Tamara Miller and Tiarnee Schafer are the 2022 recipients of the APS Bendi Lango bursary.
Tamara Miller
Tamara is a descendant of the Gangulu and Wakka Wakka peoples who has lived and worked most of her life on Jarowair and Gaibal country (Toowoomba and surrounds). She has worked extensively across the child protection and community services fields in both government and non-government organisations.
Through wanting to be able to work more therapeutically with clients and improve her skills, Tamara returned to study in 2019. She completed a Graduate Diploma in Psychological Science, followed by a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons) at Deakin University. Her honours thesis topic was on ‘Police interviewing of Aboriginal children’. This was a rewarding project for Tamara that highlighted the importance of utilising both cultural knowledge and psychological frameworks for better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in various systems.
In 2022, Tamara was accepted to study a Master of Clinical Psychology at the University of Queensland. Upon graduating she hopes to work with Aboriginal youth in her local community. Tamara also hopes to create positive change by eventually supporting other clinicians to provide culturally safe services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Tiarnee Schafer
Tiarnee is a proud Kalkadoon kintja from Mt Isa QLD and is currently living and studying on Gadigal land (Sydney). After losing too many loved ones to suicide, I felt helpless and feelings of despair and why us. I would often think to myself we are the oldest living culture; we should be the oldest living people too. I was driven to help those who live in rural and remote areas that do not have the resources and services at their footstep let alone culturally appropriate psychology services. This saw me relocate to Brisbane to study psychology, as the best way I thought I could help was to learn and understand best practices, then come back home and support those in need.
Since completing my honours in psychology, I went on to complete a Master of Suicidology which I am currently completing my last course and I am also in my last year studying a Master of Clinical Psychology. I am studying both of these degrees as I am passionate about improving the Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and I want to make a difference by better understanding best practices in mental health and suicide prevention. I am also completing my master’s thesis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s perceptions of what social and emotional wellbeing means to them and look forward to publishing this at the end of the year.
In my spare time I enjoy volunteering and supporting the next generation of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids through sharing my story, developing workshops on social and emotional wellbeing and increasing their knowledge on ways of strengthening their social and emotional wellbeing and breaking down the stigma that there is no shame in reaching out for support.
At the end of the year, I am extremely proud to say I will be the first Kalkadoon Psychologist. Although I will be the first, I hope to support the next generation of Kalkadoon psychologists.
I am looking forward to going back to Kalkadoon country and working with my people and community and sharing and supporting them through Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing, incorporating the skills I have learnt at university and through placement.
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.