[LOCUTOR]

Track thirty-one, unit fourteen, all things are difficult before they are easy

[DR RICHARD FEIJO]

[...] My name is Dr Richard Feijo, I'm a Larrakia man from Darwin. I was actually born with a withered right arm. When I was born with one arm, from the second I was born I was fighting to exist because the doctors wanted to take me away and place me in a different home. They said if because of this child has one arm, he needs special care and we can place him with another family who can take better care of him. But because mum was a stolen generation, mum said no, mum would not let me out of her sight at all, at any time, and so I was taken home and I was very fortunate to grow up in a loving very supportive family. Coming back when I was eiht-year-old and I saw this place for the first time, I saw the conditions of my mum's people. I saw the health of my mum's people, I saw the poverty and despair, you know, and there's a helplessness that comes with that it tears you in half and I think that actually motivated her entire family so I'm, now I'm the fifth doctor in my family and I've dedicated my life to improving Health outcomes for Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory and across Australia […]