Billie O’Keefe is based in Alice Springs as part of the Rural and Remote Health NT, Remote Primary Health Care Manuals team.

 

When did you start with Flinders and what is your role?

I started in January 2022, as the project coordinator for the Remote Primary Health Care Manuals (RPHCM).

 

What journey brought you to this point in your career?

In 2006, I started my journey of self-determination and followed family up to Tennant Creek to learn about our culture.

My grandmother was Stolen Generation, so my mother and family grew up in Melbourne.

Throughout this journey, I found family, culture, a deep love for country and began my own family and a life of learning.

I lived in Tennant creek for five years and then moved to Alice Springs when my daughter was nine-months-old.

I have always worked in service provision and community development within Alice Springs and the Barkly region.

What drives my career today is my passion for community development and to support positive change, as well as First Nation developed and driven programs and being able to advocate and ensure that communities have ownership of and control over decision making and that culture is central to the programs, including local context, history and community leadership.

 

What is something you love most about your work?

It is an absolute honour to work on a project where resources are reviewed and published by specialist, context experts and users of the RPHCM manuals, providing straightforward, culturally appropriate, practical, relevant, and evidence-based health protocols for health staff working in remote and/or Indigenous communities. These manuals are such a crucial part of continuity of care for regional and remote communities in the NT and beyond.

The manuals address the barriers between western medicine, service delivery and the delivery of culturally appropriate ways to support the end users.

I truly believe in this project and the values in bedded within it.

 

Can you tell us something about yourself eg. Hobbies, interesting fact or party trick.

I am a Cowgirl at heart. I have two horses, one Brumby, called Dolly, from Coniston Station, 250km north-west of Alice Springs. Dolly was broken in as a 10-month-old filly and also a Palomino x Appaloosa, called Jonny Cash, a 10-year-old gelding. I compete in western events and dressage, and my daughter and I will compete in the Katherine and Darwin Show in 2023.