Dr Samalia, Senior Professional Practice Fellow in the Department of Human Anatomy, winner of several prestigious awards including the Prime Minister’s Supreme award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, 2021, was our most recent Expert Breakfast guest - and why she won that was abundantly clear in her highly informative, witty and engaging talk.
Early Life in Fiji
Latika first talked about her early life in Fiji. “It wasn’t easy when we were growing up. Although we were the children of teachers, and so were a bit more privileged than other kids, but my parents shifted quite a bit from school to school, so we never spent more than five years in a place. When I was ready for high school, according to my parents, there was no good high school in the area we lived. Therefore, I had to attend a boarding school which was about four hours drive from home.” This was the same school that her Mother had attended, and it was run by New Zealand Missionaries for Indian girls. Latika’s Mother was the daughter of people brought to Fiji as ‘indentured labour’. From 1879 to 1916, the British colonial rulers of Fiji at that time brought South Asian people to Fiji as indentured labourers to work on Fiji's sugar-cane plantations. The missionaries supported daughters of the Indian community to get high school education and so managed boarding schools to cater for this community.
“I was only 12 years old when I went there, and it was not a Boarding School like St. Margaret’s!” They had a dormitory consisting of a series of bunk beds. “We’d wake up in the morning at 6 o’clock and go for prayers, and at 6.30am we had to go to our duties . . . cook, prepare breakfast, do gardening. And the worst one was the gardening!” This was largely because of the presence of ‘sensitive grass’ that had thorns on its leaves. “It was a creeping plant and was notoriously bad.” The older girls looked after us. They were really nice. They kind of became big sister or Mother figures.” The Boarding school was all girls school but the year Latika went boys joined the school as day scholars. There were three boys in her class and she is still in touch with two of them.
After three years Latika’s parents moved to the same city and she could go to the Suva Grammar school with her sibling. “I was a prefect there, don’t know why!”
Although neither parent, and indeed no family member, was involved in health services, she had wanted to be a medical doctor from a very young age. Her Father’s best friend was a doctor in the same rural area as her family and he was a frequent visitor to their house. “He would tell me stories about medicine, what he did, and the babies he’d delivered . . . and I think it was his influence on me that pointed me in that direction."
Medical School
“To get into Medical School we had interviews in the last year of high school and about 22 or 23 were successful to enter the Medicine program. We did basic science in first year, just like HSFY here in Otago although we knew we were going on to Medicine. We did not have to compete.” From second year they had a separate campus, and it also had boarding facility. They were given all the textbooks, also items of clothing, sandals and lab coats, and everyone was given some kind of scholarship. In return, everyone was ‘bonded’, in the understanding that, once graduated, they remained in Fiji to work for the Government for five years, which was good since it enabled people to gain experience.
Her father was unsure about girls doing medicine as he thought it was a hard career and life. He spoke with her lecturer, who assured her father by saying, “She’s alright. Let her do what she wants.” When Latika asked her father what that was all about, he explained his concerns. “‘I wanted to be sure that you were ready.’ So that made me more determined!”
Specialising in Obstetrics
After completing House Surgeon years, Latika went into her chosen speciality of Obstetrics. “After a few years I was posted to a very small hospital in another island. There was an Obstetrics Registrar there, who missed his call duties and so I got the opportunity to get into his position.” The Head of the hospital asked if she would still be interested in OBGY (Obstetrics and Gynaecology). The answer was obvious as that is what she was looking for. “So that’s where my obstetrics life started. Loved it. It was always full of excitement and at times sad - if a baby died, or the mother was too sick. But most of the time you’d be running, you know, you’d be busy, no time to waste. In my life as an Obstetrician I have delivered about 3,000 babies. Then my husband decided to become a Urologist. We’d been practicing for about 15 years or so by then. We came to New Zealand, to Dunedin. He went into urology training, and I did my other post-graduate courses. We also had two children.”
At this time, they were living on a scholarship from Fiji. Even though the conversion rate was favourable then, they could not afford to put the babies in day care. That went on for two years, during which time they moved around New Zealand, going to Christchurch and Auckland for training into speciality, returning to Dunedin “and got a proper job.”
