Born in Townsville in 1951, Gracelyn Smallwood was one of a large family, whose father was one of the Stolen Generation. She grew up in North Queensland, and in 1967 began training as a nurse. In 1972, she became a registered nurse, and worked in Alice Springs, Palm Island, remote Western Australia and South Australia; she was also a volunteer member of the Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Health service from 1974. Later, as a registered midwife, she worked in remote communities with the Remote Emergency Nursing Services. She also worked with Fred Hollows in the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program.
In 1993 she received a Masters of Science in Public Health (the first Indigenous Australian to do so) from James Cook University, for work on HIV education in North Queensland Indigenous communities. She has worked for the World Health Organisation and the Queensland government on HIV-AIDS awareness and on culturally appropriate domestic violence policies. She also holds a Diploma in Indigenous Mental Health.
She has worked with communities in South Africa on HIV awareness; held the role of Special Advisor to the Vice Chancellor on Indigenous Matters at James Cook University; and been a member of The Harvard FXB Health and Human Rights Consortium, the North Queensland Primary Healthcare Network (Townsville-Mackay region), the Townsville Hospital and Health Board, and the Federal Ministerial Advisory Committee on Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections.
In 2011, she completed her PhD, with a dissertation called 'Human Rights and First Australians Well-being', published as Indigenist Critical Realism.
In 2017, she was Professor of Nursing at Central Queensland University and Adjunct Professor at the Division of Tropical Health and Medicine at James Cook University (JCU).
Gracelyn Smallwood's awards include the following:
- Queensland Aboriginal of the Year (1986)
- Order of Australia (1992)
- Henry Kemp Memorial Award, the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (1994)
- Deadly Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Indigenous Health (2007)
- United Nations Association of Australia Queensland Community Award - Individual (2013)
- NAIDOC Person of the Year (2014)
- James Cook University Outstanding Alumni Award (2014)
Source: Australian Indigenous Health Info Net (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/about/consultants?pid=57). (Sighted: 22/03/2017)
