Uncle Dennis Dunn joins St Vincent’s

28 Feb 2024

St Vincent’s welcomes Uncle Dennis Dunn, the first Aboriginal Elder to join the St Vincent’s team. As part of our Pastoral Care service, Uncle Dennis is helping our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients to heal, by supporting them with their spiritual and cultural needs.

Reflecting on his role, he shared “For Aboriginal people, knowing that there is someone there that has that time for them - not just health matters it’s also spiritual. They feel heaps better.
The first step is to set up that connection first and that’s what I do with the inpatients. I like to sit down and have a yarn first. That’s where we connect with each other, and then they feel comfortable.

It’s really daunting for a lot of people who come here, because hospitals are built like institutions and you’ve got mobs of people running around doing this and doing that and it’s daunting for a lot of Aboriginal people, especially from the bush. To them, a doctor is a doctor. They don’t understand that you need a doctor for this and you need a doctor for that. So I can explain how it’s run in the hospital and who to see. And any troubles that they’re having, I can help them out. I can see the proper people to make sure they get the health care they need. And when they go home, I’ll follow up with them and give them a ring”, he said.

The importance of connections

A survivor of the Stolen Generation, Uncle Dennis will be particularly focussed on caring for patients who have experienced the traumas caused by past government policies. Having travelled extensively throughout the years, Uncle is able to help people to reconnect with their Mob and Country.

“I’m like a directory. I won’t ask what’s your first name, I’ll always ask ‘what’s your last name’ and I can pinpoint who their family is straight away. Or they’ll give me a town, and I’ve done extensive travel, so I’ll say ‘yeah I know your Mob. I know your family’. Your father or mother, we’ve knocked around together back in the day.

Working with Link-Up NSW, Uncle Dennis supports people in the process of healing past wounds.

It’s to help them to start their journey back home. To meet their Mob. To find their family - and their connection to the land. Often that might mean gravesite visits, because for a lot of them, their parents died while they were separated. It’s a journey with a lot of trauma involved. Even after they are discharged from hospital, I’m still connected with a lot of patients, they’re Mob already.

Connection to Country

“A lot of the Kooris being as one with nature and being as one, as a Mob. I teach 32 commandments that are with our people and that’s about coexisting with the laws of nature. Because you can’t forget the laws of nature, we’ve grown up as one with nature. That’s what makes us unique people. The animals become the teachers to us. They taught us how to survive.

We don’t own the land, we never will. I look at people and think, you’ve got a big property but you don’t own that land, the land owns you. Because everyone is going to die, whether they like it or not, and someone else will just come in and fill that space.

The land will act as it was born. If water flows through it, water will always flow through it. People develop houses and properties and wonder why they always get flooded out – it’s because the water belongs on that pathway.

Nature is simple if people stop and look at it and learn from it. That’s how I learn, not just from the Elders, because the Elders have said “look around you. Your teachers are there”.

Spirituality and healing

At St Vincent’s, Uncle will also support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through their palliative care journey, and as an acknowledged and respected Elder, he’s qualified to perform traditional smoking ceremonies here on campus for patients who have died.

“I can help people with grief and loss. The way I was taught by my Elders – when the person passes away, they are still alive. It’s the body that passes away. The soul will always be alive. It travels on its journey and it’s kept alive by the people who belong - family or distant family or whoever they’ve met. They become the heart of that soul, so we never really lose a person.

With such strong love between people – related or not. That person’s soul is still living on. And there is also rebirth – like the fire that goes across a plane and burns everything, but the following year that plane is refreshed with new growth.

It’s something that is serious within our people – the spiritual side of things”.

A specialised service

Uncle Dennis’ appointment is a Dalarinji: Our health, our healing project whose goal is to reduce the rate of unplanned readmissions, improve patient experience, and achieve better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is the first project of its kind in NSW, and is already making an impact in the community.

He will work closely with the Aboriginal Health team, so that together they can provide a full holistic service that spans physical, mental and spiritual wellness in a culturally safe and respectful way.

“My biggest thing as an Elder is going out to community and helping as much as I can. The biggest thing of all – I knock down barriers for them. I tell them ‘come along with me on the journey. Your journey is where you need to be”.