Dr Jessica Manuela, Dentist
Dr Jess Manuela is a Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) and Niuean dentist, business owner and Co-President of the Indigenous Dental Association Australia. She is the founder of Dental South, established in 2014 to deliver compassionate, inclusive and culturally safe oral health care.
A University of Adelaide graduate, Jess is a recognised leader in Indigenous oral health and was named the 2018 Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year. Her work is driven by lived experience and a commitment to improving access, representation and health outcomes for First Nations communities.
She has refereed football (soccer) in the W-league, would choose the beach over the mountains, fell in love with a Queenslander so is now a Broncos supporter and spends any spare time she has with her daughters and doggo.
What I do next, after I know more, is what matters.
A yarn about Dr Jess Manuela’s experience being palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) in Australia and Co-President of the Indigenous Dental Association Australia.
Dr Jess Manuela, a Palawa woman from Lutruwita (TAS) and Niuean Pacific Islander, is a general dentist, Business owner of Dental South in Margate, Co-President of the Indigenous Dental Association Australia (IDAA) and most importantly mother of 2 daughters, Moana (3yo) and Honey (1yo).
Graduating for Adelaide in 2012, her career has been rich with opportunities. She founded her first dental clinic in 2014 and opened a second in 2017. She is from a large family of 10 siblings and grew up poor in a housing commission home, with a very hard-working single parenting Mother. She is familiar with the real struggles of accessing dental care and her lived experience guides her professional ethos and business values. She has been a director of IDAA since 2021 and is passionate about increasing representation of First Nations dental students, and seeing them succeed in health, wellness and confidence. “Mob needs to be in charge of making decisions about ourselves and the critical importance of understanding that there is more than one way to be well, and what wellness looks like needs to be understood."
Learning Objectives
1. Understand the importance of First Nations representation in dentistry.
2. Challenge traditional models of health and wellness.
3. Unpack internal biases