Deadly Award for outstanding achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: Gracelyn Smallwood

The following information has been adapted from the Deadlys website.

Gracelyn Smallwood has won a major award at the 13th annual Deadlys, announced 27 September, 2007 at the Sydney Opera House. The Deadly Awards have become an important event on the Indigenous music and lifestyle calendar, celebrating the achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in music and the arts, sport, education and health.

Gracelyn Smallwood is a Birrigubba-Kalkadoon South Sea Islander woman from Townsville whose career as grassroots nurse and midwife, and Indigenous health and human rights advocate spans 35 years. Gracelyn’s achievements include being a Director of Nursing, Associate Professor in Education and Health and a consultant to the World Health Organization and state and federal governments. Gracelyn was also the first Indigenous Australian to graduate with a Master of Science degree in Public Health HIV/AIDS at James Cook University in 1995. Gracelyn is currently completing her PhD and continues to work as a registered nurse and midwife as part of the Townsville and Aboriginal Islander Health Service’s Mums and Babies Program, which has seen a great reduction in low birth weights and perinatal deaths. In 2007, Gracelyn also successfully brought the issue of Indigenous deaths in custody to the attention of the media and repeatedly called for the implementation of the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody.

• For further information:
  • • • 2007 Deadly Awards
        View web page: winners list
        View website: The Deadlys
• Contact details:
  • Vibe Australia, 26 and 28 Burton Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, ph: 02 9361 0140, fax: 02 9361 5850.