4.8 "Oh Damn… I’m actually part of the problem"
Tracks
Botanical 4 room
| Thursday, October 23, 2025 |
| 1:10 PM - 1:40 PM |
| Botanical 4 room |
Details
Practical workshop (60-minute)
Speaker
Dr Sarah Chalmers
RG
RDAA
"Oh Damn… I’m actually part of the problem"
1:10 PM - 2:15 PMAbstract Overview
How can non-Indigenous doctors work through the discomfort of their own privilege to provide culturally appropriate and safe care to Indigenous communities.
Working for Indigenous communities is an extraordinary experience and privilege for non-Indigenous doctors. For those of us who have established our careers in this context, we work hard to provide a culturally safe and appropriate environment for our patients and our Indigenous colleagues. But, the question arises, how much have we leaned into the discomfort of our own privilege and the racism that our colleagues face on a daily basis, especially within the health care system.
This often becomes a situation of the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know… and this usually doesn’t sit comfortably in the settler/colonial population.
As career Rural Generalists and leaders in our rural and remote organisations we want to contribute to creating a better health system for Indigenous patients and health worker colleagues. This workshop will probably make you feel uncomfortable in facing your own contribution to the racism in our health system, but through the generosity of Indigenous colleagues you can learn how to dismantle the racism in our system to enable it to be beneficial to everyone.
Working for Indigenous communities is an extraordinary experience and privilege for non-Indigenous doctors. For those of us who have established our careers in this context, we work hard to provide a culturally safe and appropriate environment for our patients and our Indigenous colleagues. But, the question arises, how much have we leaned into the discomfort of our own privilege and the racism that our colleagues face on a daily basis, especially within the health care system.
This often becomes a situation of the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know… and this usually doesn’t sit comfortably in the settler/colonial population.
As career Rural Generalists and leaders in our rural and remote organisations we want to contribute to creating a better health system for Indigenous patients and health worker colleagues. This workshop will probably make you feel uncomfortable in facing your own contribution to the racism in our health system, but through the generosity of Indigenous colleagues you can learn how to dismantle the racism in our system to enable it to be beneficial to everyone.
Biography
Dr. Sarah Lespérance is the immediate Past President of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University. Her clinical practice has included work in rural and Northern remote regions of Canada including Nunavut, Labrador, and the Yukon. She currently practices in Amherst, NS and locums in Nunavut, NWT. Her research interests include rural maternity care, resilience, and tuberculosis treatment. She and her husband Fraser, who is involved in the SRPC's Rural Physician Partners group, have two children who are 9 and 13 years old.
Dr. Sarah Chalmers is a Rural Generalist with the Northern Terriitory Dept of Health, based in Darwin, Australia. Her Advanced Skills Training (AST) is in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. She is a previous President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM, 2020-2022) and President-elect of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA).
