• CRCAH looks to the future - Editorial by Mick Gooda
• Improve Aboriginal health by building and sharing practical knowledge, says Professor Anderson
• Child & maternal health, smoking and workforce training winners in  Budget 
• Wendy Ah Chin takes up deputy’s role
• Targeting smokes – the national Indigenous tobacco control roundtable
• Almost triple the risk for Aboriginal women in childbirth
• Trachoma – little change 30 years after Fred
• Indigenous family violence in spotlight
• Healthy skin message for Tiwis
• Nurse bouquets for CRCAH program
• Finding a way through the conference maze
• VicHealth international conference: Showcasing community knowledge
• Darwin to host Indigenous women’s health meeting
• Central Australian male health summit
• New global group for Indigenous Studies scholars
• Prestigious award for Fran Baum
• In memory of Dr Marika

• Onemda - an Indigenous research success story
• New Onemda researcher investigates data deficit
• Research fellow  joins tobacco control efforts
• School transition program spreads its wings
• AIMHI shows its wares in Darwin seminar

• Warning – these newspapers can damage health
• Participants gives Parliamentary Showcase a
  big tick
• New Website for WNDWPT

• La Trobe courses for Victorian Koori family counsellors

CRCAH Looks to the future

CRCAH CEO Mr Mick Gooda

Australia needs a permanent Aboriginal-led health research institution.

As the CRC for Aboriginal Health enters its final two years of existence in its current form, work is well underway to establish a successor organisation which can carry forward the good work achieved by us over the past decade.

For the past 18 months the CRCAH – under the direction of the Board – has been holding workshops, commissioning papers and undertaking literature reviews to plot the best way forward beyond 30 June 2010. Two clear options have emerged: either to seek funding for a further CRC, or to establish an entirely new entity.

Underpinning this desire to progress the CRCAH’s work into the future is the knowledge that the life expectancy for an Aboriginal Australian born today is 17 years less on average than that of a non-Aboriginal Australian born at the same time on the same day in the same hospital.

Despite this ongoing health gap, there is increasing evidence nationally and internationally that suggests positive health outcomes for Aboriginal people are being achieved when Aboriginal peoples have decisive input into the design and delivery of health services.

A terrific example is the Central Australian community of Utopia, where a decentralised model for the delivery of health services has resulted in mortality rates half those of the general Aboriginal population in the Northern Territory.

The CRCAH’s core mission in all of its programs is to direct research dollars towards achieving outcomes in priority areas identified by its Aboriginal stakeholders and particularly by Aboriginal people themselves. By using this ‘bottom up’ model, called the Facilitated Development Approach (FDA), the CRCAH and its partner agencies have been able to bridge the gap between researchers and Aboriginal communities.

Rather than allow these valuable linkages to lapse, the Board believes the time has come for the creation of a permanent and independent National Institute for Aboriginal Health Research (NIAHR) to carry on the work begun by the CRCAH and its predecessor the CRC for Aboriginal and Tropical Health.

The NIAHR would be permanently established and able to speak with a truly independent voice. It would demonstrate in practice the new Australian Government’s commitment to two vital principles:

• Its preparedness to be guided by sound evidence of what works and gets results for Aboriginal Australians; and
• Its commitment to public sector support of public good research.

The Institute will be strongly networked into the Aboriginal community, listening to and developing research programs that enable the transfer of knowledge from the bottom up. It will provide a brokering role between community, industry, research and decision makers. It will facilitate the development of capacity in Aboriginal health research and in Aboriginal health matters to enable communities to make the changes that save and enhance lives.

In many ways, this is a ‘coming of age’ moment for the CRCAH. I believe that the CRCAH has done exactly what the CRC program was designed to achieve, outgrowing its incubator and standing ready to pursue an independent existence in its own right.

The time for a permanent Aboriginal-led research body has definitely come. I look forward to sharing news of the progess of this aspiration into the future.

Mick Gooda June 2008

Improve Aboriginal health by building and sharing practical knowledge, says Professor Anderson

Professor Anderson makes a point during his recent Dean's Lecture

Australian universities need to change their approach to the development of he health workforce, research and health information systems, and capacity exchange with Indigenous communities, if the Federal Government’s visionary promise of closing the Indigenous health gap has any chance of being realised by 2030 said CRC for Aboriginal Health Research Director, Professor Ian Anderson at a recent lecture.
 
