AMA (WA) Advocate of the Year Daniel Hunt says things have come a long way in First Nations healthcare since the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association was established nearly 30 years ago, when the number of Aboriginal doctors was low.
“If you look at the trajectory of numbers, it’s amazing,” Dr Hunt says. “In 2026, we’re probably looking at sending out 1,000 Aboriginal doctor graduates from medical school. It’s quite a significant feat; and while we have a long way to go with Closing the Gap, we’ve also come quite far.
“When the association was established, the life expectancy for Aboriginal persons was late forties, early 50s, and now it’s in their late 70s. So, while it’s not on par with non-Aboriginal people, we have to be very proud of how far we’ve come.”
Dr Hunt, a Jaru and Indjibarndi man, was named Advocate of the Year in 2025 for his work in improving access to culturally safe healthcare, influencing health policy at state and national levels, and mentoring the next generation of clinicians.
He began his medical career as a dentist.
“I finished medical school,” he explains, “and I started my internship at Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) where I developed an interest in oral maxillofacial surgery. I thought I could pursue that as a career, and basically got into dentistry at UWA, completed that degree, and worked for a few years as a dentist. Then COVID-19 hit and shut down dental practice.”
So, Dr Hunt got a job at Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service, WA’s largest and oldest Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Service, as a non-vocationally registered general practitioner.
“I started enjoying it a lot, and that’s how I sort of found myself in general practice,” he says.
The pandemic was a testing time for patients and staff at Derbarl Yerrigan.
“We partnered with the Department of Health, Street Doctor, and other healthcare providers to ensure vulnerable patients such as homeless and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients got access to the COVID vaccines,” Dr Hunt recalls. “So that was one of the things we really started to push, and through the success of our staff we managed to vaccinate quite a number of patients.
“When COVID finally hit WA, I worked with Richelle Douglas, the medical director at the time, to set up our own COVID hotline. It was something more culturally safe and appropriate for our patients than having to rely on the state-based COVID hotline. In the first five months, I think we saw three times the number of patients than the state COVID hotline did.
“It was staffed by Aboriginal health practitioners, and so all patients were screened by an Aboriginal health practitioner or nurse and then passed on to the doctor for further assessment. And we created a community of practice with infectious disease consultants to streamline access to the various antiviral infusions and medications.
