From nurse to UQ academic:
A journey to create change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
Lorelle Holland describes herself as a disruptor.
The proud Mandandanji woman and University of Queensland PhD candidate is relatively new to academia but is already making her mark.
Last month, prestigious medical journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health published a commentary piece written by Mrs Holland and her PhD supervisory team from the UQ School of Public Health on the incarceration rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
It is a topic Mrs Holland cannot discuss without getting emotional.
“It’s a national crisis,” Mrs Holland said.
“These vulnerable, marginalised children are in youth detention at a rate 17 times higher than all other ethnicities combined – during a critical period of child development.
“How people cannot be outraged by this escapes me.”
Her paper called for a community-led response to the issue and for Australian policy to conform to UN guidelines to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to 14 years.
The Taroom Aboriginal Reserve. Image: State Library of Queensland
The Taroom Aboriginal Reserve. Image: State Library of Queensland
Mrs Holland’s Aboriginality comes from her maternal line from Mandandanji Country in Roma in south-west Queensland.
Her mother, Desley Ball, and grandmother, Gladys Fisher, and the Aboriginal matriarchs before them were born and raised on Country, but this was not without hardship.
Gladys’ grandmother Annie was removed from Country and grew up on the Taroom Aboriginal Settlement in Central Queensland, where her two young daughters Mabel and Florence were taken by the government.
The Taroom Aboriginal Reserve. Image: State Library of Queensland
“I have very visceral responses to that heartache and that trauma and that is always my motivation for where I stand today,” Mrs Holland said.
“Before she died, I asked my 98-year-old grandmother’s permission to work in the Indigenous health and research space.
“That she told me to ‘go for it’ was one of my proudest moments,” she said.
A career in academia was not the obvious choice for a young Lorelle, growing up with her four sisters in suburban Sandgate on Brisbane’s bayside.
Her father Benjamin Ball and mother Desley left school after Year 5 and Year 8 respectively, but Mrs Holland says they always encouraged their daughters' education.
Lorelle Holland, second from the right, with her parents and sisters. Image: supplied
Lorelle Holland, second from the right, with her parents and sisters. Image: supplied
“My parents are both incredibly clever, and Dad has a really strong engineering mind.
“He worked three jobs and was pretty tough on us, but I realise now the value in that,” Mrs Holland says.
“He wanted us to stand on our own two feet.”
The eldest, Keitha Dunstan, went into accounting, became a professor and is now Provost of Bond University.
Mrs Holland was steered toward nursing.
“Mum was often hospitalised with asthma when I was a child and caring came naturally to me.”
Lorelle Holland at her nursing graduation ceremony. Image: supplied
Mrs Holland began her nursing training at 17 at Ipswich Hospital, before graduating with a degree from USQ in 1993.
She spent the next three decades as a registered nurse across south-east Queensland.
“I fell in love with nursing and worked hard, whether it was in hospitals, clinics, education or research,” she said.
Lorelle Holland at her nursing graduation ceremony. Image: supplied
Lorelle Holland at her nursing graduation ceremony. Image: supplied
Lorelle Holland, above right, in the Northern Territory with colleague Antonella Martin. Image: supplied
Lorelle Holland, above right, in the Northern Territory with colleague Antonella Martin. Image: supplied
Her studies involved a stint as a Remote Area Nurse working with Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.
Lorelle Holland, above right, in the Northern Territory with colleague Antonella Martin. Image: supplied
“That was my lightbulb moment,” Mrs Holland says.
“I saw firsthand how society marginalises people because it’s easier to view the differences in individuals or community as dysfunctional or ill and needing to be ‘fixed’.”
“But it’s the oppressive, colonial, and racist systems that are sick and broken and act as barriers to true reconciliation, social justice and liberty for all people equally in Australia.”
Mrs Holland said urgent reform was needed.
“No one should be left behind,” she said.
“Australia is a wealthy nation and we should be doing better.”
Working in the Northern Territory helped Mrs Holland decide on a career change – from nurse to academic.
“I’ve had a second wind in my 50s, now that my children are grown and living independently.
“With my background and experience I intend to make a difference in this space,” she said.
Mrs Holland received the UQ 'Postgraduate Coursework Academic Excellence Award' in 2020 and was accepted as a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Medicine.
Her current studies are exploring critical race theory and the complex health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in detention.
She’s calling for the decolonisation of health and social care in favour of a preventative approach led by community.
“We don’t have to accept the status quo,” Mrs Holland said.
“We need to disrupt the complacency about our treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and increase the expectations on the Australian Government and us as global citizens.
“What’s the UQ slogan – ‘Create change’?
“That’s exactly what I’m here to do.”
Read more about Lorelle's research here.
Media: UQ Communications, communications@uq.edu.au, +61 (0) 429 056 139.
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