (BRAMS) and the East Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service (EKAMS) now the Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service (OVAHS) with membership expanding to Halls Creek health service committee and Fitzroy Crossing community representatives.
These communities saw the benefit of sharing pooled resources and collective effort in the region.
Today, Member services now include;
- Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service (BRAMS)
- Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service (OVAHS)
- Derby Aboriginal Health Service (DAHS)
- Yura Yungi Medical Service (YYMS)
- Kutjungka Clinical Services (KAMS Remote Clinic)
- Beagle Bay Health Services (KAMS Remote Clinic)
- Bidyadanga Community (KAMS Remote Clinic)
- Nirrumbuk Aboriginal Corporation
KAMS provides a wide range of services including:
- Financial and accounting
- Regional population health programs
- Social and Emotional Well Being Support
- Health Promotion
- Information Communication Technology Support
- Pharmacy support and training
- Corporate Services
- Accredited health training and education
- Research
While the major role is in regional advocacy and support for member services, KAMS also provides comprehensive primary health care services in the remote communities of Beagle Bay, Bidyadanga, Balgo, Mulan and Billiluna.
In 2014 KAMS established Kimberley Renal Services Pty Ltd to manage the provision of regional renal support and dialysis services in Broome, Derby, Kununurra and Fitzroy Crossing.
Summary
My motivation is derived from working in health and specifically Aboriginal Health so that our people can have better access to health, wellbeing and to improved health outcomes in rural, remote and metro areas through Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services.
My STRENGTHS
1.Advocacy that translates into delivery, and ongoing support of Aboriginal programs across Western Australia at a Regional, State and National level.
2. Extensive expertise and understanding of Aboriginal health.
3.Multiple perspectives of Indigenous issues that results in real health improvement outcomes
VIEW Vicki O’Donnell Facilitating at ATSISPEP 2016
7.ACT : Julie Tongs OAM CEO Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service
Julie Tongs OAM has been the Chief Executive Officer of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service since 1998.
Watch Julie on NACCHO TV
Julie has more than 30 years experience working in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs and in particular has extensive experience in advising, formulating, implementing and evaluating public health initiatives, programs and policy at a local, regional and national level.
Julie has been a national leader and strong advocate of quality improvement initiatives within the Aboriginal Community Controlled sector.
Julie is the recipient of a number of awards, including the ACT Governor General’s Centenary Medal and the ACT Indigenous Person of the Year. In 2011 Julie received the ACT Local Hero Award within the Australian of the Year Awards 2012, and in 2012 Julie was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Julie’s vision is that Winnunga continues to build on its reputation as a national leader in the provision of holistic primary health care services delivered in a culturally appropriate environment that achieves improved health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Julie is committed to ensuring that Winnunga offers services that are delivered consistent with best practice standards.
8.Tas. Heather Sculthorpe CEO Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre
Heather has been with the TAC since the early 1970s and despite some time away in Canberra and studying she has stayed with the organisation ever since.
She is the long-term CEO of the TAC, which includes the AHS/ACCHO
In 1982 Heather Sculthorpe became the first Tasmanian Aboriginal to obtain a law degree, from the University of Tasmania
As well as an Arts degree, she has an honours degree in law and a graduate diploma in environmental management and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
She has 2 beautiful activist and talented daughters and 2 magnificent granddaughters.
Most of her working life has been as a single parent. She is proud to have assisted the emergence of other Aboriginal women and mothers as staunch advocates for their community.
She considers her most worthy achievements to be quitting smoking after very many years of addiction and having steered the TAC from being a small, community controlled organisation that grew naturally from the big issues of injustice facing the community to a sophisticated multi-million dollar organisation that has survived the tight rope of accountability to its community and to the many competing demands of modern funding and governance requirements.
She remains a firm believer in advanced educational studies for Aboriginal people, a goal that is showing real gains in Tasmania.
And at the same time in Tasmania she sees a real need for community to remain grounded in Aboriginal heritage and culture, a goal that is currently blossoming in Tasmania after so many years of attempts to destroy all cultural memory. She sees this as the way of the future representing a proper holistic approach to Aboriginal primary health care, without which there will be no Aboriginal community in a few generations.
Here is her IWD2018 story in her own words
I’m not into this approach of singling out individual women as role models or heroes or trail blazers.
Everything we do in Aboriginal community services is achieved by the dedicated teams of workers and community pulling in the same direction with the wellbeing of the community as our top priority.
At the Aboriginal Health Service in Tasmania we have role models in so many of our community women now deceased: Ida West, Furley Gardner, Rosalind Atkinson Langford – and those still serving like Annette Peardon, Kerry Sculthorpe, Cheryl Mundy.
In lutruwita/Tasmania it is not customary for us to celebrate achievements of one gender alone.
While women have been at the forefront in Aboriginal community organisations and on committees, it is only by working as one unified community with men, elders and children that we have achieved our major gains.
Heathers recent opinion piece in the Advocate