Originally from Vietnam, Flight Lieutenant Dana Pham decided to join the Air Force when she realised, soon after completing her accounting degree, that a career in accounting was not for her.
As a humble transgender woman who began her medical transition aged 19, she enlisted in 2014, just a few years after the barriers to transgender entry had been removed, and undertook the role of Personnel Capability Officer (PCO).
"I'm probably the first trans person to join post-transition because people usually join to figure themselves out and only realise that they want to transition after joining," Flight Lieutenant Pham said.
While she found the Defence environment and her colleagues generally supportive, she did feel at times deeply misunderstood because of her complicated life experiences and world views, which she continues to work hard at setting the record straight on.
"All of this was causing me lots of stress, and then I saw a DEFGRAM [notice to Defence staff] that mentioned the Arts for Recovery, Resilience, Teamwork and Skills (ARRTS) program and thought it may provide better support than what I'd been receiving so far," Flight Lieutenant Pham said.
"My supervisors, who knew what I'd been going through, strongly encouraged me to join the program."
ARRTS is a four-week live-in program that runs twice per year at the University of Canberra and involves experienced mentors teaching music, creative writing and visual art techniques to help participants discover new outlets and enhance their wellbeing.
"When starting at ARRTS we were all given the choice of three different artistic streams and I leaned towards visual arts but soon realised that I was more strongly drawn to creative writing," Flight Lieutenant Pham said.
"I'd been writing a blog for the last six years, as a form of therapy, but had never done poetry and loved poems like Dorothea Mackellar's My Country, which we'd studied at high school."
Within the creative writing team, Flight Lieutenant Pham soon created eight original poems, which she published in a colourful booklet named Psalter, after the biblical book of Psalms.
'I'm really grateful that ARRTS has helped me to reconnect with poetry, and I think it will be my new prescription medicine.'
During an excursion to Smith's Alternative as part of the ARRTS program, Flight Lieutenant Pham read out several of her poems, which were enthusiastically received, and she has returned to the Canberra cafe several times since then to present more poems.
"I'm really grateful that ARRTS has helped me to reconnect with poetry, and I think it will be my new prescription medicine," she said.
"It taught me to frolic with words, even jokingly, because if you don't crack jokes, you just go insane."
Every ARRTS program ends with a spectacular celebration showcase, which is attended by families and friends and in which participants perform music, present poetry, read stories and display their artistic creations.
For Flight Lieutenant Pham, the event was attended by her fiancée and a previous workplace supervisor and she read out three of her poems to an enthusiastic audience.
"I enjoyed doing that, and I've learnt that with the art of poetry, you can say a lot in a couple of sentences, and deliver it in a form that may be less confrontational than using more direct expression," she said.
One of Flight Lieutenant Pham's favourite poems from her booklet, which conveys a deep message, is The Garden of Eden.
"It sounds like Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken and it's the kind of poem that if Robert Frost were alive today, he'd be reading to me," she said.
The ARRTS program gave Flight Lieutenant Pham the chance to learn new skills in a safe and supportive environment and to form new relationships.
"I'm now very close to being that person who is no longer afraid of a bully, and I'd highly recommend ARRTS to anyone," she said.
The next ADF ARRTS program will be held in Canberra from October 26 to November 21, 2025. The application period is open until September 22.
