Admission for Indigenous Australians

The ANU Medical School is keen to hear from Indigenous students interested in applying for medicine.  There are a variety of scholarships and support schemes available.  Currently, two places will be set aside annually for admission of Indigenous Australians who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent and identified as such according to the Indigenous Australian Admission Scheme at the ANU.   Any interested people please email Mr Peter Pinnington or Professor Rosemary Martin and further information regarding admissions can be found at link to ANU Admissions. 

Indigenous Health

The ANU Medical School is committed to training doctors who have a deep knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Health.  The Indigenous Health Lecturer, Mr Peter Pinnington works with staff across the Medical School to ensure an integrated Indigenous Health curriculum across all four years of the course.

The ANU Medical School has implemented the Indigenous Health Curriculum Framework of the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools (CDAMS), 2004. The framework consists of eight subject areas: history, culture self and diversity, Indigenous societies cultures and medicines, population and health, models of health service delivery, clinical presentations, communication skills and working with Indigenous people in ethics, protocols and research.
The ANU Medical School has developed a strong cohesive partnership with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Services (http://www.winnunga.org.au/) the local aboriginal service. Winnunga Nimmityjah was awarded the inaugural LIMELight Award for Community Engagement 2007.

As well as formal teaching with Aboriginal Health workers and staff from Winnunga Nimmityjah students can undertake aboriginal health placements in Years 2, 3 and 4.  In Year 2, a group works with Katungal Aboriginal Corporation Community & Medical Service during Rural Week 2 in Bega.  In Year 3, all students visit Winnunga Nimmityajh and a number are able to undertake extended clinical placements there.  A number of students are able to spend 6 weeks in an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory.  In Year 4, selective placements in specialized areas are available.

From Peter Pinnington:
Our Indigenous Health Teaching is based on the Indigenous perspective of health as stated in the National Aboriginal Health Strategy (1989):

“Health to Aboriginal peoples is a matter of determining all aspects of their life, including control over their physical environment, of dignity, of community self-esteem, and of justice. It is not merely a matter of the provision of doctors, hospital, medicines, or the absence of disease and incapacity.

Prior to colonisation Aboriginal people had control over all aspects of their life. They were able to determine their “very-being,” the nature of which ensured their psychological fulfilment and incorporated the cultural, social, and spiritual sense. This was self determination.

In Aboriginal society, there was no word, term, or expression for ‘health’ as it is understood in western society. The word as it is used in western society almost defies translation but the nearest translation in an Aboriginal context would be a term such as ‘life is health is life’”.