An advocate for success

When Michael Reynolds, a prominent Indigenous physiotherapist and academic, first decided to embark on a career in allied health, it was a leap into the unknown. This was the mid-1990s, a time when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander physios were few and far between.

On top of that, he was the first in his family to study at university. 

“When I arrived on campus, I wasn’t really sure what to do or where to go,” he recalls. 

He landed on his feet at the University of Sydney’s allied health-focused Yooroang Garang centre, an example of the Indigenous higher education units that have since proliferated at Australian universities – (including at ACU, which has the Weemala, Yalbalinga, Jim-baa-yer, and Dhara Daramoolen units across its campuses) – providing safe spaces for First Nations students and academics.

“It was just a supported space where you could be yourself,” says Associate Professor Reynolds, who graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 2000, and has since worked in healthcare as a practitioner, educator, researcher and administrator, including his current leadership role as the NSW Deputy Head of ACU’s School of Allied Health.

“There were Indigenous students who’d come in from regional areas and different parts of Australia to study Aboriginal health, and it was a communal atmosphere that I really enjoyed.”

He says he was driven to pursue a career in physiotherapy because of his deep interest in “what happens beneath the skin”.

“I was good at science and I was good with people,” he says, “so I had this strong desire to understand how the human body works, and to use that understanding to help make people better.” 

Cultural champion 

Some three decades later, Michael Reynolds is known not only for his expertise and leadership in the realm of physiotherapy, but also for his efforts to promote cultural awareness in healthcare education and beyond. 

His current role with the School of Allied Health includes responsibility for driving First Nations initiatives across all campuses where ACU has allied health courses. 

Despite the growth of cultural capability programs at universities in recent years, he says there’s much work to be done to better foster Indigenous student success.  

“We must change our focus from asking whether students are ready for university, to how ready are universities to promote success in Indigenous Australian students,” he says.

“The fact is that retention and completion rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have not increased significantly over the past decade, and that means that a lot of those who enrol at university end up leaving before they graduate, significantly affecting longer term employment. 
 
“We need to do the work to answer the questions in front of us: How can we make connections with First Nations people and communities to improve recruitment and participation? How do we foster environments where Indigenous students can thrive? And how do we create an array of career pathways that reflect the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and improve success and employability at the other end?"

Unlocking potential

These are the questions that Associate Professor Reynolds hopes to answer through his PhD with ACU’s Institute for Positive Psychology and Education.  

Under the supervision of Professor Rhonda Craven, a leading expert on Indigenous education, his research will use Indigenous research methodologies with established theoretical frameworks such as Self-Determination Theory – grounded in the basic human needs for autonomy, competency, and relatedness – to explore the enablers of university completion in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. 

“We’ve seen that Indigenous higher education units are incredibly important in First Nations people’s journey through university, but is that where it should stop? I don’t think so,” says Associate Professor Reynolds, who commenced his PhD in early 2024.

Reflecting on his own experience at university, he believes that a deficit discourse still pervades many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and activities, creating self-doubt and questions over their own potential to thrive in an academic environment. 

“We need to continue to push the benefits of positive psychology that employs a more strengths-based narrative and is ultimately more empowering,” he says.

“A lot of young students here at ACU are diamonds in the rough who don’t know their own potential and the strength that they bring with their culture. It’s really important that we find the key to unlocking that potential, so we can allow First Nations students to see their culture as a superpower. They have a connection to tens of thousands of years of history and knowledge, and that’s an incredibly powerful thing to harness. We need to empower them to make that mindset shift, to see that potential in themselves.”

Connecting with culture

For Michael Reynolds, and indeed for all, connecting with culture and identity is a lifelong journey, and he continues to connect with his Wiradjuri culture as an adult. 
 
His mother, a proud Wiradjuri woman, is a member of the Stolen Generations, forcibly removed in her early childhood. Taken from her home near Dubbo, she ended up in a foster home in the Sydney suburb of Revesby – a long way from her family, community and Country.   

He says the broken bonds caused by previous government policies have had devastating effect on Stolen Generations survivors, while also taking a toll on their descendants. 

“What happens is that you have this really abrupt disconnection from culture, so you might not understand the strength of the culture and how that pertains to the paths you pursue through life,” says Associate Professor Reynolds, who spoke of his experience in the Deadly Physios podcast.  

His own journey of reconnecting with culture over the past two decades, particularly through learning Wiradjuri language, has not only helped him to gain a better sense of his identity; it has also changed his approach to physiotherapy. 

“It really transformed my practice as a sports physio,” says Associate Professor Reynolds, who in 2023 won Indigenous Allied Health Australia’s Local Champion Award, for his work in promoting First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing. 

“What I’ve found through further connection with culture and language, through speaking with Elders and other First Nations physios around the country, is that it helped me to see more clearly that we’re not treating a joint or a muscle, we’re treating a person. And if we want to ensure we’re empowering that person and putting them at the centre of their own care, we need to understand their worldview, and show them that we actually care.” 

Learning to listen 

While his current research is focused squarely on identifying the keys to success for Indigenous people, Associate Professor Reynolds believes this endeavour – and the broader effort towards reconciliation – is of benefit to all Australians. 

A more inclusive and culturally competent nation would more readily see the value in the world’s oldest continuous living culture.  

“For me personally, connecting with that vast history and knowledge base has improved the way I’ve approached my work as an educator and healthcare practitioner, and I believe there is so much that it can teach all of us,” he says. 

“If we can stop drawing up battlelines and move beyond the ‘us and them’ mentality, we can then start to embrace Indigenous knowledges, and realise the wisdom that lies within them. But we first need to open ourselves to different ways of thinking, adopt a sense of humility in our work, and take the time to deeply listen with respect.”

Associate Professor Michael Reynolds is the Deputy Head of ACU’s School of Allied Health, and a PhD candidate with the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education. A Wiradjuri man, he is a strong advocate for First Nations peoples within the physiotherapy profession in Australia, and across ACU. 

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