NATSIEHC26 - JilIpia Nappaljari Jones Memorial Oration

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Janet is of Baard and Yawuru Culture an Ooranyg / Ngala Jandu (Saltwater Woman) Heritage from Broome in the Dampier Peninsula of the West Kimberley Region.

Organisation: Lion’s Outback Vision Broome WA: The mission of Lions Outback Vision is to prevent blindness and vision loss among regional, remote and Indigenous Western Australian’s by improving access to quality eye health care services. Janet joined Lions Outback Vision in 2021 and has watched it grow.

Role: Aboriginal Liaison Officer Janet is an Aboriginal Liaison Officer which involves patient transport, liaising with patients and specialists to provide cultural support to patients and assisting when there are language barriers. She also provides cultural education to LOV staff and support research projects by providing cultural guidance and supporting research participants.

Past Job Role in Eye Health: Janet has been in the medical field since leaving school, first training as an Enrolled Nurse and working in Derby for many years. In 1978 when BRAMS was established, Janet worked as a Nurse/Receptionist, where she had the chance to meet Professor Fred Hollows and his team. She had the privilege of travelling with him to show him the Peninsula Region of the Kimberley’s and outstations at Roebuck Plains. Janet has shared a memory of Fred, she remembers him saying “You won’t find much Trachoma out here, and it’s a beautiful country by the ocean”. It was the Professor that inspired her to take up Eye Health.

Janet worked as a Technical Assistant with Path West in Port Hedland/Broome for 15years, before moving to the NT in 2001 where she worked for Miwatj Health as one of 3 Aboriginal Eye Health Coordinators in Northeast Arnhem Land and Nhulunbuy. Janets role was servicing 11 major clinics in the region, most of which were accessible by a light aircraft, doing retinal screening and supporting Optometrists and Ophthalmologist.  Janet then settled back in Broome and worked with BRAMS as the Chronic Disease Coordinator from 2010 -2011. She then moved to Kimberley Public Health Unit where she spent 12 months as the Trachoma Coordinator, doing the annual school screening throughout the Kimberley.

Janet completed my Certificate IV in Indigenous Eye Health has been a non-practising Indigenous Eye Health Worker since 2019. Janet’s passion is working with Indigenous patients in eye health to minimise unnecessary vision loss.