Professor Anderson, who is also the Director of Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit at the University of Melbourne, was delivering the Dean’s Lecture on ‘The Knowledge Economy and Aboriginal Health Development’.

Professor Anderson told a packed audience of practitioners, educators, researchers, policymakers, students and community development professionals that Australian universities must play a key role in the production and exchange of Indigenous health knowledge as the basis for innovation, workforce development and evidence-based policy and practice, to help address the health and social disadvantage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

‘If universities are to play a role in bridging the Indigenous health gap, they must refocus their research processes to generate knowledge and analyse problems in a way that is appropriate and relevant to those working in Aboriginal communities, health services and the policy sector. There will need to be greater emphasis on research that evaluates the impact of health interventions or policy reform—rather than research that just describes the problem,” he said.

“Universities will be responsible for training more Indigenous health professionals and for making sure that all students in the health sciences—Indigenous and non-Indigenous— have a solid grounding in Indigenous health needs. But to do this, they will need to improve the way in which Indigenous students are recruited and supported, and to boost the quality of the learning experience for all students in Indigenous health.

“Universities must also examine how they can be more effectively involved in the processes through which knowledge is disseminated or exchanged. In this context, universities should further develop a system of knowledge exchange that sees students take the knowledge developed through research and implement it in a real-world setting that will result in better health policies and practices for Indigenous Australians.

Professor Anderson argued strongly for Universities to develop better ways to engage effectively with Indigenous communities, “For if we are to engage more effectively we need new tools that underpin timely and effective communication strategies. For example, we cannot rely just on peer-review publications to get our message out: we should be directly engaging Indigenous communities and Indigenous health stakeholders in the research process whenever and wherever possible.”

“The university that contributes to the national challenge to close the Indigenous health gap will be one that:

“Closing the Indigenous health gap provides an enormous challenge, but it also provides everyone working in Indigenous health … with an unprecedented opportunity to make genuine, long-term positive change. If all of us in the university sector work together on this we can make a real difference to Australian society,” he told the audience.

For a copy of Professor Anderson’s Dean’s Lecture full address, given on Tuesday evening, 13 May 2008, at the University of Melbourne, go to www.onemda.unimelb.edu.au

Child & maternal health, smoking and workforce training
winners in  Budget 

The first Rudd Government budget has seen some $334.8 million allocated over five years towards Aboriginal health measures which the government believes will reduce the health disparity gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.

Indigenous health measures include:

• $90.3 million to improve child and maternal health services throughout Australia, matched by $75 million funding from State and Territory governments;
• $11.2 million to tackle acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease among Indigenous children;
• $49.3 million over four years, through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), to improve access to drug and alcohol services, including residential treatment and rehabilitation facilities;
• $14.5 million investment over four years in the Indigenous Tobacco Control Initiative, to help tackle high rates of smoking in Indigenous communities;
• $21.5 million commitment over five years to improve the capacity of Northern Territory health services to meet the complex health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, such as access to renal dialysis services for people in remote communities;
• $19 million over three years in a National Indigenous Health Workforce Training Plan;
• $99.7 million to expand primary health care in the Northern Territory, such as establishing a remote area health corps agency to recruit more doctors, nurses and other health professionals to work in remote Indigenous communities;
• $13.6 million to complete the delivery of follow-up dental, hearing and ear, nose and throat services for Aboriginal children in remote communities and town camps in the Northern Territory in 2008-09; and
• $15.7 million over four years to enable members of the Stolen Generations to reunite with their families.

There were mixed reactions to the budget with most Aboriginal leaders and health advocates welcoming the initiatives but arguing that more dollars are needed to expedite improvements in health outcomes.

Social Justice ComissionerTom Calma

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said that overall, the government's intention to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was welcomed.

“The money to expand primary health care in the Northern Territory is welcomed but falls way short of what is needed to improve primary health care services around the country - especially with 75 per cent of Australia’s Indigenous population living in non-remote areas.

“The budget Indigenous health initiatives are welcome indeed but more is needed to ensure an Indigenous baby born in 2030 has the same life expectation, the same access to quality health services and the same life outcomes as non-Indigenous Australians.”

Dr Mick Adams, chair of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), the peak body for Aboriginal medical services, said NACCHO has welcomed the government’s ongoing commitment to Aboriginal health but that “ a major injection of funds is needed to bring the sector to a level that would, for the first time, match the level of need in the Aboriginal community.”

