Emeritus Professor Aunty Joan Winch has been remembered at a special service this week, after her passing at the age of 87 in her hometown of Walyalup (Fremantle).
The Nyungar & Martu yorga (woman) was celebrated for her tireless service to her community, and for providing pathways for Aboriginal nurses and midwives into the health service.
Aunty Joan's legacy lives on through her academic work and the centre, one of only three in Australia that offer healthcare training for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, which she founded in 1983.
The organisation was awarded the prestigious in 1987 by the World Health Organization.
Aunty Margaret Shaw, who followed in Aunty Joan's footsteps as a nurse and is now the Director of Marr Mooditj, spoke of Aunty Joan's impact and the blossoming of a lifelong mentorship.
"Joan took me under her wing when I was only 18 years old, working in welfare with Perth Aboriginal Medical Service," she told NITV News.
"She walked past the office one day and said to me, 'I think you need to become an Aboriginal health worker... I'm setting up the first Aboriginal first aid unit.'
"So that's what we did. I worked as a first aid trainer and travelled around the country.
"Joan got a bus, she equipped it with all the first aid equipment. She said 'you don't need to teach first aid in the classroom, you teach first aid out there in the field, underneath a tree, if you have to.'"
Aunty Margaret says this was a common theme in Joan's life; that she was a visionary who was able to lead and encourage others.
"I was fascinated with her ability... to be able to see things within others that they didn't want to see. How she would bring it about was in the most gentle way, encouraging people to be able to accept those (things) and not be afraid of them."
Mixed with a fierce determination to return 'Aboriginal Health to Aboriginal Hands', Aunty Joan's life was dedicated to helping others, particularly after her experience working with Aboriginal children who had been removed from their families.
"She had a very, very deep understanding of the problems associated with Aboriginal people. People's health, whether that be spiritually, emotionally, socially or physically, she had a deep understanding of those."
Aunty Joan is remembered as being intrepid and tenacious in her roles in healthcare, advocating for better services for her community Source: Supplied
Early Life
Joan was one of three children who grew up in Fremantle. Her mother, a Martu woman who was taken from her own family at the age of 2 and her father a Nyungar and Portuguese man,
However, led by her father's determination the family remained together and resilient against restrictions placed upon them by the ‘The Native Welfare Act’.
She recalled early memories of being sent to the docks around the time of World War II by her mother to welcome any returned Nyungar servicemen from troop ships in to their house, a memory of prejudice and looking out for others that undoubtedly shaped her own values.
In a National Gallery interview Joan said, "When I was growing up in Perth there was a curfew on Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people weren’t allowed on the streets after 6 o’clock. If you were on the streets after 6 o’clock, well, the policeman could come along and take you straight to jail."
"So people like my mother, who was working as a domestic in families, might not knock off until about 7 or 8 o’clock. She had to have a piece of paper so that she could walk through town before she can catch the bus or the train to go home. If she didn’t have that ticket, well, they’d take her straight to jail.
"That’s the way it was in Perth when I was growing up."
Source: Supplied
Studies
Joan obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science - Nursing in 1977 from Curtin University, which led to a triple certification in midwifery and childcare.
Her work as a nurse included general nursing and attending at several psychiatric hospitals. In this work she was exposed to institutional racism and discrimination, experiences that led her to take on institutions and even lead a hospital strike.
She took to the streets in 1982 with her own mobile unit, driving around fringe-dwellers camps and Swan Valley assisting Nyungar mob to hospital and medical needs as she could assist.
The following year, seeing a gap in education she set up her own Aboriginal Health Workers Program in Perth, 'Marr Mooditj' (‘In good hands’ in Noongar language) college, which integrated a traditional Aboriginal approach to health and healing with western medicine.
Her thesis was based on her experience as an advocate and leader of Marr Mooditj Training College and documents the history of why she started her work in health and education for Aboriginal people.
'The invasion of peoples from across the globe destroyed the way of life for our people, with severe misunderstandings of cultural differences. The Nyungar peoples had no experience in dealing with the avalanche of diseases and the way of life these people brought with them,' she wrote.
Aunty Margaret states that Joan's main ambition was to keep people well in the first place.
"And to encourage people to go back to their old ways."
Aunty Joan achieved her PdD at the age of 76 - with a thesis based on her experience as an advocate and leader of Mar Mooditj Training College Source: Supplied
Award-Winning
With an outstanding commitment to improving the lives of her community and creating pathways for others to do the same, Aunty Joan's efforts were recognised and awarded throughout her life and career.
Dr Winch was named WA Citizen of the Year in 1986, State and National Aboriginal of the Year in 1987, the same year received the World Health Organisation Sasakawa Award for Primary Health Care Work on behalf of Marr Mooditj.
Other accolades include the Gandhi King Ikeda Peace Award from Morehouse College USA and in 2005, the medal for contributing to the enhancement of Aboriginal society from Soko University, Japan.
In 2006 Winch received the Indigenous Higher Education Elders Award.
She was the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies between 1999 and 2001 and she received Curtin University's John Curtin Medal for her services to the community in 2008.
After officially retiring at 60, she served as Head of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University from 1999 to 2001.
Legacy
"Her legacy is Aboriginal health in Aboriginal hands. That was her motto. And we still use that motto today," Aunty Margaret explains.
"We need to take control and be responsible for our own health and wellbeing.
"And while Maar Moorditj has an outstanding success to date and with Joan laying the foundation in the very beginning, we're still a long way to go with research on the best way forward still and establishing other programs."
