James Cook University is celebrating the homecoming of Professor Roianne West, a Kalkadunga and Djunke woman, who joins the University as Professor of Nursing and Midwifery, based on her ancestral Country in Mount Isa.
The University described the professor's arrival as a "huge boost" to their commitment to increasing the First Nations nurse and midwifery workforce.
JCU said Professor West's return marks "a powerful continuation of her lifelong commitment to growing a strong, sovereign, and self-determined First Nations nursing and midwifery workforce, grounded in community, culture, and Country".
"Coming home to teach and lead from my own Country is deeply significant," Professor West said.
"This is where my family, my ancestors, and my community are. My work has always been about ensuring that our people - and all who work with us - can do so in ways that are culturally safe, respectful, and guided by First Nations knowledges."
Professor West graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing on Country at Mount Isa 25 years ago, alongside her brother and sister, and comes from a long line of healers. Her mother worked as an Aboriginal Health Worker for more than four decades and was the first Aboriginal Health Worker in Queensland to be registered as a health practitioner. Her father's three sisters were hospital-trained nurses, and her mother's elder sister was one of Mount Isa Base Hospital's first Aboriginal graduates in 1965.
Professor West completed her PhD at JCU in 2012, developing a model of excellence to grow the Aboriginal nursing workforce nationally.
Her number one finding was that increasing the number of Aboriginal nursing academics is key to improving Aboriginal nursing student completion and success. Guided by this evidence, building a strong and culturally sovereign First Nations academic workforce is a central focus of her leadership.
"In previous roles, I've theorised, politicised, intellectualised; but this is about coming home to do the real work on the ground," she said.
"My focus is on strengthening pathways for First Nations nurses and midwives, supporting our students to succeed, and embedding cultural safety and accountability across nursing and midwifery education."
That legacy continues through her own twin daughters; one a JCU Bachelor of Nursing graduate, and the other a first-year Midwifery student at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and cadet with the North West Hospital and Health Service.
Together, they represent the next generation of First Nations women carrying forward their family's proud tradition of care and leadership in health.
Professor West is Queensland's first Aboriginal Professor of Nursing and currently serves as Chairperson of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC), where she continues to influence national standards to ensure cultural safety is embedded as core professional practice.
Alongside her teaching responsibilities, Professor West is leading a review of both the Bachelor of Nursing and the new Bachelor of Midwifery programs.
JCU's Dean of the College of Healthcare Sciences, Professor Pauline Calleja, said Professor West's return is both a homecoming and a renewal of JCU's commitment to working alongside First Nations leaders and communities.
"Professor West's work is guided by deep respect for Country, community, and the next generation of First Nations nurses and midwives," Professor Calleja said.
"Her leadership and scholarship are transforming how cultural safety is lived, taught, and sustained across the country and now within our university and across the nursing and midwifery education and health systems."
