In recent weeks, Croakey has published a series of articles from the Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference, which was held on the Larrakia Nation in Darwin with the theme: ‘Thinking, Speaking, Being: First Nations Solutions for Global Change’.
We are wrapping up the Croakey Conference News Service coverage of #LowitjaConf2019 with articles compiling tweets from some of the presentations that we have not previously covered. Below are some tweets from Day 1, when the program theme was “Thinking”.
Ali Drummond, Queensland University of Technology
Knowledge sharing, co-creation and translation through research yarning
Katrina Rutherford, Centre for Indigenous Health Equity Research, Central Queensland University
The Resilience Building Toolkit: Utilising technology to enable Indigenous voice and promote the resilience and wellbeing of students at boarding schools
Juli Coffin from Telethon Kids, Mel Robinson from Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives and Denese Griffin from Birthing on Noongar Boodjar Project
Listening to the women: What birthing on country means to Aboriginal women living in an urban environment
Catherine Chamberlain, Naomi Ralph from La Trobe University, and Graham Gee, Stephanie Brown from Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Building strong foundations for the Health the Past by Nurturing the Future project: Sharing learnings from establishing a large NHMRC-funded community based participatory action research project in three jurisdictions
Warm feedback for a related workshop
Associate Professor Catherine Chamberlain received the 2019 Lowitja Institute award for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research leadership and excellence, including for her work on the Healing the Past by Nurturing the Future project to co-design perinatal awareness, recognition, assessment and support strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents who have experienced complex childhood trauma.
Its framework and protocol were outlined last month in the BMJ.
Professor Gail Garvey, Menzies School of Health Research
What Matters: Development of a Model of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing
Dominic Guerrera, Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia
The Aboriginal Gender Study: contemporary understandings of gender, gender roles and gender equity
Stephen Harfield, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Trends in Aboriginal adolescent hospitalisations in South Australia, 2007–2015
Dr Kalinda Griffiths, Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales
The identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in official statistics: critical issues of international significance
Watch this Croakey interview with epidemiologist Dr Kalinda Griffiths, who won the Lowitja Institute’s 2019 Emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Researcher Award at the conference.
A Yawuru woman born and living in Darwin, Griffiths talks to Summer May Finlay about why population health data matters, why it matters just as much who is in charge of it, and why it’s “absolutely critical to create an army of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander data nerds”.
Cindy Ahearn and Tarneen Calliope, LIME Network
Scoping the development of a network of educators to support Indigenous health initiatives across the health sciences
Dr Lisa Whop, Menzies School of Health Research
Screening Matters: the experiences and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who participate or never/rarely participate in cervical screening
Award winning Indigenous cancer researcher Dr Lisa Whop, Senior Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research, is challenging Australia to make sure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are central in the push towards cervical cancer elimination.
Australia is on track to become the first country in the world to officially eliminate cervical cancer as a public health issue by 2035 following the success of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination program and the changes to the National Cervical Screening Program.
But there are concerns that, with elimination measured as being incidence of around 4-6 in 100,000, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women will still experience high incidence and mortality, as a result of significantly lower screening rates.
“I want the Government to commit to elimination for all women, not just the majority,” said Whop, who presented at the conference on her Screening Matters study which conducted interviews with 80 Indigenous women in Queensland to ask why they participated in cervical screening or did not.
Watch this interview with Dr Lisa Whop (including about why she is wearing a ‘because racism’ T-shirt). You can read more about the Screening Matters study and its methodology via this Indigenous X story.
IndigenousX: How to harness the power of digital communication for your sector
Kootsy Canuto from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and Kurt Towers from Watto Purrunna Aboriginal Primary Health Services
Rarely are we mentioned despite our roles and responsibilities; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males’ discourse on parenting
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men are too often invisible in parenting conversations, according to Dr Kootsy Canuto, a research fellow with the Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity Unit at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute in Adelaide.
Canuto told the Lowitja Institute conference that health and social services, particularly maternal support programs and early years services, need to “radically rethink the way they value and involve male parents” and to address stigma and stereotypes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men are disengaged from their parental roles and responsibilities.
Canuto presented new research gathered from across South Australia, giving as one example a man in a remote community who only learnt his wife was being evacuated to a metropolitan hospital for a high risk pregnancy when he heard the plane leaving.
“There was a perception from the nurse that he wasn’t involved in the birthing process,” he said.
Watch these interviews on other health and wellbeing issues for Indigenous men and boys:
- Dr Mick Adams, Senior Research Fellow with the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet and highly regarded Elder within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
- Professor James Smith, Father Frank Flynn Fellow (Substance Misuse), at the Menzies School of Health Research.
Ariana Kong from Western Sydney University and Joanne Goulding from South Western Sydney Local Health District
Empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to improve oral health during pregnancy: Can we adapt a model?
Robert Dann from Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia
Yarning with Indigenous workforce: Understanding stress and staying strong
Seth Westhead from South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute
Measuring the health and wellbeing impacts of reclaiming Indigenous languages
Dr Tess Ryan and colleagues, University of Melbourne
Further strengthening research capabilities: A review and analysis of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research Workforce
Panel discussion on the theme, ‘Thinking’
Panellists explored the process of thinking, investigation and knowledge development by First Nations peoples. Panellists: Dr Kerry Arabena, Ms June Oscar AO, Associate Professor James Ward with Mr Romlie Mokak as chair
Other presentations
Summer May Finlay and Marie McInerney are covering the #LowitjaConf2019 for the Croakey Conference News Service. Bookmark this link to follow the coverage – there are more stories to come.
