Associate Professor Maria Mackay is a Wiradjuri woman and an academic within the Ngarruwan Ngadju First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Wollongong (UOW). She is the Academic Lead in Indigenous Health within the Graduate School of Medicine. Maria has had a long career in the health service and has been a paediatric nurse, midwife and health manager. Maria has worked at UOW for over 11 years and continues to practices as a midwife in a rural hospital in NSW. Her current research interests include embedding Indigenous knowledges into curriculum, cultural safety among students and academics and person-centred practice.