Sunday, September 5th, 2010
Broome: Medical students at interpreting centre
Notre Dame university students Sam Shales and Ruvani Weerasinghe
Two medical students from Notre Dame university’s Fremantle campus worked with Kimberley Interpreting Service recently.
This is their report:
After two hours of unwavering road, some skilful kangaroo dodging and a speeding fine, we arrived at Broome. Two medical students from the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, wide eyed and not sure of what to expect from our week of placement in the Kimberley.
Our ever, exuberant public health professor Donna Mak annually organises for the entire 2nd year cohort to spend a week in a Kimberley community placement. Allowing us to open our minds to a new cultural experience and develop an understanding of remote health and life. This was kindly prefixed with multiple symposia and debates, lectures, a tower of readings’ and specifically for the Broome placements – strict instructions not to go to ‘The Roey’.
This was our first experience in this picturesque part of Australia. And prior to our travels here, we were blissfully unaware of the cultural and linguistic complexity of the region, the importance for such an understanding in a variety of contexts and the unique issues faced by communities in a remote setting.
Sam Shales – a fellow student – and I were placed with Dee Lightfoot at the Kimberley Interpreting Service (KIS). We were warmly welcomed into the KIS family, given an insight into the organisation and the valuable work they do and provided with an inestimable experience that we’ll remember and apply to our lives in the many years to come.
KIS are the only interpreting service catering for indigenous languages in Western Australia. They perform a vital service, facilitating communication and cultural understanding in a number of contexts. In supporting the effective access to services and providing a voice to so many people. I feel that they are empowering individuals and communities, and really making a difference.
Our week was incredible! We left with a new found insight, unforgettable memories and a desire to venture back to the culturally rich hub that is Broome, to put into practice the things that we had learnt in our short stay there.
Ruvani Weerasinghe
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