Australian Indigenous Doctors Association President Dr Tamara Mackean supported the government's focus on strengthening a healthy start to life for kids through improved child and maternal health services, addressing alcohol and other drugs, including the biggest killer – tobacco - and the down-payment on a growing future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health workforce.

“Achieving our nation's collective goal of closing the gap on life expectancy within a generation will require more substantial and sustained investment by the Australian, State and Territory governments over the long term,” Dr Mackean said.

CRCAH executive officer, Mick Gooda, told Gwalwa-Gai that while he shared the view that greater investment was needed it was important that Aboriginal people looked beyond the discrete Indigenous health budget and explored opportunities for better Aboriginal access to so-called “mainstream” health funds.

“It is vital that those of us who work in Aboriginal health are continually seeking opportunities to access the so-called mainstream dollars so our mob are ensured of access to health services which reflect our needs,” he said.

Wendy Ah Chin takes up deputy’s role

Wendy Ah Chin

Long-term Territorian Wendy Ah Chin is now in charge of day-to-day management of CRCAH operations, following her appointment as Deputy CEO of the organisation in April 2008.

Wendy’s role helps take the pressure off CEO Mick Gooda, who will now be able to focus on managing the wind-down of the CRCAH over the next two years and on planning for the much-anticipated National Institute for Aboriginal Health Research.

“I’m looking forward to the challenge of my role and to helping move us forward to the new entity,” Wendy told staff shortly after starting work on 6 May.

Wendy is originally from Mt. Isa and a descendant of north-west Queensland’s Wannyi people. She grew up in Katherine and has lived in Darwin since 1993.

Wendy brings a wealth of skills, experience and leadership in policy and program administration and management at a high level. She has a health science degree from Edith Cowan University and a Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management from Flinders University, and has worked in Indigenous affairs across the health, education and employment sectors.

Before joining the CRCAH Wendy was working in a senior role at the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. She will continue lecturing on Indigenous employment at Charles Darwin University.

Targeting smokes – the national Indigenous tobacco control roundtable

Mick Gooda, Mick Adams and Viki Briggs

Lively discussions led to development of research priorities at the recent Smoking Roundtable

The Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Tobacco Control (CEITC) and CRCAH jointly hosted a National Indigenous Tobacco Control Roundtable in Brisbane recently.

The roundtable, with more than 70 national participants, set out an agenda for the research and evaluation of Indigenous tobacco-control strategies to significantly lower smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The roundtable participants suggested a number of research priorities in Indigenous tobacco control, six of which were discussed in detail:

• Effective ‘prompts’ and best practice to encourage Indigenous people to quit smoking;
• The establishment of smoke-free areas throughout Community-controlled workplaces, including outdoor public spaces;
• The role of family-centred smoking interventions;
• Identifying enablers of behaviour in the uptake of smoking, and ways to prevent this uptake;
• Examining the benefits of utilising specialist Indigenous tobacco control workers, as well as health workers; and
• Training the health workforce and its clients (patients) to quit the smokes.

In her closing address to the roundtable, CEITC’s manager Ms Viki Briggs said that the next step is to come up with ways of implementing the priorities identified by the roundtable. ‘We can’t do anything unless you come along as well,’ she told participants. Ms Briggs said that a ‘CEITC-convened working group will be formed, to move our priorities forward’. She encouraged participants to keep CEITC and the CRCAH informed about their research and evaluation work.

‘Building an Indigenous tobacco control specific workforce and building capacity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers based in health services is a vital key to addressing this serious problem,’ Ms Briggs said.

Mick Gooda, CEO of the CRCAH, later told Gwalwa-Gai, ‘To get our people off the smokes, we should look favourably at programs with a zero-costing dimension such as smoke-free places, and give priority to those projects that show positive results, and that develop a culture of accreditation and compliance.’

‘Research projects should have a national focus, be sustainable in their positive impacts, and be funded for outcomes,’ Mick Gooda said.

Roundtable participants were drawn from a wide range of researchers, health promoters and educators, Aboriginal community representatives, and government health agencies at the state and national levels. A public report on the roundtable, and the scoping study, will be published in July 2008 for further discussion and feedback.

