PRIDoC 2010

The Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress (PRIDoC) was held in August 2010, in Whistler, Canada. Through generous support from our sponsors, AIDA was not only able to send our leadership team and the Australian keynote speaker but was also in a position to provide funding support to four other AIDA speakers and 10 medical students.

The theme for PRIDoC 2010 was ‘Sharing our stories – building strength through the circle of knowledge translation’. At PRIDoC, Indigenous people from around the Pacific shared experiences of:

• the importance of culture and identity, and their role in relation to health;
• Indigenous doctors’ role in advocating the importance of culture and identity;
• the relationship between healing and medicine; and
• shared challenges, for example structural barriers and racism.

PRIDoC provides a space for Indigenous doctors to express themselves culturally, to gain strength from our international peers in expressing our cultures, and to learn and reaffirm what makes Indigenous doctors different. This strengthens Indigenous doctors to lead the way in teaching the importance of health and culture back in their home countries.

For AIDA, PRIDoC 2010 was very much a two-way learning process. As well as learning from other international doctors’ experiences in a culturally rich professional development environment, AIDA made a significant contribution to the program, with AIDA delegates presenting at eight sessions during the Conference.

PRIDoC 2010 was hailed as an inspiring learning experience by all the AIDA delegates – we look forward to hosting PRIDoC 2012 in Australia.