Presentation 1: The 2023 Australian Voice to Parliament

Abstract:  The failure of the 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum highlighted and deepened existing racist attitudes and institutions in Australia.  Data from two national studies reveal misconceptions and othering as key predictors of “No” votes, emphasising the urgent need to empower Indigenous self-determination, foster allyship, and advance recognition, truth, and justice. 

Biography:  Olivia Evans is a Gomeroi woman who was born and raised in Newcastle, NSW on Awabakal land. She was awarded a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Newcastle in 2019 and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University within the School of Medicine and Psychology. Olivia’s research primarily focuses on inequality, the social and cultural determinants of health, and prejudice and racism in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. 

Presentation 2: Reflections from a Jawun secondment at Moorundi

Abstract: This presentation is a reflection of some key lessons learned while undertaking a Jawun secondment at Moorundi – and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service providing holistic care across the whole Ngurrindjeri Country. Specifically, I will outline:

1. My  practice of Ngarrindjeri weaving (and how it gets me through long meetings!),
2. How my approach to academia has improved through a decolonising mindset, and
3. The importance of using our privilege to build community (and what this might mean if we withdraw from our Jawun partnership) 

Biography: Brett Scholz is a critical health psychologist. While he does not work from a lived experience perspective, the majority of his 100+ publications to date have been co-produced with and/or co-authored by lived experience researchers, and his research program is concerned broadly with lived experience leadership in health policy, health services, health research, and health education. Brett has served as a Board Member for the ACT Mental Health Consumer Network and holds editorial roles at the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, Qualitative Health Research, Psychology of Men & Masculinities, and the International Mad Studies Journal. When not thinking about reforming health systems to bring about more lived experience leadership, he can be found on the hunt for the best bánh cuốn, sipping matcha latte, or growing & harvesting rushes for Ngarrindjeri weaving. 

Presentation 3: Galiwin’ku diabetes family care project  

Abstract: This project is exploring culturally safe and resonant intervention points for type 2 diabetes prevention and management, in order to inform the future co-design of a community-based approach to care. In this place-based project located in the community of Galiwin’ku in north-east Arnhem Land, through a two-way knowledge exchange I am collaborating with Yolŋu leaders and caregivers: Joy Bulkanhawuy, Sally Wotha and Nathan Garrawurra. We are also working in partnership with local community-controlled health services: Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation and the Machado Joseph Disease Foundation. By deploying approaches from applied medical anthropology and Yolŋu knowledge practice, our research locates diabetes and its management within contexts of family and care. It aims to explore how future approaches to diabetes care could embody a Yolŋu praxis of djalkiri rom (foundational law/ways of being) associated with gurruṯu (kinship), wetj (sharing) and Wäŋa (Country). I will outline the research approach and share a work-in-progress update. 

Biography: Dr Stefanie Puszka is a medical anthropologist and research fellow within SMP’s Social Foundations of Medicine group exploring the interconnections between care, health and policy in collaboration with Indigenous communities. She has been working with Indigenous collaborators in the Northern Territory for over 16 years, and has long-standing relationships with Yolŋu people from north-east Arnhem Land and a basic proficiency in Djambarrpuyŋu and Gupapuyŋu (two Yolŋu languages). By undertaking both critical and applied research projects, she aspires to understand and support her collaborators’ efforts to address injustice and inequity in their communities through a two-way knowledge exchange praxis. Stef’s PhD dissertation on the moral economies of care that emerge through an epidemic of kidney disease in Indigenous communities was awarded the Australian Anthropological Society’s prize for best PhD thesis of 2022. She is currently leading the evaluation of the NDIS alternative commissioning pilots in Indigenous and remote communities across Australia. Her research interests include caregiving, chronic disease, disability, aged care, Indigenous economy, social housing, social security, gender and governmentality. She spreads her time between the Florey Building and ANU’s North Australia Research Unit in Darwin.