Juggling work and children did get a bit messy. Latika realized she could not be a ‘super-Mum’, and she then stayed home to be with the children for about five years. Not surprisingly, she found this rather boring while they were at school. Housework only takes so long to do! Latika did all kinds of things, including a Polytech course on computers (when computers were relatively new), pottery, knitting, all kinds of things to try to occupy her mind.
Then Latika hit on the idea of doing something at the Medical School in Dunedin, and approached them with the proviso she would only be able to teach during school hours and found them sympathetic.
Do What You Love – The World is your Oyster and full of opportunities! And you can always change
“I started at the Otago Medical School in 1993, and the rest is history. I did a few courses and research in Anatomy, and this is my 31st year in the department. Lot of stories there, and I love what I do there, and I loved Obstetrics as well. Whatever career you take, you need to love it. There is no point in getting in there because Mum and Dad said that you should do Medicine, or Dentistry, or any other thing. You are old enough, and now the generations are also different, you can do anything you want in New Zealand. You can make any choices and there are lots of opportunities. I’ve seen students in Medical School, not liking what they are doing. When asked what was going on, ‘Why are you here?’ ‘Oh, my Mum and Dad want me to be a doctor.’ It’s sad, follow their advice if you can’t make up your mind, they are experienced in life. But you must do what you love. You can change along the way as well. When I started teaching at the Medical School, this was a new challenge. I started loving it and now I can’t wait to get to work . . . I’ve got no kids at home now . . . my husband is still working and my students keep me young as well. It is Gen Z now! I didn’t even know all these generations were there!
Ask me questions . . . [short pause]. Well, if you’re not going to talk, I’m going to start on this side - tell me a little bit about yourself. What are you studying, where are you from?”
[There followed a lively series of comments from members, one from Mexico with family here studying, is himself studying Economics and Finance; another international student from Kenya intending to study Medicine. (Latika whispered sotto voce “See you next year!”). Both students speaking excellent English, though not in this country very long; twins originally from England, both studying Accountancy; another International student, this time from Malaysia, studying Health Science. “How are you getting on here?” asked Latika. “It’s cold!” was the very accurate answer. [Unfortunately the next responses were largely lost as the coffee machine started up!] though I could detect another was from Sri Lanka]. It further emerged that the twins had two older siblings who were also twins, though in neither case were they identical twins.
Question Time
Q. “After you had studied in New Zealand and went back to Fiji for 5 years, did you leave immediately after the term was up?”
A. “No, we came from Fiji, studied, then worked here for a while. We did go back to Fiji, but only for one and a half years. My husband didn’t like the workplace in Fiji at all. We thought we had to put something back into the country we came from. My husband came back to New Zealand after one year but I stayed back. I went back to clinical work after not having worked clinically prior to going to Fiji in ’91. But it’s like riding a bicycle, you get back into it very quickly. At the same time, my Mum was not well. She was having chemotherapy for breast cancer. I stayed there on my own with my girls for a while. Fiji had changed a lot from being a colonial country, then independent and a post-coup and now back to a people chosen government."
"With my Mother being unwell it was good for us to be there and for my girls to connect with the grandparents. I came back in August ’92. Some years after I started working in anatomy, I also taught in the second-year Dental class. I used to tease a student a bit and called him ‘doctor’. He was a lovely kid, cheeky at the same time in a nice way. We do not see the dental students after 2nd year.”
"We were invited to a graduation dinner, and it just happened that this boy’s family (the ‘Doctor’) was in the same restaurant, I saw a lady there, and I said to my husband, ‘I know that woman, do you know her?’, and he said ‘No. So I decided to say Hello to her. Went over to her . . . and I looked at her and said, ‘I know you, eh?’ She said, ‘Of course you do.’ and as she said that I lifted my eyes and saw this boy at the other end of the table, and said ‘Oh, Hello, Doctor, how are you?’ as the lady said, ‘Of course you know me, you delivered him!’ So I delivered him, and I taught him! I felt so damned old that day! I didn’t know what else to say! I looked at him, and all I could say was, ‘Wow, you have changed! Later, as I told this story to friends, I said, ‘Thank goodness I didn’t damage his brain that day! . . . Everything has some perks in it.”
