This year marks a significant milestone as Dr Marianne Wood celebrates 10 years of transformative service with AHCWA and almost 25 years in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector — a period which has profoundly shaped Aboriginal health outcomes across Western Australia.
Since joining the organisation in August 2014, Dr Wood has established herself as a pioneering force in Aboriginal health, while maintaining her characteristic humility. Her approach embodies the spirit of Aboriginal community control—ensuring Aboriginal voices are not just included, but central to all healthcare decisions and strategies. Integral to this is her prior work at Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service Aboriginal Corporation, and her many years of GP practice work.
In addition to her Bachelor of Medicine and membership with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Wood holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, reflecting her interest in the spaces where culture, society and health intersect. As a young doctor, Dr Wood volunteered in Borneo, Papua New Guinea and Nepal, a formative experience that would influence the trajectory of her career.
“During our two years in Khunde Hospital in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park, we had to fire up a diesel generator for X-rays, and water was gathered from a spring on the mountain,” Dr Wood recalled. “It was a deeply traditional place and we were very dependent as Westerners on health workers translating the language and the patient’s story. That remote experience was good training for working in Aboriginal health.”
After she relocated to Australia, from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Dr Wood worked as a GP at DYHS’s Midland and Mirrabooka clinics. She described the huge privilege of learning directly from her patients and Aboriginal colleagues about their lived experience, and from Noongar and Yamatji Elders who took her under their wing and taught her many things.
“It’s a real privilege working as a doctor because people will tell you their stories. It’s quite profound really,” Dr Wood said. “People told me so many stories. As a doctor, you’re the one offering the service, but it felt like a huge honour to learn from my patients, and those stories made me better at my job.”
At AHCWA, Dr Wood’s first six years were focused on quality improvement, working to measure outcomes in collaboration with Member Services. Her advocacy during this period put several medicines back onto the PBS, and her work with NACCHO on Closing the Gap scripts enabled safer and more efficient hospital discharges. Through her collaborative approach, AHCWA has strengthened its relationships with Member Services and stakeholders, creating lasting partnerships that continue to benefit Aboriginal communities throughout the state. Her commitment to capacity building has empowered countless colleagues and community members, creating a legacy of strong Aboriginal leadership in healthcare.
Dr Wood’s contributions extend far beyond her formal AHCWA role. As a liaison GP in Aboriginal Health at Royal Perth Hospital from 2005 until 2023, she tirelessly pushed a cultural safety agenda. Dr Wood worked to grow the enrolment of Aboriginal Liaison officers at Western Australian hospitals. She has been instrumental in reshaping how medical advice is integrated with Aboriginal cultural knowledge, establishing a practice where Aboriginal Health Workers and Health Practitioners are essential partners in all clinical recommendations.
In 2019, Dr Wood was awarded the Maxine Armstrong Leaders Award, recognising her exceptional influence in Aboriginal health. This reflected not just her professional achievements, but her role in transforming how Aboriginal healthcare is delivered in Western Australia. In the years since, she has continued to champion Aboriginal-led solutions to healthcare challenges, earning profound respect across the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector.
Dr Wood’s leadership was particularly pivotal during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she led public health medical advice and supported AHCWA’s efforts to prioritise the health and safety of staff and communities across Western Australia. Her guidance through this challenging time underscored her commitment to the wellbeing of Aboriginal people and the strength of her public health expertise.
“Those first six weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic were incredibly intense and serious,” Dr Wood remembers. “It was like building the plane while flying. As the channel for all that information — Commonwealth and State, you needed to read, understand, digest and summarise daily bulletins with masses of rapidly changing information, and distil it.”
It was during this time that the state wide ACCHS Clinical Leadership Group, which Dr Wood had started some years prior — the first of its kind in the country — really came to the fore as a cohesive, trusted communication network perfect for the efficient flow of information and information sharing throughout the pandemic.“ During the early days of the pandemic, we needed a way to quickly and directly seek and share clinical input,” she said. “The ACCHS Sector’s role in COVID communications was indispensable. They had the cultural and place-based expertise, wide reach and the networks. No one else had the combination of capacities able to get the messaging across to a local level that our Sector did. And from point of care testing to advocacy for remote communities, the Sector proactively picked those roles up, responsive to need, and ensured the strong, collective voice of the Sector was providing feedback in real time to WA Health and the State Government.”
Perhaps most notably, Dr Wood’s leadership style has fostered an environment of genuine collaboration and cultural security. Describing herself as “glue and a nudge”, her facilitator-approach ensures that traditional Aboriginal knowledge and contemporary medical practice work in harmony, setting a benchmark for culturally appropriate healthcare delivery that resonates throughout the Sector.
Even outside her professional role, Dr Wood is a force to be reckoned with, both mentally and physically. A passionate runner, she has travelled worldwide to compete in marathons, ultra-marathons and other endurance events that challenge her determination and resilience.
AHCWA extends its deepest gratitude to Dr Wood for her remarkable contributions, unwavering dedication, and the positive impact she has made over the past decade. We look forward to the lasting impacts of her leadership and commitment to the health and wellbeing of our communities.