CRCAH Partner, the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and Sunrise Health Service in Katherine have been recognised in Reconciliation Australia’s inaugural Indigenous Good Governance awards.

The two Aboriginal Medical Services received achievement awards and $5,000 from Reconciliation Australia’s director Mick Dodson at a Melbourne function in late August.

Significantly, four of the eight finalists were Aboriginal Medical Services with Maroochydore’s North Coast Aboriginal Corporation for Health and Maari Ma Health in Broken Hill joining Sunrise and Congress in the final eight.

Reconciliation Australia’s Professor Mick Dodson said good governance and management is particularly important for the Aboriginal health sector.

“Too many of our people don't have a healthy life”, said Professor Dodson. “More than any other Indigenous organisations health services have to have good governance because what they deal with is life and death. Their successes and failures have such a great impact on the community.”

Congress President, Robert Le Rossignol said the organisation felt honoured to win the Achievement Award. “At Congress we’re doing our best to improve our people’s health in Central Australia. We work hard at practicing good governance in decision-making and strategic planning and it’s always nice to get a pat on the back and have our work recognised,” Mr Le Rossignol said.

In summarising Congress’s award the judges nominated the “confident, able Board that clearly understands its roles and responsibilities and undertakes governance training once a year” and described Congress as being “highly regarded among stakeholders for its professionalism and standing in the local Aboriginal community”.

Sunrise CEO, Irene Fisher, told Intranews that the award was a matter of great pride for her and the community. She said that good governance was an essential component of successful health delivery. “Good and effective representation directly affects the outcomes for the community in the tasks expected of the organisation,” said Irene.

She said the awards recognised organisations as being leaders in good governance not only in the Aboriginal community but across the whole community sector.

“We are demonstrating to all that good governance is an integral part of achieving success and as Mick Dodson indicated in one interview, Aboriginal people do make good decisions, many of them, and there are many organisations out there that do so."

In recognition of the importance of good governance in achieving improved outcomes in Indigenous health the CRCAH funds a project exploring the governance and management issues faced by managers of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services.

The project, Learning from Action: Management of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Services is based on a belief that managers of such health services know what the challenges are and have insights to share which are invaluable to the development of better practice and policy in Indigenous health.

It is envisaged that the project will help health services to keep their governance and management practices strong, and will inform future research to ensure that that it is useful and relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations.

For further information contact Project Officer Shirley Godwin: S.Godwin@latrobe.edu.au

Three new reports point to continued Aboriginal disadvantage

The Public Health Association of Australia is to be commended for assisting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and associated workers to attend significant health events.

In July the Peoples Health Assembly held their second Assembly in Cuenca Ecuador. The People’s Health Assembly is an international congress of people concerned about the growing inequities in health globally, nationally, regionally and locally. The PHAA, in conjunction with the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, sponsored four Indigenous health leaders to attend. They included CRCAH Chair, Pat Anderson from the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance in the Northern Territory and Stephanie Bell, CRCAH Board member and CEO of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Bronwyn Fredricks from the Bidgerdi Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service, and Peter Waples-Crowe from the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.

The sponsorship has both provided the Assembly with a voice from Indigenous Australians, articulating the need for better health, justice and equity, and reaffirmed the rights of Indigenous people to be involved in decisions, including research priorities that affect Aboriginal health.

CRCAH Chair Pat Anderson welcomed the opportunity to attend. “It is rare that Indigenous people from around the world are afforded the opportunity to meet and debate issues that have such a significant effect on them as does health. It is only by participating in such assemblies that we are able to discuss local, national and global systems, through which the determinants of health, especially Aboriginal community health, is affected.”

A statement from the Australian Aboriginal delegation was issued in English and Spanish to the Assembly.

For copies of the statement contact AMSANT: reception@amsant.com.au

Since the last edition of Intranews three significant reports relating to Aboriginal health have been released. The first, released on July 12, was the Productivity Commission’s (PC) 2nd Report on Indigenous Disadvantage.

