Kariyarra-Banyjima woman Sheneise Hall has her eyes fixed on health equality for First Nations Australians

Canberra is about as far away from the Pilbara as you can get in Australia, but it is where this country’s biggest decisions and policies are made. And while she may have grown up nearly 5000km away, Kariyarra and Banyjima woman Sheneise Hall is using her knowledge, passion and her voice in the country’s capital to help create policies that prioritise health equality for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. She’s also working with her four-legged best mate Odin to support people with mental health conditions in her animal assisted therapy business, Capital Therapy Dogs. A woman on a mission to achieve health equality and better health outcomes for First Nations Australian’s, Ms Hall has goals to take her voice to the world stage. Ms Hall grew up in Port Hedland and said she came from a family of “very caring, hardworking, and compassionate people”. “I remember from a young age my mum going to work as a nurse and always doing whatever she could for anyone and everyone. This is a large part of where I got my values and passion for healthcare from,” she said. While her passion for health care may have come from her mum, Ms Hall said it was her pop, V. Lockyer, who led her to the path she is on today. “He was determined to be recognised and dedicated to preserving cultural heritage sites in the Pilbara region,” she said. Ms Hall said her pop taught her about “the importance of fighting for what was right” and that “with hard work you can achieve your goals”, and it’s not hard to see that Ms Hall has carried these values with her. She said undertaking her occupational therapy degree at Curtin University was an “invaluable” part of her journey so far. “It taught me about this idea of shifting the narrative of First Nations people from negative or that we are lacking something to one that instead highlights what we can do,” Ms Hall said. “Our culture, resilience and strengths to improve health outcomes and bring about real, positive change. “I was motivated to develop more client-centred, strengths-based culturally safe policy that met the needs of people in Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. “This led me to Canberra to undertake my master’s degree in Public Policy at the Australian National University, with a specialisation in Health Policy, which I completed in December 2020. “ Ms Hall now works with the the Australian Department of Health in Canberra, assisting with the development of strengths-based, holistic health policy which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health initiatives are so important and critical for improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia,” she said. “These specific initiatives provide and promote a model of care that is culturally appropriate to improve access to health services across the sector and reduce health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.” Alongside her work with the Federal Government, Ms Hall runs her business Capital Therapy Dogs, which provides community mental health services that incorporate animal-assisted therapy into the therapeutic process, with the assistance of Odin, her three-year-old Australian shepherd. “What started me down the road of AAT and beginning Capital Therapy Dogs was continuously seeing the benefits of animals on people’s mental health in a non-clinical setting,” she said. “My research into the benefits of incorporating animals into the therapy setting enabled me to train my own therapy dog to use in practice.” Ms Hall said bringing a therapy dog into the therapeutic process helped build rapport with her patients, as well as increase their motivation and relieve anxiety. “And sometimes just being super cute and cuddly helps; the advantages are endless!” she said. In 2021, Ms Hall was awarded an Indigenous allied health inspiration award by Indigenous Allied Health Australia for her outstanding work. “It was quite a shock,” she said, “I honestly just love working in mental health, so being selected for an award for doing something I love was incredible. “I’m grateful that it gives me the opportunity to highlight allied health and occupational therapy as well as the presence of an Indigenous-owned, culturally safe allied health service.” In 2020, Ms Hall attended a United Nations summit on human rights and democracy in Geneva, Switzerland. “Whilst I know about many of the issues that face Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here in Australia, it was attending the summit that I really felt we had a fighting chance to bring about positive change and health equality for First Nations people here in Australia,” she said. Ms Hall said conversations she had with others at the summit about challenges they faced in their countries made her reflect on the situation in Australia. “It really made me stop and think about how far we’ve come in Australia in terms of bettering the lives of our First Nations people, the positive direction we’re now going in, and that we can eventually get things right and to where they should be for a country like Australia,” she said. In the future, Ms Hall said she hoped to return to Geneva to work for the United Nations. “In the short-term, I aim to keep gaining as much experience with the Australian Government as I can with the hope of gaining employment with the United Nations in Switzerland,” she said. “Eventually I plan on returning home to the Pilbara to share all the skills I have learnt with the community to better health and education outcomes for all.” She said she hopes more young people in the Pilbara considered a career in allied health. “I hope this catches the eye of young people in the Pilbara and gives them hope and drive that with hard work, they too can go on and achieve their goals, whatever that might be,” Ms Hall said. We need more young people in health to help and better our communities.”