Our CEO Professor Gregory Phillips featured on ‘Blak Minds’ podcast with hosts Dr Angelina Hurley and Dr Leda Barnett. ‘Blak Minds’ is a First Nations specific podcast discussing and promoting the work of current and past Griffith University First Nations staff, students, alumni, professionals, and academics across disciplines.
In the podcast, Greg talks on his past work in assessing Aboriginal health curriculum and student supports of medical schools around Australia and the changes he has seen since starting this work 22 years ago. Greg talks on the increase in enrolments but recognises that the graduation rates don’t match the intake rates and how this is ultimately due to the lack of “culturally safe learning environments in medical education”.
Greg’s work has led him to set up his own business, ABSTARR Consulting, which stands for ‘ABoriginal Straight Talking About Responsibility and Respect’. ABSTARR works to decolonise and improve spaces to be culturally safe for Aboriginal Peoples. In the episode Greg talks about how he is “always learning. Every community member and every client that we come across, they always teach us something new”. Greg emphasises the importance of staying open to learning, including learning new things about oneself.
At the conclusion of the podcast Greg reflects on burnout and the importance of looking after yourself sharing that “Rest and self-care, that’s a part of decolonisation”.
Thank you to Dr Angelina Hurley and Dr Leda Barnett for having our CEO on the podcast, and thank you to Gregory Phillips for the work you have done and are still doing to make spaces better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
You can listen to the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/blak-minds/id1694621801?i=1000670601004