Ms Diana Jans

My name is Diana Jans. I am a Tjungundji, Taepathiggi woman from the northwest Cape York community of Mapoon, and a Waanyi woman from the Gulf of Carpentaria community of Borroloola. I pay my respects to the Kaurna people in South Australia of where I now proudly work and live.

I am a member of the Indigenous Advisory Group with the Stillbirth CRE and have supported this position since 2017.

I believe that nurturing wisdom and knowledge through education is one of the most important things for a person to have a professional, financial and secure lifestyle. Because of this I have qualifications as a teacher, where I have had the pleasure of working in remote and mainstream schools, a Social Worker where I started in Newcastle working in the Aboriginal Birthing Unit of Birra-Li. I also worked as a Social Worker in FNQ and again, in remote communities and in the mainstream health settings.

I also hold qualifications as a Narrative Therapist, a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, a Perinatal Infant Mental Health Therapist, and a Qld Justice of the Peace. I have a registered private practice where I serve as a counsellor and consultant for profession and clinical supervision.

One of my biggest achievements is being a mum to my beautiful young son, who was born at 32 weeks prem. Giving birth to a prem bubba, and a single mum at 25 years was something I hold dear in my thoughts and makes me more empathetic to parents with high-risk pregnancies. I know the medical complications, the emotional distress and worry, and the anxiety of being a first mum, and then the wonderful pleasure of having a beautiful healthy bub and watching him grow. I also know the hardship of loss.

After working in trauma and grief most of my career, I am now working at South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in SA in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island maternal child health research project. I work in the Women’s and Kids theme sitting in the ACRA team, and being over 55, I feel so blessed to be working here on Kaura country.