When Home Heals: Dialysis and the Power of Staying on Country
For generations, Yolŋu people followed the rhythms of the seasons, knowing when and what to eat to stay strong and healthy. Traditional foods were naturally low in sugar and highly nutritious. But the shift to store-bought foods, soft drinks, and processed foods has led to widespread chronic disease - something that was once rare in these communities.
In the past, when the winds come this way, we know what to eat. It's been passed over from my grandfather. What we feel through air, it's part of the grandfather that passed over to us, so we know exactly what to eat when the season comes. Charlie Dhamarrandji, Dialysis Patient In this episode, Dr. Sarah Hanieh speaks with Charlie Yebarrarr Dhamarrandji who shares his personal journey with chronic kidney failure and receiving dialysis treatment, and Kat Baxter, a dialysis nurse from Purple House, living on country in Galiwin'ku. Together, they discuss what it means to receive dialysis on country, the reality of chronic disease in remote communities, and how Yolŋu knowledge and traditions continue to play a vital role in health and healing. Two Worlds, One Health is created by Dr Sarah Hanieh
Host : Dr Sarah Hanieh
Production assistance : Lindy Marlow
Artwork: Ruth Gulamanda Dhurrkay and Rickisha Banba Gurruwiwi
Music : Djutjuti Nha Djamarrkuli, Shepherdson College, Galiwin'ku, Department of Education, Northern Territory.
Mixed: Max Gosford
Photos credit: Lindy Marlow
Thanks to Joel Supple for her guidance. This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Yolŋu people in Galiwin'ku. I pay my respect to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge their ongoing connection to the land, water, and culture Links: www.purplehouse.org.au
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Man hospitalised after falling object crushes pelvis in workplace accident at Darwin's East Arm
A worker has survived being crushed in a workplace accident in Darwin. St John Ambulance said an object fell onto the man's pelvis at an East Arm site, within the city's coastal industrial area, around 12:45pm on Saturday. He was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital. Paramedics said the man is in a stable condition.
ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
Suicide prevention leader and senior researcher outline why lived experience is vital for national strategy
When it comes to suicide prevention, Samantha McIntosh knows more than most. With a lived experience of suicidality, a long career in suicide prevention and a recent foray into academia on the subject, the Darwin woman has seen multiple facets of what she described as a still highly stigmatised issue. As opposed to coming from a purely clinical perspective, she says having both personal and professional experience of suicidality — defined as the risk of suicide, indicated by suicidal ideation — can be crucial to engaging with patients and devising solutions. Ms McIntosh has long advocated for people with lived experience to be central when it comes to drafting strategies and other prevention efforts. And governments and independent commissions are starting to agree. According to a June 2025 report from the Productivity Commission, the federal government's National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement is failing to meet the mark. While the expenditures of governments on mental health has grown by around 30 per cent over the past 10 years, suicide rates over that period of time remain unchanged. The Productivity Commission recommended greater inclusion of people with lived and living experience of suicidality in drafting and implementing policy. For Ms McIntosh, the recommendations present a rare opportunity for change. At the other end of Australia — in the regional Victorian town of Warragul — Anton Isaacs, a senior lecturer at Monash University's School of Rural Health, has been helping bring Ms McIntosh's ideas to life. "It's rare for somebody to have the kind of expertise that Sam has," he said. "She has the lived experience of suicidality, she has supported people who have attempted to take their lives, she has been a suicide prevention worker and she worked in leadership positions in programs." The pair recently co-authored a peer-reviewed perspective paper on challenges to suicide prevention, merging Dr Isaacs's experience of drafting strategies with Ms McIntosh's experience of navigating them. It focuses on broadly on stigma surrounding suicide, diving specifically into the careless reporting of suicide in news media, access points of care, and a general lack of understanding in the community when it comes to helping at-risk individuals access services. Dr Isaacs said the work being done is just the beginning, but he noted that integrating lived experience into suicide prevention would require the sector to confront some "basic truths". "Suicide has traditionally fallen under the remit of mental health services, which are clinical services. In clinical medicine, the focus is to arrive at a diagnosis and treat it," he said. "In suicide prevention, the focus is not on arriving at a diagnosis and treating, the focus is care and compassion — that is not clinical. Ms McIntosh agreed, and said the key to effective suicide prevention was a matter of striking the right balance. "That combination of clinical and lived experience doesn't exist in a lot of places," she said. Last month, the Mental Health Commission published its National Suicide Prevention Strategy for the next 10 years, which emphasised the inclusion of people with lived experience in prevention efforts. "People with lived and living experience have the greatest insights into what works, what does not work, and what is missing in suicide prevention," it reads. But Dr Isaacs and Ms McIntosh explained that such inclusion must be considered and meaningful, rather than a "tick-box exercise". "If people don't consider lived experience to be central or core to their work, then they don't give it the importance that they need," Dr Isaacs said. "If that happens, the people with lived experience at the table will feel disillusioned or could be re-traumatised." Ms McIntosh also said any plan to centralise lived experience in prevention efforts would have to be tailored to the needs of various communities, especially in a unique landscape like the NT. "The geographical layout of the territory itself poses problems," she said "We know that there's workforce challenges across the [NT] in all sectors and being able to support the diversity of the territory and communities is also something that we face." While the obstacles to change are numerous, she said there was plenty of support across the sector to make lived experiences central to new prevention strategies. "I think that they would be more successful, I think that they would be more achievable, and I think you would have higher client rates," Ms McIntosh said.
ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
Family that had three organ transplants advocates for more donors
The anxious wait for an organ transplant is something no family wants to experience, but the Stolker family has endured it three times. Joe Stolker has had a kidney transplant and his wife Leonnee and their son Levi have both had heart transplants. She said waiting for an available organ and undergoing transplant surgery were incredibly difficult and having to watch her child go through the same process was even harder. But after three successful organ transplants, the Stolkers say they've been given a new lease on life. The Tamworth family is campaigning for organ donation awareness for the 1,800 other Australians who remain on the transplant waitlist. In 2011, Ms Stolker began suffering heart failure just weeks before giving birth to her son. Doctors informed her she would require a heart transplant after she gave birth. "We spent almost six weeks in the hospital after Levi was born, doctors couldn't figure out why a young fit mum suddenly had heart failure," Ms Stolker said. She said she could barely nurse her newborn as doctors searched for a new heart. It took roughly eight months after Levi was born for a suitable heart to be found. "It was scary, there was lots of unknowns, what was causing it or why," Ms Stolker said. "I almost felt selfish in a way. You are so looking forward to that call but at the same time, you know what needs to happen for that organ to become available. "You definitely feel the grief, excited isn't the right word, but it gives you a chance at a future." Ms Stolker later underwent genetic testing in 2016 and was diagnosed with a rare genetic mutation of the phospholamban (PLN) gene in the heart. The condition occurs when the heart is missing an essential protein, making it pump harder and become enlarged. Ms Stolker's sister was also diagnosed with the rare condition and had to have a heart transplant. Ms Stolker said it was likely their father died from the same disease. Earlier this year, Ms Stolker and her husband discovered Levi was suffering from similar heart failure symptoms. Ms Stolker found out her son Levi had inherited the mutation. "I always hoped I would never have to go through it again with Levi … emotionally it's different when it's your own child," she said. Levi had experienced shortness of breath after a school hike, prompting a visit to the hospital where doctors told him he would need to be placed on the transplant list. "It was pretty scary, I was anxious, but I felt like I was more confident it would be fine after having two parents who were transplant patients," Levi said. Ms Stolker said the doctors gave them a timeframe of 12 to 18 months for a new heart. Luckily, it only took a fraction of that time. "We tried to suppress our emotions [during the wait], just so we could be there for Levi and support him," Ms Stolker said. After undergoing the lifesaving transplant in May, the 14-year-old is checking off recovery milestones quicker than anyone could have expected. A keen rugby union player, Levi hopes he'll be back on the football field as early as next month. "I love being active, getting around, playing sports and just getting amongst it all," he said. Mr Stolker knows all too well the experience of an organ transplant, not only from watching his wife and son go through it, but from his own experience having a kidney transplant in 2017. He had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), which led to kidney failure and being placed on dialysis for six years. "My kidneys basically deteriorated over time … it might have been hereditary, it might have been because of a knock to the kidneys," he said. Mr Stolker said the entire family was incredibly grateful to the people who donated their organs and the medical staff who ensured they had successful transplants. Mr Stolker said the family wanted to raise awareness of the life-changing impact an organ donation could have and encourage Australians to be donors. The Stolkers are launching a rugby union match next month in Tamworth, with all the proceeds going towards Transplant Australia. Not-for-profit organ donation awareness organisation DonateLife said just a small conversation could lead to amazing stories like the Stolker family's. "On average, 50 people a year will die whilst waiting on the transplant list," said Juliana Celcer, DonateLife's director of nursing. She encouraged people to have a conversation with their family about becoming an organ donor. When a family member is a registered donor, eight out of 10 families agree to donation.
