Proud Barkindji man Darryle Barnes is no stranger to funerals within his community.
His father died at the age of 52 and his grandfather at a similar age.
And as Mr Barnes approaches his 50th birthday this month, it is an outcome he is driven to change.
“I just want my community in a better position so we don’t see these funerals all the time. There’s heaps of grief which comes from that,” he said.
After almost 20 years as a registered nurse, the Aboriginal clinician is now behind a push to close the gap in health outcomes for Indigenous communities in South Australia’s Riverland region.
Mr Barnes has been at the helm of the Riverland’s only dedicated Aboriginal Health Clinic as team leader and nurse unit manager for 18 months.
In that time he has helped create a culturally sensitive space where First Nations people feel safe accessing care.
“The experience I had in healthcare, especially being a registered nurse, a lot of things I was seeing in the hospital system wasn’t great. That inspired me to do something,” he said.
“I just love my community. They are amazing, and there’s not enough good news stories that come out of them. And if I can just get one person better and healthier I’ve done my job.”
Since Mr Barnes started working with the clinic the number of healthcare services available to First Nations people has increased by 30 per cent.
His self-described “takeaway menu” of health care includes more than 13 services such as podiatry, physiotherapy, rehabilitation services, diabetes, hearing, and social work clinics.
‘Breaking down barriers’
The latest Closing the Gap data released in July shows that while some physical and mental health outcomes are progressing, Australia is not on track to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031.
In 2020–22, First Nations men and women were estimated to live eight years less than non-Indigenous Australians.
But through community consultation Mr Barnes and his team hope to change this statistic.
“Essentially, from the very start, every single service or clinic we have is because the Riverland Aboriginal community has asked for it,” he said.
For local First Nations people, the efforts of Mr Barnes and his team to expand the availability of culturally safe health services in the Riverland have not gone unnoticed.
Nganguraku and Ngintait woman Sheryl Giles is heavily involved in the local Indigenous community as a pastor and state Voice to Parliament representative.
Ms Giles lives with diabetes, but she said she would only ever see a doctor once every few years for emergencies after previous experiences had left her feeling uncomfortable and “labelled” by colour or stereotype.
Ms Giles said the clinic was playing a vital role in “breaking down barriers” for local Aboriginal people seeking healthcare in the region.
“I now have people who understand and are culturally aware. The fact it is run by an Aboriginal, at the Aboriginal Health Clinic in Barmera, is a blessing,” she said.
“I can be myself in the clinics and they’re run by family, for family. The service is already ahead.”
Ms Giles said closing the gap in Indigenous health outcomes was not possible without strong leadership and relationships with communities.
“Darryle already has the knowledge [and] the lived experience so he is already putting a cultural lens on it from the inside instead of trying to do it from the outside,” she said.
“His voice in that service is strong, it is heard, and it gets through. I’m glad we have a chair, a seat at the table in the health system, and we have it through him.”
Trust in community
Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network acting executive of allied health Tania Vandepeer said the clinic’s success came down to the trust local Indigenous communities had in the service.
She said she would love to see the success translated across other sites around the state.
“If services are not culturally safe, and not a place they feel they can access services they need in a culturally sensitive way, we’ve seen in the past that people won’t come,” Ms Vandepeer said.
Mr Barnes knows this trust comes with pressure and responsibility to consistently provide an environment his community feels safe to attend.
He said he was proud of the service his team was building.
“I think my community knows where they stand with me,” Mr Barnes said.
“When I moved from my previous role my community said, ‘Wherever you go, we’re coming with you’. So when I came here they followed.”