Dr Lorelle Holland: Walking Pathways of Healing and Justice.
When Dr Lorelle Holland started her Master of Public Health as a proud Mandandanji woman and an accomplished clinical nurse, she had no intention of launching an academic career; her aim was to become a Clinical Facilitator in nursing.
However, Dr Holland had a transformative experience during her master program, when she worked as a Remote Area Nurse (RAN) for the Jilkminggan and Martaranka communities in the Northern Territory, where she was confronted by the systematic health inequalities faced by Indigenous people.
“Despite 30 years of nursing experience at this point, nothing could have prepared me for the stark health and social inequities I encountered.
“During my time in the Northern Territory, there was a Shigella outbreak in the community. Shigella is a severe and extremely painful gastrointestinal infection that requires reporting and urgent public health action.
“The outbreak highlighted for me how critical environmental health infrastructure is to the wellbeing of communities. Challenges associated with crowded housing, sanitation, access to services and timely maintenance made it more difficult to respond to and contain the outbreak. It reinforced my understanding of how broader social and structural factors can profoundly influence health outcomes.
“On another occasion while working in the Northern Territory, a young woman was returned to her community from hospital twice with an incomplete miscarriage. On her third admission to hospital she entered early sepsis and required an urgent hospital transfer.
“These experiences were not isolated, it became clear it was part of a broader pattern of institutional racism. I constantly challenged the practises and even wrote a formal letter of complaint to management but it was met with silence,” Dr Holland said.
It was a study* Dr Holland read on children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in detention settings in Western Australia that drove her to start her PhD.
“The research showed that over 30 per cent of children who participated in the study had FASD, and nearly all of them (89%) had a severe neurodevelopmental impairment. These children need support, instead we are locking them up,” Dr Holland said.
Dr Holland, a pragmatic and passionate nurse did what most nurses are trained to do – find the most effective, evidence-based solution. In the absence of an evidence-based solution, Dr Holland was resolved to find it and she started her PhD.
Dr Holland approached communities where she had lived and worked as a nurse and maintained deep connections with in South-East Queensland, North Queensland and Far-North Queensland.
With these communities she co-designed the research project aimed to address the complex needs of children and resist racialised health and justice systems. Dr Holland had yarning sessions with Elders and Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members who support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child justice system.
Through the yarning sessions with the research participants, her research found children who get caught up in the justice system often experienced intergenerational trauma and systemic racism, or had mental ill-health, neurodevelopmental disorders, and socio-economic hardship – including homelessness.
With the communities participating in Dr Holland’s research, they developed the Transformative Healing and Adungadoo Pathways Framework. A strength-based, community informed alternative that advocates for holistic community-led prevention and care.
Dr Holland said that the Transformative Healing and Adungadoo Pathways Framework will address the disproportionate representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in youth justice systems.
“The trauma and maltreatment on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their communities is pervasive and felt as a collective across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Recognising trauma as foundational is not a call for further surveillance or removal, it is a call for compassion.
“The Transformative Healing and Adungadoo Pathways Framework is visionary, actionable and restores dignity, strengthens identity and nurtures belonging through healing-informed, place-based support,” Dr Holland said.
When Dr Holland was asked about her experience of her PhD, she said it was tough but healing.
“My PhD journey was one of profound learning, growth and transformation. Sometimes the work was painful, I cried for the first six months of my prog
ram when I realised so much evidence on child incarceration was already there and the injustice was stark.
“But the PhD was a form of quiet resistance for me. It was a vessel for truth-telling – I found my voice – steadier, clearer and woven with care, courage and kinship. I needed to heal myself to honour and advocate for those little people,” Dr Holland said.
Dr Lorelle Holland will be attending the First10KDays Network HDR Student Night Event, where you will get an opportunity to learn from her what a career in research could look like for you.
If you have thought about a career in research, join us for our free First10KDays Network HDR Student Night Event at 5:00pm on Wednesday, 19 August at the Global Change Institute Building. Limited seats available. Register below to avoid missing out.
*Study Dr Holland came across: Bower, C., Watkins, R. E., Mutch, R. C., Marriott, R., Freeman, J., Kippin, N. R., Safe, B., Pestell, C., Cheung, C. S. C., Shield, H., Tarratt, L., Springall, A., Taylor, J., Walker, N., Argiro, E., Leitão, S., Hamilton, S., Condon, C., Passmore, H. M., & Giglia, R. (2018). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and youth justice: A prevalence study among young people sentenced to detention in Western Australia. BMJ OPEN, 8(2), e019605–e019605.
Image 1: Dr Lorelle Holland and Miss Antonella Martin. Dr Holland and Miss Martin delivered an anti-bullying story together.
Image 2: Illustration “Adungadoo Pathways: Dragonfly Dreaming on Water Country” by Wagiman and Ngan’Gimerri artist Tara-Rose Butterworth-Gonebale.