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Talia Scriven does not know a life without a parent with lifelong injuries. Now an adult, the Ngarrindjeri woman reflects on what life for her dad could have looked like if he and her family had better access to support through a more accessible compensation process. Ms Scriven's dad, Darryl Rigney, was a passenger when the car he was travelling in veered off the road and hit a bridge. The vehicle split in two upon impact and he was thrown 25 metres, causing serious injuries to his leg and a fractured skull. While the accident happened in 1982, Ms Scriven said her dad still lived with the impact of that day. "Most of the stuff he does, he does with one leg," she said. Healing on Country For Mr Rigney, healing from such a traumatic accident only felt possible by relocating to be on Country in the Murraylands. "I came out of the coma, and I couldn't talk," he said. "My brother was there and I just [used] hand signals. "I passed back out again, and my brother said, 'he wants his leg taken off.'" While it would be a few years before he became a father, the arid scrubland would eventually become home for Mr Rigney's wife and children. Family support was lacking Ms Scriven said being on Country was important for her dad in a lot of ways, but also meant he was isolated from support services, who could not come to him. "I can see how happy he is out in the bush — his emotional wellbeing really needed that," she said. But she said travelling more than 160 kilometres to appointments also had further impacts on her mum, who was the sole income earner. "She sacrificed a lot to come out here and help Dad get better and heal," Ms Scriven said. "Getting Dad up to Adelaide to get a leg fitting for his prosthetic leg, Mum would've had to take a financial cut because she's going her day without work. "We're also taking a day off of school because nobody would be here to pick us up from school." Fortunately for Mr Rigney, he was in the army at the time of his accident and they were able to cover his medical costs. But Ms Scriven said even if the support did not account for his need to be on Country, if his compensation had at least included transport to appointments in Adelaide to relieve the burden on the family, it would have made a difference. Research uncovers inequity Culturally safe and appropriate road-traffic compensation pathways for First Nations people were the centre of a recent study from Flinders University. It found Mr Rigney and his family's experience was not isolated and the system was not good enough. Associate professor and Nunga woman Dr Courtney Ryder said a lack of awareness to compensation entitlements was also a major barrier to access for Indigenous people. She embarked on the research after experiencing difficulty accessing compensation herself about 20 years ago, following a car accident that left her with significant whiplash. She said there was no information given to her about what compensation she might be eligible for when she went through the emergency department after the accident. It was not until a family member mentioned compensation to her that she realised she could apply for anything. Dr Ryder said while compensation packages were often inadequate in accounting for the lifelong effects of an injury for all Australians, the impact was amplified for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. "These processes are actually designed for dominant populations and are not relational or representative for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities," she said. "There's a whole element of marginalisation that is not actually considered. "It goes to the ingrained racism, the ongoing impacts of colonisation. Each state and territory has its own compulsory third party insurance scheme that covers the costs of a motor vehicle accident injury. It may also compensate someone for lost earnings as a result of an injury, ongoing care or someone's relatives if they die in an accident. There are slight variations in what kinds of incidents are covered depending on the place of registration. But data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) highlights First Nations people carry a bigger burden of road traffic trauma. While they are 1.6 times more likely to be hospitalised and 3.8 times more likely to die due to a road traffic accident, according to the AIHW, recent data from New South Wales showed less than a quarter of potentially eligible Indigenous people made a compensation claim between 2018 and 2023. Culturally safe is clinically better Occupational health clinician and researcher Dr Brett Shannon said the benefits of staying on Country for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been proven. "If treatment can be provided there, I know that their outcomes would be better." Dr Ryder said a national overhaul of compensation programs was needed to achieve better outcomes for First Nations peoples. "Culturally-safe, equity-driven approaches that meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities need to be implemented across all schemes and processes," she said. "From the policies, the approach, the way they engage with clients who are accessing those services to get compensation right through to support. "It's going to take a lot of will but I'm hopeful that the different compensation schemes are committed to do that." South Australia's compulsory third party insurance regulator said it supported all eligible injured people, including Aboriginal people, and paid for treatment, care and support after an accident. It said it looked for ways to educate all claimants and motorists about the scheme but declined to say what it was doing to improve accessibility within its processes. The federal government said it was addressing the over-representation of First Nations people in road trauma as one of nine priorities in the current National Road Safety Strategy. It said it would continue to work closely with state and territory vehicle crash compensation schemes and industry on road safety measures, including supporting better outcomes for First Nations people. Resilience through hard times Back on the riverbanks near where she grew up, Ms Scriven said she now found strength in the resilience of her dad and her mum. But she hopes for changes to compensation schemes so other First Nations families, who are impacted by road vehicle accidents in the future, will receive the support she wishes her family had. As an adult, Ms Scriven sees herself and her family reflected in the emus that run wild on the land she still calls home. She has followed in her mum's footsteps to create artwork of the landscapes they live on, a practice that has been important for her own healing.
