Hills District Independent August 2020 #62 August 2020 | Page 6

LOCAL LIFE
ONE OF THE HILLS FINEST...
Dr Maleika Selwyn
has dedicated her life
to helping those less
fortunate than herself.
Photo: Kathryn Johnston
by Lorna Gordon
Dr Maleika Selwyn has been a doctor
in the Hills for the last 20 years - serving
the local community by working as a GP at
West Pennant Hills Medical Centre and as
an emergency doctor at Norwest Private
Hospital.
However, it’s her voluntary work and
the other ways she gives back to the
community that saw her nominated for
Hills District Citizen of the year.
Maleika attributes a lot of the drive
behind her voluntary work to being a
“third culture kid”. She was born and grew
up in Mumbai, India where she completed
primary school and was surrounded by
extreme poverty.
The concepts of privilege and a
commitment to always serving the most
vulnerable was a foundational principle
instilled by her mother, but the most
inspirational and influential voice of her
childhood was Mother Teresa, whose
dedication to the poorest of the poor in
India made a huge impact on her life.
Maleika’s family immigrated to
Toronto, Canada which was the second
culture that Maleika encountered. She
spent her formative high school years as
a Canadian teenager where her passion
for indigenous issues and the importance
of being welcoming to immigrants and
refugees grew further.
“Canada as a country is very
welcoming of immigrants and refugees
and it was an incredible experience to
move there. Canadians are so welcoming
of diversity, embrace multiculturalism,
are very progressive in their mindsets and
work hard to combat systemic racism.
They also honour their First Nations
people.” Maleika told The Independent.
“As a teenager I was given every
opportunity to excel and encouraged to
pursue my dream to become a doctor.”
After high school, Maleika and her
family moved to Australia, where she went
on to study medicine at Sydney University
and embrace a third culture. While her
move from Mumbai to Toronto was easy,
she felt the move to Australia was more
difficult, due to some of the attitudes she
encountered.
“One of the biggest struggles I faced
when our family moved to Australia was
the way Australians viewed diversity,
immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers
and their own indigenous community. All
those things were startling to me coming
from Canada and their acceptance of all
people,” she commented.
Having grown up surrounded by
poverty in Mumbai, Maleika knew she
wanted to give back to the people who
needed help the most. When she was
first out of medical school and had
completed her training as a junior doctor
at Westmead Hospital, Maleika moved
to Dubbo where she worked at Dubbo
Base Hospital, the Wellington Aboriginal
Medical Service, the Rural Flying Doctor
Service and ran medical clinics in the
remote towns of Walgett and Brewarrina.
She connected with the local
elders and learned from them how to
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6 ISSUE 62 // AUGUST 2020 www.hdinews.com.au THE HILLS INDEPENDENT