Let’s Talk…Black Politics with Uncle Phillip Mills
This week on Let’s Talk…Black Politics, Chelsea & David are joined in the studio by Uncle Phillip Mills to talk about the joy and power of Black care. Uncle Phillip Mills was appointed Director of the Health Services in the Torres Strait and NPA in 1992. His responsibility in this role was significant: to close the Department of Native Affairs apartheid health system, to replace the mainstream Queensland State Hospital Board, and to streamline the Aboriginal Health Program.
In his time in this role, he amalgamated the three tiers of care provided to Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal peoples, minimising the fragmentation that these tiers provided by creating a single public health system. He also worked to decolonise the mainstream public health system in the Torres Strait, which led to the establishment of the Torres Model of Care.
From Indigenous health justice, to intergenerational support, and caring for country: care is central to Black politics and Black survival. In this rich and thoughtful conversation, Chelsea & David talk with Uncle Phillip about what it means to think seriously about care, and the work of caring for one another in the colony.