When Edward Walden woke up in a Townsville hospital following a large stroke in early 2020 he knew he needed to get back to his home community in Doomadgee as quickly as he could.
As a proud Gangalidda and Garawa man, with connections to the Waanyi tribe, being home was very important to him so he could heal spiritually. However, he was unsure how he would receive the support to achieve his physical recuperation and rehabilitation in the remote community. Fortunately, around the same time that Edward returned to Doomadgee, My Pathway Disability Supports began offering support services there and, over the last fourteen months, has assisted his transition back into the community he loves. Each week Edward has been supported to complete normal day to day activities around the house such as cleaning, washing, grocery shopping and yard maintenance and to continue his rehabilitation sessions through regular exercise sessions and telehealth appointments with Allied Health professionals in Mount Isa and Townsville.
Edward’s cultural knowledge has also assisted other National Disability Insurance Scheme clients in Doomadgee by linking our support with cultural healing practices such as visiting the nearby Gregory River, whose waters are thought to have healing properties. On a day trip to the river, where many participants swam in the restorative waters, Edward showed our other clients and support workers how to collect sandalwood leaves from the area, which are boiled with the river water to create a herbal tea.
His language knowledge and experience as a teacher also benefited the community during NAIDOC week celebrations last year, in which Edward and his Support Worker read storybooks about local animals to local schoolchildren and taught them the Gangalidda language names for those they encounter around the community. Edward enjoys imparting his knowledge to help improve literacy skills and preserve the local language.
“We’re like mentors, my brother and I. Young ones look up to us and come to us for advice, so God had a reason for me to stay. My work hasn’t been completed here on earth yet,” he said.
Edward’s rehabilitation is progressing very well. He has regained some use of his left arm and his capacity has grown to the point where he is now able to undertake some self-care activities unassisted. However, as he approaches two years of living with his disability, he recognises that his on-country, community healing time may be coming to an end, and he is exploring how he might continue the capacity-building activities his support workers have been helping him develop in a larger centre.
“I’m walking with a cane, but sometimes I put the cane down and I can walk for a certain amount of time without it,” Edward proudly says of his twice-weekly walks with his main support worker, Mark.
“I’m also very confident I’m going to get some movement back in my arm. There’s a little bit of movement there now. I just need some more so more work needs to be done.”
“I’m so grateful to the NDIS and My Pathway because it’s good for us to have a connection to our country, when we do it heals us.
“It’s our spirits inside which needs to be healed you know. If we can heal our spiritual body, our physical body will come together.”
My Pathway Disability Supports is designed to meet the need for culturally appropriate and quality disability support services in some of our nation’s most isolated and remote communities. Growing from small beginnings in early 2020, our model centres around utilising community relationships and connections to support the development of a local Indigenous workforce, building sustainable career pathways within communities. Our support workers benefit from systems and programs developed through more than a decade of remote community service experience in our organisation as they support clients to progress toward independent living.
A version of this story has also appeared on the NDIS Website.