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Health course expands college ministry
Karragullen, Western Australia
Nathan Brown
Mamarapha College marked the beginning of its 12th year of operation with the launch of its new health course on February 26.
Director Pastor Gordon Stafford expects about 50 students to be enrolled in courses this year but the focus at the beginning of the new college year was on the five first-year students commencing the Diploma of Indigenous Lifestyle Health Promotion.
“Indigenous communities are saying they are looking for more than a government health program,” he says. “They are looking for a course that integrates a whole-of-health approach to health. With Indigenous people, health and spirituality are not separate issues.”
According to Mr Steed, the Adventist Church has such an approach as part of its belief system and traditional approach to holistic health. “As far as I know, this is unique as a health course, because of its spiritual component,” he says.
Staff at Mamarapha have worked with Adventist Health of the South Pacific, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and other church health professionals. “We have had strong input from Indigenous health professionals in developing this course and that has been important, particularly in addressing the needs of their communities,” says Mr Steed.
“Students will learn about holistic health with a biblical perspective and will be able to take that with them to contribute to their communities,” he explains.
“They will also gain experience in health promotion—to be able to go into communities and work with Aboriginal health services, model healthful living and be involved in community health education.”
One of the first students to begin the new course is Tony Stow from Ipswich, Qld. “So many of my friends have died and they’re all younger than me,” he says. “This is something real that is happening in our communities.”
Mr Stow recently began working casually in the health industry and was immediately interested when he heard about the course offered at Mamarapha. “We intend to move back to a remote community,” he says. “There is so much need for this. We have very bad problems with drug abuse and lifestyle issues. And there is nothing there in the programs currently available.”
The diploma course is offered on a part-time basis and will take three years to complete. “We would like to get to the point where we can have staff at the college who can go out to work with students in their communities,” says Mr Steed. “While we promote ideals, we want to be realistic, so we are looking at what is available in communities. We will include the study of different bush foods and bush medicines.
“There will also be practical components, such as how to use a computer and how to manage money, leadership skills, networking, working with other organisations and groups, the importance of healthy families and what can contribute to making a healthy community.”
In many ways, the launch of the health course at Mamarapha is just the beginning. “We are stepping out in faith because we are addressing a huge challenge in our country,” he says. “We recognise that we are working with the Indigenous communities. While some of us bring skills and knowledge as teachers, we are also learning from the Indigenous communities as to their needs and how to develop better health in their communities.
“We are also expecting that the work of our ministry students will be enhanced by the opportunity to broaden their ministry with the additional focus on health.”
Mamarapha College is a Bible college for Indigenous Australians and is an institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, administered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries.
Find out more about Mamarapha College.
Karragullen, Western Australia
Nathan Brown
Mamarapha College marked the beginning of its 12th year of operation with the launch of its new health course on February 26.
Director Pastor Gordon Stafford expects about 50 students to be enrolled in courses this year but the focus at the beginning of the new college year was on the five first-year students commencing the Diploma of Indigenous Lifestyle Health Promotion.
A class in progress at Mamarapha College. The college recently commenced its 12th year of operation and launched a new Diploma of Indigenous Lifestyle Health Promotion.
Michael Steed, a former educator at Avondale College’s School of Nursing, has spent the past year developing the diploma course toward gaining government accreditation, which was only finalised in December. With such short notice, he says, they expected the course would “start small but grow from here.” Avondale College is the Adventist Church's tertiary institution.“Indigenous communities are saying they are looking for more than a government health program,” he says. “They are looking for a course that integrates a whole-of-health approach to health. With Indigenous people, health and spirituality are not separate issues.”
According to Mr Steed, the Adventist Church has such an approach as part of its belief system and traditional approach to holistic health. “As far as I know, this is unique as a health course, because of its spiritual component,” he says.
Staff at Mamarapha have worked with Adventist Health of the South Pacific, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and other church health professionals. “We have had strong input from Indigenous health professionals in developing this course and that has been important, particularly in addressing the needs of their communities,” says Mr Steed.
“Students will learn about holistic health with a biblical perspective and will be able to take that with them to contribute to their communities,” he explains.
“They will also gain experience in health promotion—to be able to go into communities and work with Aboriginal health services, model healthful living and be involved in community health education.”
One of the first students to begin the new course is Tony Stow from Ipswich, Qld. “So many of my friends have died and they’re all younger than me,” he says. “This is something real that is happening in our communities.”
Mr Stow recently began working casually in the health industry and was immediately interested when he heard about the course offered at Mamarapha. “We intend to move back to a remote community,” he says. “There is so much need for this. We have very bad problems with drug abuse and lifestyle issues. And there is nothing there in the programs currently available.”
The diploma course is offered on a part-time basis and will take three years to complete. “We would like to get to the point where we can have staff at the college who can go out to work with students in their communities,” says Mr Steed. “While we promote ideals, we want to be realistic, so we are looking at what is available in communities. We will include the study of different bush foods and bush medicines.
“There will also be practical components, such as how to use a computer and how to manage money, leadership skills, networking, working with other organisations and groups, the importance of healthy families and what can contribute to making a healthy community.”
In many ways, the launch of the health course at Mamarapha is just the beginning. “We are stepping out in faith because we are addressing a huge challenge in our country,” he says. “We recognise that we are working with the Indigenous communities. While some of us bring skills and knowledge as teachers, we are also learning from the Indigenous communities as to their needs and how to develop better health in their communities.
“We are also expecting that the work of our ministry students will be enhanced by the opportunity to broaden their ministry with the additional focus on health.”
Mamarapha College is a Bible college for Indigenous Australians and is an institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, administered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ministries.
Find out more about Mamarapha College.
