Ms Kellie Kerin1
1AMSANT
Kellie is a very proud Central Arrernte woman and has been a Registered Nurse for 26 years. Once learning of her Aboriginality in 1997, Kellie has been deliberate in her efforts to find her true identity and immerse herself in her culture at every opportunity. Her journey has been one of an all-encompassing adventure, filled with wonderment, yet at times weighed down by significant grief coupled with a deep sense of loss and displacement. However, through raw vulnerability, an offering of profound healing and inner peace has allowed Kellie to no longer be influenced by transgenerational trauma. She now uses her lived experience, collective knowledge and wisdom to eloquently influence not only her own outcomes, but greatly contribute to better outcomes of her people, colleagues and the wider community.
Over the years Kellie has navigated her own way through prominent cultural learnings and harsh lessons, hearing the traumas of her family history and gained knowledge about the circumstances of 3 generations being removed from Country, kinship and language. This journey included visiting the location where Kellie’s mother was forcibly removed from her mother in 1944, aged just 8 months. Over a five-year period, Kellie found herself tuning into and responding to a ‘Call from Country’ to find her Homelands and the birth place of her maternal grandmothers.
From who Kellie was to who she became after being introduced to her Homelands, Kellie now sees her world through much healthier lenses. Kellie continues to draw on her inner strength, ongoing healing and calmness to seize the opportunity to no longer be negatively influenced by her past, but rather harness her regale of learnings to positively influence others through mentoring and education, especially in the Rural and Remote Health sector. In turn, these conversations lend themselves to an invitation to new perspective.
Biography:
Born as Kellie Muller in Adelaide in 1971 and at the time, her parents and older brother lived on a remote sheep station north west of Coober Pedy, SA. Kellie lived there for the first few years of her life before moving to a small coastal town in Gippsland, Victoria in 1975.
Kellie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing, a Diploma in Holistic Counselling plus holds a Certificate 1V in Training, Assessment & Education and Language Literacy & Numeracy. Has worked in mental health and suicide prevention plus holds certificates in Peer Supervisor
Her interests are almost anything outdoors. She loves four wheel driving, photography, camping, fishing and footy. Kellie played many sports as a kid both indoor and outdoor and was an active member of her local Surf Life Saving Club.
Kellie spent the early part of her nursing career working and travelling around Australia in a variety of rural & remote health services. Then for a change of scenery she work as a Registered Nurse in the Cruise Ship industry in the northern hemisphere. Kellie is well travelled and still holds closed links to the Unites States of America where she spent 12 months as an exchange student in central California at the age of 17.
After nine years of being an itinerant, she lived in Brisbane for 10 years before moving back to her home town in 2014 after the sudden and unexpected passing of her mother. In 2017 Kellie celebrated a legal name change to take on the maternal blood line name of Kerin. Her mother, raised as Gwen Pauline Gray, was forcibly removed from her birth mother in the town of Balaklava, South Australia in 1945, age 8 months. This occurred during the Assimilation period due to the State and Territory Government policies at the time.
In 2018 Kellie returned to Alice Springs fulltime, plus the Primary Healthcare Sector and Remote Area Nursing. Her time in the Central Desert was also dedicated to pursuing more family history and visiting landmarks. Following some time working on remote East Arnhem Land, Kellie is now based in Darwin and is employed by AMSANT working in a COVID 19 role within their Public Health Unit. Kellie continues to tap into her lived experiences and skill set with aim to educate and mentor a more cohesive society as walk together on this path to our greater good.