She was one of Australia's first Torres Strait Islander nurses and a trailblazer whose efforts have significantly improved healthcare for First Nations people. Aunty Dulcie Flower is being awarded the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award tonight, and at age 85, she remains passionate 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, the culture of the Torres Strait is, in her words, the very
00:24core 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.
00:42Nobody even thought of challenging police or taking them to court for assault or things
00:49like that.
00:50It was just accepted.
00:54Dulcie went to the police station to make a complaint.
00:56For her trouble, she was shifted out of the casualty department, but far from damaging
01:01her career, the brave stand was a sign of what was to come.
01:05The old people always talked about respect, Mum did too, and to me, respect was a two-way
01:10process.
01:11Aunty Dulcie's made it her business to stand up for First Nations people.
01:16On a trip back to far north Queensland in the 1980s, she realised Torres Strait Islander
01:21people with diabetes were suffering needlessly because of a lack of preventative care.
01:26And I happened to go to the nurse's station and there were photos of Torres Strait people
01:33with crutches and legs missing.
01:37I thought, what on earth, and here they were, all displayed.
01:41A lot of people are having their legs amputated, and I could not believe it, and nothing's
01:49been done.
01:51Dulcie went back to Sydney and lobbied doctors and at medical conferences for change.
01:56Looking at diets, looking at family history, looking at exercise, the whole lifestyle thing.
02:03When Dulcie started her career, she was one of a handful of Indigenous nurses.
02:08She's now buoyed knowing there are thousands.