Rhanee Lester-Tsetsakos is an Adnyamathanha woman with family and community ties to Port Augusta and the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. She has extensive experience working in Youth Work, Community Engagement, Mental Health, Pastoral Care, Early Childhood Education and Religious Organisations and is a Chief Investigator on this grant due to her advocacy for and lived experience of End Stage Kidney Failure since 2004 and her continued kidney journey at present. She currently wears three hats at a local, state and national level in the space of Aboriginal Kidney Care and provides unique perspectives as a patient consumer, a first nations researcher and a worker in the field.
Rhanee’s roles include working as a Peer Navigator in the ‘On Track’ program based at the Port Augusta Renal Unit, supporting Aboriginal patients as they navigate their kidney care, dialysis treatments, workup appointments and transplantation journeys between Port Augusta and the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She is a Chief Investigator in the NHMRC Ideas Grant AKction 2 project, where she brings a wealth of knowledge and first-hand experience as an Aboriginal renal patient expert that has had access to renal services across the Australian landscape, and contributes valuable insights and information about the level and quality of care that she and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have received. Rhanee has recently been employed to work at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute with the National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce in a shared role as the National Community Engagement Coordinator, to create a sustainable and ongoing national network and panel that provides a platform nationwide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people impacted by the devastating affects of kidney disease, to have a voice that advocates for changes in policies and procedures when it comes to providing the highest quality of care for First Nations people in Australia. Her passion for seeking change, having a voice and creating a network of support around her can be seen by her membership within different groups including; AKction2 Reference Team, South Australian Renal Community of Practice, CALHN Aboriginal Community Reference Group and the Uniting Church of South Australia Covenanting Committee.
Rhanee is a published children’s author with her first co-authored and co-illustrated book ‘Walking to Corroboree’ being released in 2018, which has since become an important tool to help set up her own small business ‘Yura Manda’ as an Indigenous Storyteller, Cultural Educator, Writer and Artist working with school and community groups. She has a passion for learning her Adnyamathanha culture and language and sharing her knowledge through storytelling, yarning circles and creativity. Rhanee is very community orientated and currently volunteers for the Nunga Wangga Radio Show as a presenter, highlighting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, artists, news and current affairs from grass roots, state and national communities across Australia.
Rhanee believes that through her experience as a renal patient and travelling to different parts of Australia accessing renal services, interacting and engaging with different medical personnel she has observed where services are getting it right and what services need to be improved for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She has a strong will to survive in order to live the best life she can, to be a beacon of hope and inspiration to others as she continues to tell her story of strength, resilience, perseverance and victories.