How discrimination and injustice drove Dulcie’s campaign for change
She was one of Australia’s first Torres Strait Islander nurses, and a trailblazer whose efforts have helped First Nations people receive better health care. Aunty Dulcie Flower is being awarded this year’s NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award at aged 85, she is still as passionate as ever about creating change.
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TVTranscript
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.