Title

Voices, Birth, and Belonging: Elevating First Nations Women’s Health

Panel Description

This free panel will discuss First Nations women's health and maternity care as part of NAIDOC week.

Time: 14:00 in NSW, VIC, QLD & TAS | 13:30 in SA& NT | 12:00 in WA

Panelists

Melanie Briggs

Melanie Briggs is an Aboriginal woman descendent from the Gumbangirr and Dharawal peoples. Melanie holds a Bachelor of Midwifery and Masters of Primary Maternity Care and is an Endorsed Medicare Provider Midwife - the first endorsed Aboriginal midwife in NSW. The mother of two beautiful children, she lives and works on the lands of the 13 Clans of the South Coast, New South Wales. Mel works at Waminda South Coast Women’s Health & Wellbeing Aboriginal Corporation as the Birthing on Country Executive Manager, spearheading an innovative community-driven Birthing on Country project that incorporates plans to build the first ever Aboriginal-led birth centre in Australia. Melanie is committed to seeing Aboriginal women birthing on their homelands, claiming their sovereign birthing rights, practising traditional lore and continuing cultural connections to Country for their baby and families. She is driven by a desire to see Aboriginal women and families being valued, respected and validated for their knowledge of over 60,000 years of birthing bloodlines of the oldest living civilisation on earth.