Oceania Harris has worked hard to blaze a trail for herself and to set a strong example to her five children and her community.
The Noongar Wardandi woman from Busselton in the south west of Western Australia, she works in the local hospital looking as an Aboriginal liaison officer, and will soon transition back into her previous role as an Aboriginal health practitioner.
Ms Harris worked for five years at the South West Aboriginal Medical Service before taking on her current role at the hospital, and in May last year she received her graduate diploma in Aboriginal health promotion from the University of Sydney.
The single mother of children aged 16, 14, 12, nine and five also recently finished her personal training course with the national health and fitness academy, such is her dedication to Aboriginal health and wellbeing.
"In May 2024 I travelled to Sydney to accept my diploma. Now I'm back in the South West using my new skills to further support health equity for Aboriginal communities," she told National Indigenous Times.
"As an Aboriginal Liaison Officer, my role includes following-up with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients who present to emergency departments in the south west. I link them in with what they need – child and maternal services, physio, social workers – my role is across the board, supporting patients from birth to end-of-life."
Ms Harris is registered as an Aboriginal Health Practitioner under APHRA.
"I am driven by Aboriginal health, my goal and my passion is Aboriginal health, and I love that I get to do what I love," she said.
"Every day, I get to come to work and deal with patients. But they're not just patients, they're family.
"The community know they can come to me because I know them and have built relationships with them."
She noted that growing up, "it wasn't an everyday thing to hear of family members graduating university or working and being successful in life as we are just raised in a cycle of intergenerational trauma of accepting our normal life was our parents staying home raising kids, alcohol, drugs, domestic violence, jail and attending funerals almost weekly".
"I grew up around that lifestyle and I knew as a child I wanted a different life, at the age of now 36, and stuck to my words and told myself I would not follow the same path of mine and make a life for my kids that I wasn't able to have," she told National Indigenous Times.
"I'm proud of myself and the path I've chosen in life, to be able to say I've graduated university, I've got degrees, certificates and graduated in different areas throughout the health and wellness industry and continuing to.
"I chose to make a life of being successful, reaching my dreams, goals… through the struggles, the grief, the hard times and the times I wanted to give up because I was my only support.
"To be able to show my kids the sky is the limit and we can be successful, strong, inspirational, go-getters that never give up, and paving the way to show them anything is possible when you put your mind to it."
Ms Harris said her children are following in her footsteps in striving for education and achievement.
"That's because they have someone who's paving the way for them," she said.
"My son who's 16 is now a photographer who works for the schools, the shire, and the local businesses around town taking pictures and he is heavily involved in our local towns events. I have four daughters all playing netball and the two oldest are selected in the development reps squad which represents the south west and plays all over."
Ms Harris plans to continue working to look after the health of her community and to be a positive role model to her own children as well as other young people.