Almost triple the risk for Aboriginal women in childbirth

A recent Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report has found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are almost three times more likely to die while pregnant, during labour or up to six weeks after giving birth than non- indigenous women.

The AIHW report, Maternal Deaths in Australia 2003-2005, said that the high rate of maternal mortality among Indigenous woman has not abated since first measured in the early 1990s.

During the three-year study period there were 21.5 deaths for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women per 100,000 women giving birth compared with 7.9 deaths for non-Indigenous women.

The overall death rate for Australian women giving birth during the study period was 8.4 per 100,000 women.

“Although this rate compares favourably with the rates in other developed countries, maternal death rates for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander women are still more than two and a half times as high as for other women,’ Associate Professor James King, Chair of the National Advisory Committee Maternal Mortality, said.

“The fact that Indigenous mothers continue to experience a higher rate of mortality than non-Indigenous women remains a serious concern,” he said.

Researchers also called for an overhaul of the system for reporting maternal deaths in Australia, with inconsistent data collection between the States and Territories undermining AIHW’s efforts to provide accurate and timely statistics.

Reporting of maternal deaths is not mandatory at a national level and data is collected separately by each State and Territory.

To read the AIHW report in full, go to www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10207

Trachoma – little change 30 years after Fred

One of Australia’s leading experts in eye disease, ophthalmologist Professor Hugh Taylor, is restarting the mission begun by the late Professor Fred Hollows to eradicate the infectious eye disease trachoma from Australia and in particular remote Aboriginal communities where the condition is widespread.

Prof Taylor, who was recently appointed to the new Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous Eye Health at the University of Melbourne, originally worked with Prof Hollows in the 1970s. He remains shocked that in the intervening 30 years there has been no change to the rates of the curable infection.

“In many areas, the prevalence of trachoma has barely changed since Fred Hollows’ work with the National Trachoma and Eye Health program in the 1970s,” he said in a university media release. “Yet this is a completely curable disease.”

Trachoma is a major cause of blindness in Aboriginal communities, with estimates that about 20 per cent of Aboriginal children in outback communities are infected. The disease is caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis, whose symptoms include swelling of – and discharge of pus from – the eyelids, as well as pain and sensitivity to light.

Prof Taylor also heads up the new Indigenous Eye Health program at the University of Melbourne, which brings him back together with another former Hollows team member, Jilpia Nappaljari Jones.

Ms Jones, an Indigenous nurse and currently a health researcher with AIATSIS, is a member of the Indigenous Eye Health Advisory Board along with CRCAH Research Director, Professor Ian Anderson.

The Advisory Board met for the first time recently to map out its future strategy and to launch Prof Taylor’s new book Trachoma: A Blinding Scourge from the Bronze Age to the 21st Century.

The book traces the history of the disease from its origin in the Bronze Ages and its current impact around the world. As well as describing the disease’s clinical manifestations and treatment, Prof Taylor also notes the failure of local treatment schemes that have resulted in Australia being the only developed country in the world that still suffers from the disease.

Prof Taylor says that although trachoma was wiped out in white Australia about 100 years ago, it persisted in all outback communities north and west of Port Augusta in South Australia.

“With concerted action and about $20 million from the Government, active trachoma could be wiped out in Australia within three to five years,” he said.

“Through our work on the Indigenous Eye Health program we aim to provide Indigenous people with the same quality and access to eye care that is enjoyed by other Australians.”

Indigenous family violence in spotlight

Dr Kyllie Cripps

Combating Indigenous family violence will require more support for those already working in the area and more evidence to determine the extent of the problem according to a presentation at a recent Flinders University’s Aboriginal Health Research Unit (FAHRU) seminar.

Presenting her paper on Indigenous Family Violence Research, University of Melbourne researcher and Pallawah woman from Tasmania, Dr Kyllie Cripps, drew on her several years working in the area of Indigenous family violence. In 2005 she was awarded her PhD for her thesis entitled Enough Family Fighting: Indigenous Community Responses to Addressing Family Violence in Australia & the United States. She has also been involved in the development of national policy in this area.

Her current work as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the VicHealth Koori Health Research and Community Development Unit at the University of Melbourne includes an analysis of data relating to family violence from the 2002 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social Survey. This work is supported by a CRCAH-funded project, ‘Capacity Building in Indigenous Policy-relevant Health Research’ (CIPHER).