The yearly report was commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments and aims to provide indicators of Indigenous disadvantage that can demonstrate the effectiveness of program and policy interventions.
Chair of the PC Steering Committee responsible for the report, Gary Banks, said that the gap between Indigenous and other Australians was still wide.

To view report click here

The second report was the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) “The Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples”. The ABS report covers data collected by the ABS itself and, where possible, identifies changes over time in the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians.

The ABS report includes information on education, employment, housing, disability and ageing and mothers and children.

To view report click here

A report on Indigenous data developments and information governance arrangements will be available later this year from the ABS web site: www.abs.gov.au.

July also saw the release of the Expenditures on health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2001 – 02 jointly published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Department of Health and Ageing.

This report is the third comprehensive analysis of expenditures on health for Indigenous people. It examines expenditures in 2001 – 02 on health for Indigenous people and compares it with health expenditures for the rest of the Australia population.

The full report can be accessed electronically at: www.aihw.gov.au.

One of the CRCAH’s principle challenges is the timely transfer of research results to industry and the Aboriginal communities that will most benefit from such research.

As part of its research transfer efforts the CRCAH-funded Sharing the True Stories project recently completed its Mosey Around Arnhemland tour to discuss with Yolngu communities the research outcomes from this important project…

…the ancient sound of the yidaki is a call to all people to come together in unity; to gather for the sharing of knowledge and culture; to learn and listen to one another…

Sharing the True Stories (STTS) is a collaboration of a multi-disciplinary group of participants who have been working together to identify the gaps in communication in the health care setting and develop and implement strategies to help bridge these gaps.

The initial location of the collaboration was the Nightcliff haemodialysis unit in Darwin, however over time participation has spread to multiple health care sites across the Northern Territory.
Betty Marrngganyin, Helen Guyula, Alice Mitchell and Bhavini Patel participated in the Garma Festival as part of the STTS Mosey around Arnhemland earlier this month.

Garma, hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, allows the gathering of Yolngu and Napaki (non-Yolngu people) to discuss issues of importance and provide a contemporary environment to encourage the practice of Bunggul (traditional dance), Manikay (song) art and ceremony

The STTS team spent time developing relationships with the senior Yolngu ladies who were hosting the Gongwapitja (women's cultural practices). The Gongwapitja provided an opportunity for exchange between the wide spectrum of women from different backgrounds, states and countries. We participated in the preparation of natural fibres for weaving and in healing sessions including the use of plants at a shelter constructed at a traditional site.

Betty called a session one afternoon and we spoke to around forty women about the STTS project. Betty spoke about the high incidence of kidney disease and the importance of Yolngu and Napaki working together in the way we have worked together in the STTS project and also of the need to communicate this to the wider community. The women were also shown some of the resources that have been developed, including the DVDs. The ensuing discussion occurred in both English and Yolngu Matha to cater for the multilingual audience.

Bhavini Patel organised a morning talk with about 30 people attending Garma as part of a 'world expedition' tour. We discussed the nature of miscommunication as highlighted by the STTS project and explored the effect of language, world view and culture has on people's ability to make choices and on the concepts of holistic healthcare in Australia. This opened a wide ranging debate on the causes of illness in Aboriginal Australians, the differences between healthcare delivery in Australia and other countries, and the relevance of this project in the reconciliation process.

Attending Garma allowed the STTS team to create and strengthen relationships with Yolngu elders and others, as well as raise awareness of the impact that miscommunication has in cross-cultural interaction in the wider national and international community.

The reports from STTS stage one and two are being prepared for publication and will be launched in mid-November.

For further information:
bhavini.patel@nt.gov.au
www.sharingtruestories.com

STTS team members, Helen Guylua, (on left) Betty Marrnganyin (in car) Alice Mitchell (on right) at Garma festival 2005.

Above: As part of the STTS project a series of booklets explaining western bio-medical concepts to Yolngu have been produced.