JilIpia Nappaljari Jones Memorial Oration

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More about Aunty Janet Richardson

Aunty Janet is of the Baard and Yawuru Culture, an Ooranyg / Ngala Jandu (Saltwater Woman) Heritage from Broome in the Dampier Peninsula of the West Kimberley Region. Aunty Janet’s passion is working with Indigenous patients in eye health to minimise unnecessary vision loss.

Aunty Janet currently works as an Aboriginal Liaison Officer at Lions Outback Vision in Broome, WA, where she joined in 2021 to help address blindness and vision loss among regional, remote, and Indigenous Western Australians. Here, Aunty Janet oversees patient transport, liaises with patients and specialists to provide cultural support, and assists when language barriers arise. She also offers cultural education for LOV staff and supports research projects by giving cultural guidance and assisting research participants.

Past roles in Eye Health

Aunty 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 Kimberleys 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 who inspired her to take up Eye Health.

Janet completed my Certificate IV in Indigenous Eye Health and 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. 

Janet worked as a Technical Assistant with Path West in Port Hedland/Broome for 15 years, 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. Janet's role was to service 11 major clinics in the region, most of which were accessible by light aircraft, performing retinal screening and supporting Optometrists and Ophthalmologists.  Janet then settled back in Broome and worked with BRAMS as the Chronic Disease Coordinator from 2010 to 2011. She then moved to the Kimberley Public Health Unit, where she spent 12 months as the Trachoma Coordinator, conducting annual school screenings throughout Kimberley.

Janet completed my Certificate IV in Indigenous Eye Health and has been a non-practising Indigenous Eye Health Worker since 2019.