In her seminar, Dr Cripps reviewed the key research, reports and court cases that have informed the public debate so far. She pointed out that there were significant problems in all these areas including flawed data collection, low levels of offence reporting and legal bias, and that as a result it was likely that the figures did not truly reflect the extent of Indigenous domestic violence.

“We know that one factor alone cannot be singled out as the ‘cause’ of family violence - a multitude of inter-related factors is attributable,” she told her audience.

Dr Cripps said that while a host of State and Federal Government reports over the past decade had delivered a multitude of recommendations to reduce levels of domestic violence, “the undeniable message in all of these reports is that there is a need for a more responsive system for addressing the problems of Indigenous sexual abuse and violence”.

Dr Cripps called for secure long-term funding to deal with Indigenous domestic violence and its wider social impacts.

Healthy skin message for Tiwi Islanders

The importance of healthy skin was one of the key messages delivered to Tiwi Island families during a recent visit to the island community of Nguiu by Indigenous rugby league players and health workers as part of the National Rugby League’s ‘Tackling Health Head On’ program.

Members of the CRCAH-funded East Arnhem Regional Healthy Skin project, including Aboriginal community health worker Roslyn Dhurrkay and project leader Associate Professor Ross Andrews, were on hand to explain the importance of treating skin sores and scabies to prevent the occurrence of other more serious conditions.

Ms Dhurrkay, who comes from the East Arnhem community of Galiwinku, communicated the results of her work direct to Tiwi mothers while they watched their children being coached by retired league legend Gordon Tallis and current stars Carl Webb, Daniel Wagon and Obe Geia.

Assoc Prof Andrews, from the Menzies School of Health Research, said the three-year Healthy Skin program aimed to reduce the prevalence of skin infections in children aged 0-14 years and thereby reduce the occurrence of a range of serious conditions including kidney disease, rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.

“Without the commitment of our community health workers we would never have achieved the success we have,” Assoc Prof Andrews said.

“Over the last three years, these women have been involved in doing over 6,000 skin checks on nearly 2,500 children in eight different regions of East Arnhemland.

“When they first started, 46 children out of every 100 seen in their communities had skin sores. By the time we had finished, the skin sore burden had almost halved, equivalent to saving 18 children in every 100 from skin sores.”

Ms Dhurrkay was among 11 Aboriginal health workers who successfully graduated in May this year from an accredited primary health care training program delivered as part of the healthy skin project.

CRCAH chief executive Mick Gooda said the project was “a great example of what can be achieved by working in partnership with local communities, government and researchers”.

“The more we can get the healthy skin message out to other Aboriginal communities, such as Nguiu, the more likely we will be to cut the incidence of these chronic conditions,” Mr Gooda said.
For further information on CRCAH skin health studies: http://www.crcah.org.au/research/research_projects.html#HSRP

Community health worker Roslyn Dhurrkay and project leader Associate Professor Ross Andrews being interviewd by ABC reporter Laetitia Lemke	Tiwi kids impress Ruby League players with their footy skills	Group shot. Gordon Tallis is in there somewhere...

Nurse bouquets for CRCAH program

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) has used a CRCAH-supported project as an example of a nurse-led program that could help close the 17-year life expectancy gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The Improving the Culture of Hospitals project, which was headed by Flinders Medical Centre’s Monica Lawrence, aimed to improve the trajectory of Aboriginal patients coming into the Centre for cardiac treatment. The project finished in 2007.

In a media release put out on Close the Gap Day (21 April 2008), Ged Kearney, ANF Federal Secretary, highlighted Ms Lawrence’s work as “a positive example of how practical measures can deliver vast health improvements to Indigenous Australians”.

Under the project, a remote area cardiac liaison nurse ensured that Aboriginal patients from remote areas of South Australia were properly informed and physically prepared for cardiac surgery. This meant that all patients and their families understood the surgical process well in advance, and that they all attended hospital.

In the past less than 50% of these patients had surgery, either failing to present to hospital or having to be cancelled at the last minute.

Flinders Medical Centre has subsequently used the research findings to improve clinical practice for all its remote area Aboriginal patients.

For further information: http://www.crcah.org.au/research/do_you_understand.html

Finding a way through the conference maze

The plethora of conferences and symposiums around Indigenous health issues in recent years has caused some readers of Gwalwa-Gai to question the benefit of these conferences.

