PRESS RELEASE: Professor Kelvin Kong, ASMR Medalist 2021, A Man on a Mission

“For our people, ear disease is just so horrific … ear health is actually classified as a different class on the World Health Organisation stats because it’s so bad it’s going to bring Australia’s health status down … the fact that we’re in the same country, under the same health system, paying the same taxes … is something that we should be looking at and it’s something that’s always driven me to try to give back in that area.”
Addressing the National Press Club today, Professor Kelvin Kong, ASMR Medalist 2021.
Professor Kong is a man of action, the quintessential ‘quiet achiever’. Raised in a community where he and his family experienced both the conscious and unconscious bias of society towards black people, he could have taken an option less demanding than becoming Australia’s first Indigenous ENT surgeon.
Growing up in his mother’s house in Shoal Bay, north of Newcastle, Kelvin and his two sisters experienced first-hand how many in the local community depended on her to attend to cuts, bruises and other medical matters. This exposure to culturally considerate healthcare is what sparked their interest in wanting to help. As he grew older, these experiences made him aware of the differences in accessing basic health care for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. His social conscience was awakened and that led him to the medical profession.
He pursues his calling as an ENT surgeon, researcher and advocate with great passion and a deep understanding of the cultural needs of Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal Australians. His battle cry might well be “it is state and federal government’s responsibility to ensure equal access to quality health services for all Australians’.
A regular traveller to remote communities, his research informs his clinical practice and his cultural awareness creates an environment where patients and their families feel comfortable with visiting a doctor.
He has seen first-hand the importance of culturally-specific health service provision and the positive impact that can have. Something as simple as a community clinic close to Indigenous families can boost attendance and enable better health outcomes across the board. Clearly, solutions are not just about throwing money at a problem, a good handful of cultural awareness and understanding of the complex barriers faced by Indigenous families who may have experienced discrimination and racism is an essential part of the mix.
To Professor Kong, the Black Lives Matter movement in Australia is very important. Events in the US brought tensions to the surface, particularly the failure of authorities to deal with Aboriginal deaths in custody; unacceptable cancer survival rates compared with the general population and other inequities in healthcare.
As a young boy he was drawn to the hip-hop music of the 1980’s and 90’s, which to him reflected the plight of people of colour. He said, “I think growing up in ghettos or vulnerable communities where there’s a lot of social welfare, you can relate to the kinds of stories people talk about in that music”. From this, his cartoon brainchild L’il Mike was born, delivering a serious but relatable message to young indigenous kids about poor hearing and its lifelong impacts. Together with audiometrist Marketta Douglas and the voice of Abie Wright, the hip-hop rap “Listen-Up” was developed to help take away the fear of visiting a doctor and point out the signs of middle ear infections.
“If we can reduce the risk of hearing loss we can have a direct impact on a child’s ability to learn and develop. The change that we see is remarkable – we can take them from limited hearing and language skills to fully functioning teenagers with real employment prospects.”
The drive for Professor Kong’s work has been the life experience of his community, working to highlight the devastation of not being able to hear at an early age and the impact it has on growing and learning. His work has simultaneously shown that there are also many non-medical barriers holding back our children. “This understanding allows us to instigate change in health systems, which will hopefully help the development of our next generation, so that they do not have to endure inequalities of the past”.

News Editors/Chiefs of Staff, please note:

WHAT: National Press Club Address

WHEN: 12:30, Tuesday 8th June 2021

WHERE: 16 National Court, Barton, Canberra.

WHO: ASMR Medallist 2021 Professor Kelvin Kong BSc, MBBS UNSW FRACS

Media contacts: A/Prof Tony Kenna 0404 999 300 or Catherine West: 0415 928 211

Resource Material available at https://asmr.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/KK-Resource-QA.pdf