On average Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples live 10 to 11 years less than non-Indigenous Australians.
All individuals, organisations and groups in Australia play an active role in enabling equitable healthcare for Indigenous people and closing the life expectancy gap.
Waluwarra Wangkayujuru Wangkaymunha woman and Associate Dean (Indigenous Engagement) from UQ’s Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences Associate Professor Thelma Parker said prioritising Indigenous-led and Indigenous-focused research is crucial to achieving this goal.
“The faculty has a Wisdom Council for Indigenous Knowledges, which is made up of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples with professional and lived experience in health,” Dr Parker said.
“The Wisdom Council will contribute to improved health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples through four pillars of focus: education – learning and teaching; research and researcher training; community engagement and partnerships; and treaty, truth-telling and healing.
“Our Indigenous Governance model is for and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples - centring Community and culture and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Being and Doing.
“The wisdom from community and lived experiences brings culture-centre ways of working, strengthens systems-understand, enables better systems-informed policy and practice, and is crucial for sustainable impact.
“The solution seems clear – we need to listen to and act on the voices of community and people with lived experience.”
Professor Jackie Huggins, AM, Director of Indigenous Research in the Faculty, and Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru woman talks about the need for truth-telling, truth-listening and truth-acting.
“Many of our current systems are not set up to hear this wisdom – really hear not just consult,” Professor Huggins said.
“This is despite the decades-long efforts of many people, the success of community-controlled initiatives, and the impact of the community-controlled sector.
“It can be harmful to focus on community engagement without an understanding of the wider systemic context.
“In addition to community focus, we need to incorporate ways of influencing systems that cannot/will not hear this wisdom to listen, and making visible systemic injustice to systems that cannot/will not see it.”
The snapshot below highlights key projects led by UQ's Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences researchers in collaboration with Indigenous communities to address health inequities among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
‘Culturally unsafe’ healthcare putting Indigenous youth at risk
Mandandanji woman Ms Lorelle Holland and Senior Research Assistant Yumenag Cai co-led a study that called for urgent action to prioritise Indigenous-led intervention programs as part of the national strategy to eliminate rheumatic heart disease by 2031. This condition disproportionately impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities compared to non-Indigenous Australians.
Read more about the project.
Promoting menstrual health awareness in Indigenous communities
Kaiwalagal woman and Adjunct Lecturer Minnie King and Associate Professor Nina Lansbury launched ‘Mind Your Body’ a menstrual health teaching guide for classrooms, co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Western Cape York.
Read more about the project.
Initiatives to impact incidence and prevalence of STIs among First Nations peoples
Pitjantjatjara and Narungga man Professor James Ward received funding to lead a project collaborating with community representatives to deliver impactful interventions aimed at reducing incidence and prevalence of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and syphilis among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Read more about the project.
UQ sets ambitious target to increase First Nations doctors in Central Queensland
UQ launched an ambitious strategy to train more First Nations doctors, with many expected to stay on to practice in regional and rural communities. In the collaborative strategy, Regional Medical Pathway partners will work towards ensuring First Nations students make up 15 per cent of Central Queensland enrolments in UQ’s Doctor of Medicine.
Read more about the project.
Indigenous Australians bear disproportionate burden of allergy-related illness
Dr Desalegn Markos Shifti and Associate Professor Jennifer Koplin led a study analysing 813,112 Emergency Department presentations at 12 public hospitals in Central Queensland. They found First Nations people were twice as likely to present at hospital with asthma and other allergy related illnesses compared to other Australians.
Read more about the project.
Culturally tailored interventions key to combatting early onset type 2 diabetes
Dr Edmund Wedham Kanmiki and Professor Abdullah Mamun found Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are more likely to develop chronic disease much earlier in life than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The researchers reviewed programs aiming to prevent or manage type 2 diabetes among Indigenous people under the age of 25.
Read more about the project.