CRCAH Capacity Development Officer, Di Walker, has put together the following brief guide on how to choose which conference to attend……

Participating in conferences is an important part of researchers’ working lives, but with the increasing number of such events being marketed it can be difficult to work out which ones are worth attending.

One trend that has become more apparent in recent years is the growing number of conference organisers whose main motivation appears to be making money, and whose events have no real affiliation to professional researchers or research associations.

The CRCAH is very supportive of any conference where it is clear there will be real outcomes in terms of high-level peer discussions, research transfer and collaboration. However, due to the high costs involved and the amount of valuable time taken up by such events, it is important for researchers to do some homework before deciding to attend a conference.

The following checklist should help in reaching a decision about whether or not to attend a conference:

• What do you personally want to achieve out of the conference?
• What are you are going to contribute?
• Are there reputable speakers?
• Will your intellectual property be safe when you participate?
• Is it a safe environment and culturally appropriate?
• What sort of follow up can you expect after the conference?
• Is the conference associated with reputable organisations?
• Are the costs in line with similar conferences you have attended?
• Who is sponsoring the conference?

Things to watch out for:

• Check that speakers for the conference have been confirmed – don’t assume that a speaker has been confirmed just because their name is in the marketing material. You can always contact speakers direct to confirm their presence at the conference.
• Check the cost of the conference with fellow researchers if it seems high, and make sure you know how much money you can get back if you can’t attend for some reason. If the refund policy is not clear in the conference material, make sure you get it in writing before signing up.
• Be wary of conferences that look like ‘talk fests’ and don’t appear to have any follow up or proposed outcomes.
• Be wary of conferences whose main topic appears to be based on issues of media interest, and which appear to have ‘come out of nowhere’.

If you are still unsure about whether to attend a conference, use your networks and ask around. The most reputable conferences are generally flagged well in advance and other researchers are likely to be aware that they are taking place. Conversely, if no-one has heard of a particular conference, it may be one to avoid.

Darwin to host Indigenous women’s health meeting

Health professionals from across Australia will gather at the new Darwin Convention Centre on 14-16 August to focus specifically on Australian Indigenous women’s health.

Organised by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), the 2008 Australian Indigenous Women’s Health Meeting aims to bring together health professionals from across the country with a common interest in improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Delegates will gain information on what’s happening in different regions of the country, as well as being informed on broader issues. The meeting will also provide a forum to develop valuable networks, and assist the College in developing a more active role in improving the health of Indigenous women.

To find out more about the meeting: www.ranzcog.edu.au/meetingsconferences/iwh.shtml
or contact Kylie Grose kgrose@ranzcog.edu.au or by phone on 03 9412 2922.

Central Australian male health summit

Up to 300 Aboriginal men from communities all over Central Australia will gather at the Ross River homestead outside Alice Springs on June 30 to work on all aspects of their roles as husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers and sons.

The ‘Taking Care of Our Children, Taking the Next Steps’ summit has been organised by Central Australian Aboriginal Congress to assist Aboriginal men deal with the issues raised by the “Little Children Are Sacred” report, which led onto the current NT emergency intervention.

As well as helping men to acknowledge the effects of negative behaviour and adverse lifestyle choices on their families and children, the summit also aims to provide information on services and resources available to them to help them manage change.

On the fourth day of the summit – July 3 – the campground venue will be opened up to health workers, politicians and media so that they can witness first hand the efforts being made by Aboriginal men to regain control of their lives and communities.

For more information on the summit, phone Colin Cowell on 08-8950 0114, email to malehealthinfo@caac.org.au or visit www.caac.org.au/male_health.

New global group for Indigenous Studies scholars

The second Native American and Indigenous Studies Conference was held earlier this year in Georgia, USA. The conference, for scholars who work in American Indian/ Native American/ First Nations/ Aboriginal/ Indigenous Studies gathering attracted over 400 people from the USA, Canada, Hawaii, Chile, New Zealand and Australia.

The aim of the conference was to offer a chance for participants to present work to a bigger audience and to explore the possibility of creating a multi-disciplinary academic association for scholars who work in American Indian/ Native American/ First Nations/ Aboriginal/ Indigenous Studies. The vision put forward by Robert Warrior was for an academic association that can legitimise and institutionalise the work of our field. To date there has not been such an international association.