Q. “Do you think that moving to New Zealand helped you in any way in your professional career?"
A. “Yes, absolutely, that’s why we came here. We wanted to do post-graduate studies which we did and my husband is still working as a Urologist. I decided to change, for family reasons, and I have never regretted it. The only regret in the beginning was that we left family in Fiji. My Mum passed away in 1994. Then my Dad moved to New Zealand, he was in Auckland, so my girls got to know him much better. No, no regrets coming.”
Q. "What made you choose New Zealand?"
A. “Because we were taught in high school by New Zealand teachers, so our curriculum connected very much. Our University Entrance exam was the same as New Zealand. Also, when we came at that time Fiji doctors didn’t have to sit special exams. Sometimes at Dunedin Hospital there would be seven Fiji doctors on call in the evenings!"
"After the military coup in Fiji, things changed. The Medical School has changed as well. We used to do dissection, but the teachers left and so there was not much support and teaching styles changed as well. Pre-Covid, I took two teams of teachers to teach at the Medical School. It became quite expensive to take a team. We did fundraising, begged, and borrowed funding for the trip. Then I started going alone to teach. The last time I went to teach there was 2019. I would give lectures to the 2nd and 3rd years. They had alternative entry, as well. These were mostly radiographers, so they had some knowledge, and their course was compressed to 4 years rather than 5. They were hungry to learn and wanted more from me even in the weekend. Fiji is a very religious country. On Sundays everyone goes to church. These students wanted to learn and when I asked ‘Aren’t you going to church? ‘No, we’ll go after.’ It was heart-breaking as well, because they didn’t have proper teaching."
Husband Smuggling and The Village Programme
Q. “Would you bring different knowledge from Fiji to New Zealand, and knowledge from New Zealand to Fiji?”
A. “Absolutely, that’s what I was trying to do. We took some material from our teaching resources to teach with and carried that in our backpacks so as not to lose anything. My backpack went on the x-ray machine at Auckland airport for scanning and eyebrows were raised! I was trying to think what was in there. There were some reproductive organ models. The Customs man said, ‘Have you got your husband in there?’ I said, 'No he’s coming tomorrow!’ - He actually was.”
“We used to get Fiji students coming here for around half a semester. I really want that to start again. And I want our students to go there, also. Medical students, dental students, nurses, pharmacy students and other allied health students used to go from New Zealand to the Fiji National University at Suva, to the Medical School. It was called the ‘Village Programme’. They would stay at the hostel, and do village projects, together with the local students. They would then come back and report. They did vaccinations, dental check-ups, helped villagers construct water tanks and other activities. it is really good exposure to what goes on in other places.”
Initiation into Teaching Anatomy
Q. "How did you find the transition to teaching versus working?"
A. “Fortunately, when I was an Obstetrician in Fiji, I used to lecture to the midwives, so there was a little bit of a background there.”
Latika described the first lectures she gave here were to P.E students direct from high school. She was just given a box of laminated overheads which could be projected onto a screen. She was told the name of the lecture room and no other help or information."
“The students were yay tall! They were sporty boys, you know! I can’t even remember how I managed, but I taught there for a while.”
"Apparently, in the past, anyone starting as a lecturer or demonstrator in the Anatomy Department would be given the P.E classes to teach. They learnt basic anatomy. They were fun! They were there for fun. They were totally amazing kids to teach with no complications. I went to a Pacific staff meeting recently where I did not know two new members and said, 'Could you please let me know who you are? ‘So they just laughed, and said, ‘I’m so-and-so, and I have a P.E degree, and you were my lecturer.’ I thought, ‘OK, I’m too old!’”
Apparently when they were students they thought Latika was cool. Latika informed us that she could be strict if required. “I laugh, and enjoy being with students.” But she has been told the students are scared of her. I think that is respect! Don’t be scared of me, if you are sad, or are worried, I will give you a hug as well. I’ll take you away for a chat and cup of coffee, as well but that comes with experience.”
