This man is believed to be the first Yolngu doctor

As soon as they hear that I’m Yolngu and that I can speak language, it’s almost like a tension in the patient drops and they just relax,” Dr Mangatjay McGregor.

Mangatjay McGregor is starring in an extraordinary scene on the fifth floor of the Royal Darwin Hospital.

The first-year doctor is talking to the family of eight-year-old patient Tyson Pascoe, who lies in bed grinning, hoodie up and eating a biscuit.

The setting would be routine, particularly in a hospital, if not for one defining element: all are speaking Yolngu-Matha, the major dialect used among Yolngu people from north-east Arnhem land.

Seven months ago, Dr McGregor swapped his scrubs and stethoscope for graduation robes and a mortarboard, and walked on stage at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Cheers erupted in the back row, and later others said his family was the loudest of all who attended the Flinders University graduation ceremony.

While the 26-year-old could hear their yells, he said it took a few more weeks for the weight of the moment to register. He had became, it is believed, the first Yolngu man to ever receive a medical degree.

"It's scary being the first of anything," Dr McGregor said.

"I think if you're the first of anything you have a certain expectation of yourself, but also it's kind of nerve-wracking because no one has done it before you."

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Video by Rebecca Richardson.

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