The participants resolved that:

• the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association be established;
• the next conference would be held on 21-23 May 2009 and be hosted by the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; and
• that we elect by a formal ballot a committee for the Association.

Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Indigenous Studies Research Network, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) was elected the Association’s Chairperson of the Nominating Committee (that is, the Committee that will oversee the election of the Association’s first Board of Directors). Membership of the new Association was set at US$10 for individual membership per year.

There was one Australian panel session at the conference. The session, titled ‘Indigenous Studies: The Australian Context’, consisted of papers presented by Prof. Aileen Moreton-Robinson (‘Taking Ground, the War on White Possession’), Ms Sandra Phillips (‘Reading the Reader of Indigenous Literature’) and Dr Bronwyn Fredericks (‘Disciplining Health Professionals’). Mr Kelly Roberts chaired the panel and facilitated the dialogue and questions that followed.

Details of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Conference for 2009 are already posted at http://www.instituteofnativeamericanstudies.com/NAIS-2008/NAISindex.html/, as is the call for papers. Wouldn’t it be great to have more than one Australian panel next year!

Prestigious award for Fran Baum

Fran Baum with Mick Gooda

CRCAH’s Social Determinants of Health Program Leader, Professor Fran Baum, who is also the Head of Department of Public Health at Flinders University, has been awarded a Federation Fellowship. The sought-after fellowships are awarded by the Australian Research Council to outstanding researchers of international renown, and are designed to attract and retain their services within Australian research institutions.

Professor Roy Goldie, Executive Dean of Flinders University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, paid tribute to Professor Baum’s “outstanding success”.

“Fran’s very high profile nationally and internationally and the clear potential for her work and that of her team to induce further, highly significant improvements in community health outcomes as a result of the better understanding of the social determinants of health, have been key to this success,” Professor Goldie said.

He added that Professor Baum’s Federation Fellowship was “the first ever made to a staff member at Flinders University” and was thus “a particularly important occasion for celebration and congratulation.”

From all of us at CRCAH, well done Fran!

In memory of Dr Marika

It was with a deep sense of sadness and loss that many involved in the Aboriginal health sector and the broader Top End community reacted when they learned of the death of Dr Marika, one of the foremost Aboriginal women leaders in north-east Arnhem Land.

In her life Dr Marika was many things – scholar, teacher, communicator, translator, cultural defender, eco-warrior, wife, mother and grandmother. More than anything, Dr Marika was a bridge between the two worlds of her traditional Yolngu culture and the wider Australian community.

As a member of the renowned Marika family whose Rirratjingu heartlands took in the community of Yirrkala, from an early age Dr Marika was immersed in the land rights struggle led by her father Roy. From this she drew an awareness of the importance of a strong cultural identity to a person’s ability to lead a productive and healthy life, and it was this awareness that lay at the core of her life’s mission.

She, along with her late husband Mr Mununggurritj, was a founding member of the Dhimurru Land Management Corporation which is widely regarded as a template for a successful Aboriginal-managed organisation.

She was also much in demand as a translator and lecturer but somehow managed to fit in being a director of Reconciliation Australia and the Yothu Yindi Foundation as well as being a member of the Council of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Most recently Dr Marika was a participant in the Rudd Government’s 2020 Summit.

Despite her many interests Dr Marika always placed her home community of Yirrkala at the centre of her life, and it was to Yirrkala that she returned in the final days of her life after being treated for a heart condition in Darwin. It was while out hunting and fishing with her family on her traditional lands over the weekend of 10-11 May that Dr Marika passed away, aged just 49.

The Board and staff of CRCAH express our deepest sympathy to Dr Marika’s family.

New Website for Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation

The CRC for Aboriginal Health’s communication unit is currently working with the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (WDNWPT) to develop a website.

WDNWPT is a not for profit organisation that was set up to address the need for a culturally appropriate dialysis services in remote communities.

According to WDNWPT Manager, Sarah Brown, WDNWPT receives many enquiries from health professionals, members of the public, students and community organisations as well as potential funding bodies seeking information.

“As a small community-based organisation we’ve often struggled to meet the ongoing demand for information with our limited resources but with the support of the CRCAH in creating a website this information will now be available at the click of a finger” Sarah told Gwalwa-Gai. “The new website will mean people who are really interested in getting involved will be able to gain a broader understanding of the organisation.”

The new website will be online in the coming weeks at: www.wdnwpt.org.au