Ms Sally Fitzpatrick

Sally is a public health academic with a strong focus on learning and teaching scholarship in Aboriginal health and wellbeing. Born in Gadi, Sydney, Sally is a sixth generation settler of English, Danish and Irish ancestry and a direct beneficiary of the ongoing invasion and colonisation of these lands and waters. Sally has worked as a lecturer and researcher in the academy for fifteen years, most recently with the School of Medicine, Western Sydney University. In doing this work Sally has had the privilege to work side by side with Aboriginal Elders, scholars and community members to educate culturally capable health and social care professionals towards a health care system that is culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Sally’s first career was in film and video production before she joined the Muru Marri unit at UNSW while also undertaking a Master of Public Health (UNSW). Since then, she has also completed a Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching (UNSW).

Currently Sally is a DrPH candidate in UNSW's Future Health Leaders program. Her thesis is examining change in postgraduate students who complete coursework in Aboriginal health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on how empowerment and transformative learning approaches are able to explain such change. Sally also has a long history of service in the community sector, involved in advocacy, organisational governance and in community education. While seeking to build community awareness, Sally has been dedicated to the reconfiguration of fundamental power relations and achieving social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This commitment is personal through her relationships and obligations to family around the country. It is through this direct experience that Sally has developed both a research and practical interest in empowerment and healing, including serving for many years as President of the specialist homelessness service for young women and girls, the Lillian Howell Project, and in research and advocacy work with Stolen Generations. Sally is very grateful for the opportunity to learn from and further these aspirations through being part of the Banga-ma-la-nha project.