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The racist email that made this doctor take on the establishment

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Changed after publishing · 1 edit
  • the headline was changed: The racist email that made this same crap': Why a trailblazing surgeon took doctor take on the establishment

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  • The moment an eye patch is removed after cataract surgery and a patient can see again: that's the moment of fulfilment for eye surgeon Kris Rallah-Baker.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images of people who have died.
  • Some of his crowd were part of the Stolen Generations, taken away by white authorities and put in missions where their stories and language were forbidden.
  • The family was separated, with Lena taken to Barambah mission almost 1,000km away before being sent further south to Myora mission, on Minjerribah, or North Stradbroke Island.
  • Kris was in his Noosa rooms in July 2022, a fledged ophthalmologist with stints of outreach work in Alice Springs and Darwin, when an email arrived from an ACT general practitioner.

5 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

Then Raelene invited an Aboriginal doctor home to chat with a 16-year-old Kris about medicine. Kris was in his Noosa rooms in July 2022, a fledged ophthalmologist with stints of outreach work in Alice Springs and Darwin.

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The moment an eye patch is removed after cataract surgery and a patient can see again: that's the moment of fulfilment for eye surgeon Kris Rallah-Baker.

"When those people aren't able to get out on country, they're not able to transmit intergenerational knowledge that's been around for thousands and thousands of years."

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains images of people who have died.

Kris knows how losing connection to country can affect a family — much of his own history has been lost. Some of his crowd were part of the Stolen Generations, taken away by white authorities and put in missions where their stories and language were forbidden.

One of those was his maternal great-grandmother, Lena Nora. Lena's father was the Scandinavian station master.

For reasons unknown, Mary left, or was sent from, the station with Lena and a son, ending up in a "Black camp" in Bowen.

The family was separated, with Lena taken to Barambah mission almost 1,000km away before being sent further south to Myora mission, on Minjerribah, or North Stradbroke Island.

After qualifying, he was subjected to racism by a fellow doctor, this time for not being Black enough.

Raelene, one of Queensland's first Indigenous health workers, is from the Warrungu crowd of the Cardwell/Tully area of north Queensland, and Yuggera from around Brisbane.

Kris was in his Noosa rooms in July 2022, a fledged ophthalmologist with stints of outreach work in Alice Springs and Darwin, when an email arrived from an ACT general practitioner.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 6.5 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is ABC News's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

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Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingPoliticalSentimentHappiness
ABC Newsas they published this story 13 25 69 0.2 0.1 35.2
Mundane Readneutralized from ABC News 10.6 22 69 0.0 0.0 35.2

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