Indigenous health

Indigenous Australians experience a burden of disease 2.3 times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians, (AIHW, 2020) with much of the health burden being linked to the effects of colonisation and dispossession and socioeconomic inequality.

A focus of this subgroup is to recruit and foster Aboriginal researchers and to foster Aboriginal ways of being and knowing so as to address health issues in the community.

HIRC researchers currently in this theme come from a range of disciplines and address issues related to nutrition, cancer, and prevention of incarceration, and aim to work with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and other agencies to focus on solutions.

A HIRC small grant was used to support a project at the Illawarra AMS, and this was then used to develop a pilot project, used in an application for a Cancer Australia funded project to support Aboriginal people with cancer.

Similarly, a small UOW student project at IAMS was used as a pilot for a MRFF grant to support Aboriginal peer breastfeeding workers in maternal and child health services around NSW. Another project aims to prevent incarceration of Aboriginal people.

Theme leader: Associate Professor Rowena Ivers (School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences)

Researchers

Dr Anne McMahon (SMIHS)
Ms Josie Atkinson (SMIHS)
Professor Karen Charlton (SMIHS)
Professor Yasmine Probst (SMIHS)
Dr Shahla Meedya (SON)
Dr Rebecca Stanley (ASSH)
Dr Sarah Tillot (IMHRI)
Ms Rebecca Thorne (Associate Research Fellow)
Ms Jordan Stanford (PhD student)

External collaborators/partners

Mr Simon Sadler (Grand Pacific Health)
Paul Knight
Associate Professor Michelle Dickson (University of Sydney)
Associate Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver (University of Sydney)
Dr Michael Doyle (University of Sydney)
Mr Robert Skeen (AHMRC)
Associate Professor Penny Abbott (UWS)
Professor Gail Garvey and team (Menzies SHR)
Trish Levett, Kyla Wynn, Dr Janelle Trees (IAMS)