VICKI KERRIGAN Communication Researcher, Menzies School of Health Research
Ask the Specialist: Larrakia, Tiwi and Yolngu stories to inspire better healthcare A cultural education podcast
Ask the Specialist: Larrakia, Tiwi and Yolngu stories
The seven-episode series was created on
to inspire better healthcare, is an award-winning
Larrakia country, in Darwin, by Menzies School
podcast which reveals the reality of the hospital experience for Aboriginal patients in the Top End of the Northern Territory. Created as a cultural
of Health Research PhD researcher Vicki Kerrigan with Aboriginal community leaders and Royal Darwin Hospital staff. The community leaders
education podcast for NT health professionals, the wisdom shared by Elders and Aboriginal leaders in the podcast series reveals universal truths
known as “the Specialists” are Larrakia, Tiwi and Yolngu leaders: Aunty Bilawara Lee, Pirrawayingi Puruntatameri, Rarrtjiwuy Melanie Herdman,
applicable beyond the NT border and outside of the health domain. The NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Sally Sievers said Ask the Specialist has ‘the potential to save lives and address
and Stuart Yiwarr McGrath. Kriol and Burarra interpreter Bernadette Nethercott from the NT Aboriginal Interpreter Service also shared her expertise. In the series, the Specialists offer up
systemic racism’.
ideas to improve the delivery of culturally safe
30
The Health Advocate • FEBRUARY 2021
