Nursing student Georgia is giving back to the Pitta Pitta people
As a proud Pitta Pitta woman, Townsville student Georgia Bogdanek is determined to give back to her Indigenous community.
Georgia is set to graduate from the Mater Education Diploma of Nursing course in Townsville as an enrolled nurse and plans to work in Boulia, 500km west of Longreach, to deliver much-needed healthcare to her people.
“I am very proud to call myself Aboriginal and I want to work out in the country to help Aboriginal people,” she said.
Georgia, 20, says she owes her deep connection to Pitta Pitta culture and her passion for nursing to her grandparents, Lorna and Bob.
“My nanna and pop are my biggest inspirations,” she said. “They’ve been very supportive.”
Georgia was raised by her grandparents in Julago, along with her brother and sister.
“They took me and my two siblings into their home and have supported us and cared for us ever since,” she said.
“My nanna is the chairperson of Pitta Pitta Aboriginal Corporation. Since we were babies, we have grown up going to meetings.”
It was her grandparents who inspired her to start the Diploma of Nursing with Mater Education in January last year.
“My pop had a heart attack before I started my studies. Being around him in hospital and watching the nurses take care of him really influenced me,” Georgia said.
“While he was in hospital, he kept dropping hints like, ‘Wouldn’t this be great career?’”
“My nanna really wanted to be a nurse but never did it.
“She loves that I’m studying nursing – she always reads my notes over my shoulder!”
The theme of this year’s National Reconciliation Week (27 May - 3 June) is ‘Now More Than Ever’ and Georgia is encouraging other Indigenous Australians to “take charge now”.
“Indigenous people don’t always have the support they need to take on a course like the Diploma of Nursing, or they think they won’t have support,” she said.
“But with Mater Education you have so much support and so many resources – so much more than I thought.”
Georgia’s devotion to her family has made her determined to make her grandparents proud.
“Giving my nanna and pop something from raising us and taking care of us is important to me,” she said.
“Everything I do in my life is to make them proud of me.”
Students who enrol in the next Mater Education Diploma of Nursing course in July will study for free thanks to the Queensland Government’s Fee-Free TAFE initiative. Learn more here.
