Dr Sarah Jane Springer (see Sarah’s story here), a Wiradjuri woman from Mudgee, NSW is on of the recipients of the 2022 Purple Bush Medicine Leaves Bursaries. This beautiful and inspiring video was the initiative of Sarah in providing a contribution to the NAIDOC Week Purple Bush Medicine Leaves Bursary Celebration (Brisbane, 5 July 2022) when she could not attend in person as planned due to skeleton staff during the COVID Surge.

During the video, Sarah describes the challenges faced in her 18 year journey to date in Medicine including: “The First Battlefield” Overcoming barriers to studying medicine as a 17 year old and in her undergraduate years. Drawing strength from the support and encouragement of valued mentors “Chasing a skillset” in Fellowship Training, Upskilling for the multidisciplinary requirements of rural practice, Developing her passion for Women’s Health, Being guided by the expectations of Community, Transforming hesitancy into expertise in honing her surgical skills particularly in Obstetrics, Promoting the importance of Cultural Safety Awareness in her daily work, and extending this broadly to formal training within the specialist Colleges, The pivotal role of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA) as a powerful collective voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical professionals and students.

She completes the video with an expression of humility and with gratitude to her Ancestors and Elders.

We would like to thank the following:

Dr Sarah Jane Springer (NEE McEwan) for her time in creating and directing this important video
Abraham Byrne-Jameson from Wirrim Media for the professional production of the video and
Ochre Health, whose sponsorship of the production was co-ordinated by Mr Sean Grant

We hope to highlight sections of Sarah’s insights in future postings.