Q. "When you have retired, will you miss your work at the University?"
A. “Absolutely, I will miss it.” When I gave up work and stayed home I missed it terribly and then working at anatomy I have begun to love everything I do. I’m training people to take over from me. I’ve started a lot of innovative teaching at the Medical School. Like the ultrasound teaching, and now ultrasound teaching is part of the curriculum. Even if I retire, I’ll do the post-graduate courses. I teach in three post-graduate courses now and would like to be still involved there. That will be my academic job . . . I will do my gardening, and I would like to help in Hospice or some rest-homes, read books and magazines or something with the residents. I’d like to take flowers from my garden to them. The other thing I would like to do is remove graffiti. I’ll buy paint, ask people who are begging in the streets to help me and will pay them . . . I can’t stand graffiti!”
Q. “What’s your biggest memory of your work as a doctor?”
A. “There have been a few . . . It’s funny when you have delivered babies, the mothers remember you forever! We tend to remember sad /bad things. There was a lady who had had previous caesarean section deliveries. We have to monitor them very carefully during their next pregnancy and have planned caesarean delivery and not let her go into labour as it can rupture the old scar and the mother can die. We monitor them very carefully. But this lady never came back on time. I think this was her third baby, so she definitely needed a planned caesarean section. She came in well-established labour and we could not even transfer her to the delivery room as she delivered her baby in the taxi outside the hospital. I thought, ‘I have lost her.’ But she was fine! Don’t know how! There was another one in Fiji. If you are in a small country like Fiji, people in positions of power have a hierarchy. There was this lady who was the Education Officer, a very high post in the field of Education. She was being delivered by the midwives but the baby got stuck and I was called for help. I delivered the baby with a lot of difficulty, baby was fine but it had a fractured clavicle. I couldn’t sleep for two weeks, because she was a high-powered lady. The baby healed well. When she came back for her review, she handed a thank you card for the doctor who helped her . . .
Q. "Did you ever get to deliver twins?" [Asked by one of the twins!]
A. “Oh! - I’ve delivered twins and triplets! - normally and by caesarean section. It’s exciting! The vibes in the Delivery Room (and the theatre if caesarean section is involved) are amazing. After you deliver one, and you’re searching/waiting for the other one and find the legs, so much fun!"
Q. "Are there cases of getting mislabelled - the babies?"
A. “Oh, you see stories - they shouldn’t get labelled wrongly. Are you worried about yourself? [Laughing]. No, no. There are movies made about babies being mislabelled, some mother took some other baby. Not in real life, it should never happen!
Latika asked the questioner how many siblings they had, and the answer was five, in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and England. “So you must have family in Mexico, as well?” “Yes.” “You could do a round trip, and no hotels to pay for!”
Q. "Have you ever got bored at any time?"
A. “My teaching?” - “That or as a doctor.”
“Never. I loved them both. And you have to have that. As I said in the beginning, OBGY is adrenalin-charged profession. Even when you are on call - you as doctors will have to learn very quickly to have ten minutes sleep. We used to sit on a chair, have a nap, and were fresh again. You need to also gulp your food! - Maybe not so much nowadays, but in our time, it was like that. There were two of us on call, and we couldn’t even recover from one night’s call, and we were on the next day."
"No. My life’s been good. As a practicing doctor I absolutely loved it, and as a teacher as well.” Latika talked about sometimes wanting to energise a sleepy student like winding up a clockwork toy.
How to Find the Work/Family Balance
Q. “How did you manage to find balance when you worked in high-stress environments?”
A. “I had a child and also was pregnant when I did OBGY. Your plans have to be good. Tomorrow’s plan should be written today. For example, I’m going to study this part, and study that part, clean my shoes, and then tick them off as you do them. Prioritise them. Do the urgent activities first."
"Balance and Prioritise - I think these two words are very important. I still make lists. My husband still makes his lists."
"We still managed to have time out with the kids when we were both studying and we travelled as well, all over the South Island and the North Island, too.”
"Plan, Balance.
Priotitise.
Tick off items as you do them."
