Madelyne Hudson-Buhagiar is the 2018 recipient of the APS Bendi Lango bursary.
Madelyne is a proud Wiradjuri woman who grew up off country on Bundjalung land where she was taught by her family and community to be a strong Aboriginal woman. Madelyne completed her undergraduate degree in Naarm, on Wurundjeri land, the place she now lives as a visitor. Madelyne attended the University of Melbourne and completed a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and Australian Indigenous Studies) and is currently in her first year of a Master of Psychology in the field of Clinical Psychology, walking in the footsteps of three strong and powerful Aboriginal mentors who have come before her in this degree: Graham Gee, Tahnee McBean and Ashley Paxton.
Madelyne looks forward to continuing her work with mob in community upon completion of her degree and aims to deliver services that are responsive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures, values and belief systems. Through this close and sensitive engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Madelyne will aim to benefit not only individuals, but the community, as the wellbeing of the individual is inextricably linked to the wellbeing of significant others within the family and community. Madelyne’s research interests include intergenerational trauma through a strengths based approach and specifically the resilience strategies that Aboriginal people adopt when dealing with trauma.
The APS bursary is funded through generous donations from APS members. Since the launch of the Bendi Lango initiative in 2006, eleven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have been supported in their postgraduate psychology studies.
More about the Bendi Lango initiative, including previous bursary recipients and how to make an online donation.