About the event

The First Nation Faculty will be hosting a series of yarning circles to hear from you. Without you this Faculty wouldn’t be possible. They will be conducting three yarning circles this year to hear from you.  

The purpose of these will be to discuss the Faculty priorities, which have been developed by the Leadership Team. As part of the priority implementation, we want to hear from YOU about your professional developments.  

Priority 1 for the year for discussion in the yarning circle’s is to better understand both who our members are (YOU) and what you want from The First Nations Faculty leadership team. We hope to connect with you all shortly.  

Other Yarning Circle Dates

Please see below the dates for future yarning circles.

Wednesday, 23 August – 6:00pm – 8:00 PM AEST 

Key Learning Objectives

Identify and discuss nurse leadership role development strategies 
Explore what leadership support nurse leaders received within their careers and subsequent impact for their roles  
Identify and discuss leadership and mentoring opportunities for developing nurse leaders  

About the Leadership Team

Melanie Robinson MACN – Communication Coordinator Director Aboriginal Health – Child and Adolescent Health Service  

Mel Robinson has connection to Ngarinyin and Gidja Country and Mel is the Director Aboriginal Health at Child and Adolescent Health Service. Mel is a registered nurse and has worked across health for the past 32 years including 18 years in nursing. Mel has a passion for yarning, teaching, research, system-wide change and mentoring Aboriginal people into employment in health. Her home is the Kimberley, and she has always been a champion for rural and remote healthcare. 

Steve Warren MACN – Secretariat Support Nursing Unit Manager – Castlemaine Health  
Steve trained in NZ and has been nursing in Australia for over 2 decades. Respect, fairness, and a passion to understand value, equity and equality in providing great care to community are what drives him now.



Bruce Martin MACN – Deputy Chair Clinical Nurse Consultant – Metro North Health  

Bruce Martin (Nee Mairu) has connections to Badu Island in the Torres Strait. He heads up a clinical redesign of Connecting Care to Country; sharing Indigenous Cardiac Outreach Program (ICOP) and Indigenous Respiratory Outreach Program (IROC) knowledges across Queensland. Bruce is passionate about improving access for mob, placing skills back into community, breaking down institutional barriers and challenging the status quo, and believes everyone has a role to play in closing the gap and achieving health equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Dr Odette Best FACN – Chair Professor – University of Southern Queensland  
Odette is a descendant through her mother of the Southwestern Gorreng Gorreng Nation, and the Boonthamurra Nation and has adoption ties to the Koomumberri, Yugambeh people (her adopted father) of the Southport/Gold Coast area.

Odette has been nursing for 33 years across hospital, Aboriginal Medical Services, and Women’s Prisons and has taught in Schools of Nursing in tertiary sector for 16 years. Her current role is Director: First Nations Research Alliance, and Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor First Nations and Education and Research University of Southern Queensland.