Inclusive Work and Play: with Dinesh Palipana and Nick Marshall

A conversation with authors Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM (author of Stronger) and Nick Marshall OAM (author of Included), and Dr Maretta Mann.

In March, Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability hosted our inaugural Book Club event. The book club aims to promote awareness and to foster an inclusive culture, through the sharing of stories and lived experience of disability.

Hosted by Dr Maretta Mann, Inclusive Futures Strategic Development Manager, together with special guests Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM and Nick Marshall OAM, this interactive event gave attendees the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of disability from different perspectives.

Dinesh Palipana OAM is an Australian doctor, lawyer, scientist and disability advocate. He is the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, Australia. He is the second person with quadriplegia to graduate as a doctor in Australia and the first with spinal cord injury and is Chair of the Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability Engagement Council.

Dinesh talked about the discrimination he faced when becoming a doctor, and how this was overcome, through the support of his allies, as well as hard work and importantly, working to his strengths. He also talked about working to turn the tide and helping others, the way others helped him when he was starting out as a doctor with a disability.

“It is just one person at a time. If you can do that for one person, that's enough. So, I think that's how we made a change in these systems. It is one at a time. And I remember the investment that people made in me, so I try to pay that forward every day.”

Nick Marshall OAM is an Assistant Professor at Griffith University and owner of Surf Life Physio, a multidisciplinary private practice on the Gold Coast. He is the Senior Physiotherapist for the Queensland Academy of Sport in Swimming, as well as the Australian Surf Lifesaving Team, and on-field Physio for the NRL referees at Broncos and Titans games, State of Origin and Test Matches. Nick is a 2022 Churchill Fellow and an advocate for children with a disability and is the founder of the Albatross Nippers Inc, an inclusive surf lifesaving program.

Nick, who has dyslexia, shared how the Albatross Nippers idea come about… "One of the biggest things about nippers is the age‑specific criteria. Under-6 nippers, if they go past their waist, it is one‑on‑one water safety. So, my big argument was, if you're 25 and want to do nippers, so long as you can do what an under‑6 can do, you can do nippers. Surely, because an under‑6 will do that with extra assistance. It was the most foreign thing known to me to suggest that. There is an age manager with knowledge that everyone in their group can swim this far so they can take them to do an activity. That's what it is based on. It makes perfect sense but why not have a child stick with their similar age peer but have one‑on‑one water safety, and then they can join in with their friends? And so, you know, I kind of joked to people that you can be in between the flags where there's one lifesaver and 40 people but you can't do nippers when there's water safety around you and the safest place to swim. That was the start of it. I think it just was in the too hard basket for most people. "Why are you bothering with this? It is too hard. We don't need to do this." But it seemed right."