The Fellowship – ‘Nothing about us, without us’
The two primary roles of the Rowan Nicks Russell Drysdale Fellowship in Indigenous Health and Wellbeing are:
•To provide financial and ideological support for ideas/projects/programs that address our remit, and
•To provide encouragement, support and promotion of successful applicants, aiding in building function and capacity of emerging Indigenous leaders.
What are we:
We are called a ‘Fellowship’, but not one in the pure academic sense… The benefactors of the funds were particular in this, as they wished to convey that the Fellowship was established as a community of interest, activity, feeling and/or experience. Their desire was to create a company of equals, seeking companionship, communion and the fellowship of friendly people with a shared goal. Fellows receive support in this via the Committee and the provision of a dedicated Indigenous officer, to work with prospective applicants in distilling their thoughts and applications to best competitive advantage in the first instance; then by through welcoming them the Fellowship Alumni and finally assisting with distribution of the results of their Fellowship work.
…think “Fellowship of the Ring” rather than “post-doc Fellowship”…
Our Fellowship is not for Academic applicants seeking ‘post-doctoral’ grants, unless the work is at a grassroots level seeking support to make a local response to a situation or barrier. This is where our interest lies, the grassroots level. We see it this way…
At its essence lies the concept of Community from an Indigenous perspective. Indigenous Australia interprets Community as: looking out for each other; having each other’s back; putting ‘us’ before ‘me’; having a common core of cultural knowing and respect; and/or a cohesive heart from shared understanding and lived experience. The view that the Rowan Nicks Russell Drysdale Fellowship applies to the term grassroots relates to people who share a common space, be that geographical, demographical, situational and of course culturally. These people best know their community, are best placed to realise the shortcomings and barriers faced and are best placed to know what is required to improve the health and wellbeing of their own. However, grassroots in this instance does not simply mean a single community or refer to those who share a single issue, on indeed a single issue.
Who is our Audience
As a preference, we seek Indigenous Australians, who through their professional, social and/or cultural connections with community, have identified a situation which has the potential to be solved at community level (grassroots). Via our application process, a situation is identified and background including mitigating circumstances are explained from the Community perspective. The applicant must identify the issue they wish to address, detail their proposed intervention, addressing actions, timelines, budget and proposed outcomes. Collaboration and sustainability also need to be described in detail, and proof provided. When we assist resource an individual, who is in a position to articulate an idea that will improve community health and the wellbeing environment, we improve things for a larger group. To truly achieve community empowerment and leadership in an Indigenous sense, we need to accommodate and empower the whole group, albeit very small groups to begin with. When we achieve that, we are accommodating Indigenous way of business and achievement. Therefore in the application process we need to look inclusively at who the groups are and what their role in the proposal will be. Therefore the identity of these connections is a necessary part of the Application process. As we aim to achieve Fellowship, as defined above, we need to ensure our applicants are either Indigenous themselves or are working WITH Indigenous people and communities. Having applicants who are planning to conduct literature reviews from the heart of a city to pronounce knowledge about disease in Aboriginal people in remote areas, achieves nothing in our remit. It also incites, and rightly, distrust and separation, the exact opposite of the reconciliation we are striving for.
Working toward Reconciliation
To achieve Fellowship and Reconciliation people need to be working side by side and learning from each other. This is where joint research and projects are attractive, especially when all involved are able to develop skills and knowledge from each other and share the results. This has given us a new Fellowship classification, that of ‘Champion’ (non-Indigenous), while ‘Fellow’ will identify a successful Indigenous applicant. There is also precedent for joint applicants to be recognised in some instances. The arising ideology of “nothing about us, without us” in the world of Indigenous related research and management, suggests two exciting things for RNRD. One, we can utilise this as a core fundamental of our guidelines; and 2 we are seeing the attainment of a critical mass of Indigenous leadership in workers, professionals, researchers, teachers, managers and tertiary students. Ideas are more likely to be shared and shared more broadly. Pride is growing. It heralds a time for our Fellowship to re-focus, to be more specific, to aid the drive of this new order and surge forward with sharing and learning about Indigenous knowledge and epistemology. And this is aligning with a time in world history when Indigenous knowledge is finally being sort out and applied to our natural world, as well as to our human demands of cohabitation. Our natural world needs help, which includes awakening to the essential information that our Aboriginal and Islander peoples have managed to preserve, against the greatest odds, through colonisation and subsequent marginalisation. The voice, that voice that has been quashed for 234 years, is beginning to be heard… and it is gaining momentum. Let us aid that.
Our Logo
Our logo symbolises the depths of knowledge, skill and support that can be brought around people and ideas to help them take root and grow. These can be of multiple different persuasions and forms – as indicated by different sizes and colours of circles and dots. Wellbeing and success are at the core, as we acknowledge the concentric rings of different learning, experience, knowledge, tradition, custom and cultures that make up the support structure. The crossed implements overlaying the background… a surgical scalpel and paint brush… acknowledge the benefactor’s through their tools of trade, the tools that combine to aid this cause.
Conclusion:
The Rowan Nicks Russell Drysdale Fellowship in Indigenous Health and Wellbeing, takes responsibility for ensuring Fellowship funds are utilised within the parameters of the expressed wishes of the benefactors, Dr Rowan Nicks and the late Daisy Drysdale and by extension Russell Drysdale’s daughter, Mrs Lynne Clarke, and Associate Professor Hamish Ewing (Royal College of Surgeons, representing Dr Nicks) who currently sit on the Committee. To this end we must make every effort to promote the Fellowship to the required audience from whence the most suitable applications can be garnered. As part of these obligations re-focusing our reach and practices do need to be reassessed and tempered to maintain the intent and integrity of this most worthy Fellowship.
Pictured-Rowan Nicks AO and Her Excellency Marie Bashier, 2010.
Dedicated to Rowan Nicks AO, Lynne Clarke Drysdale and the Rowan Nicks Russell Drysdale Fellowship Committee– for caring enough to make a difference..