Young Arrernte doctor returns home to Alice Springs to heal others

HEALING runs in the family for Arrernte woman Sherice Ansell, a medical graduate of the University of Queensland, who is returning to her homelands to work after moving away eight years ago

HEALING runs in the family for Arrernte woman Sherice Ansell, a medical graduate of the University of Queensland, who is returning to her homelands to work after moving away eight years ago.

Dr Ansell graduated in 2019, and having completed her rotation as an intern at Ipswich Hospital, she will be working at Alice Springs Hospital as a doctor starting this week.

Ms Ansell is following in her father’s footsteps; a Ngangkari in Alice Springs (a traditional Aboriginal healer) as well as an Aboriginal health worker.

She said he encouraged her to take the less traditional path.

“He knew in order to make changes for our people that you had to have a western education,” Dr Ansell said.

Arrernte woman, Dr Sherice Ansell

“I was an Aboriginal health worker working with medical staff, but it’s the doctor that makes the changes.

“You listen to whatever they say, and for a lot of Aboriginal patients that isn’t necessarily the best thing because those decisions are coming from a place outside.

“My father told me if you do medicine, you will be in a better position to talk for your people.”

Dr Ansell was the first of her family to study at university, but said it wasn’t an easy transition.

“I didn’t know what university was when I went through high school.

“It wasn’t until I was rubbing shoulders with nurses and doctors as an Aboriginal health worker that I thought, I could do that.”

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She said she was grateful for the support of UQ’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit (ATSIS) throughout her studies, as she found it difficult at first to live in a big city.

“The first two years were probably the most difficult because I moved away from home,” she said.

“I was at the ATSIS unit almost every day and the support was just awesome and made so much of a difference.”

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Driving her career motivation is the fact she’s an inspiration for the Indigenous Australian children she comes into contact with.

“When I went through school I didn’t know anyone who had been through a university degree,” she said.

“For a lot of Aboriginal kids it’s not an obvious option because you don’t aspire to something if you don’t see it.

“So I think the more Aboriginal doctors we get out there and our families see, the more they know that they can do it too.”

Originally published as Young Arrernte doctor returns home to Alice Springs to heal others