Locate our research
Nationwide
Indigenous Memoir and Cultural Memory
Examining the role of Indigenous memoir in re-negoitating cultural identities and increasing solidarity during the 1980s when Aboriginal Australians experienced setbacks in their quest for the restoration of their land rights.
Indigenous Australians and the Media
This research focused upon the role of the media in the production and circulation of stereotypes that holds racism in place.
Assessment of quality in specialist palliative care service delivery for Indigenous Australians
Investigating equity of quality-of-care indicators among Indigenous compared with non-Indigenous patients with a life-limiting illness, who were provided care by palliative care services participating in the national Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC).
Corporate Reconciliation Action Plan Use
Examining the use of Reconciliation Action Plans within the Australian resources sector over the past decade.
Let's CHAT: Community Health Approaches to Dementia in Indigenous Communities
This co-designed project looks to improve community health approaches to dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The project is working with 12 Aboriginal community controlled health services across Australia to improve the detection of cognitive impairment and dementia, dementia care and brain health in primary care.
Human Services Data Project
Developing key data to assist in the evaluation of demand, delivery and outcomes in the areas of aged care, disability services and general human services at all levels.
Nyingarn: a platform for primary sources in Australian Indigenous languages
This project aims to build Nyingarn, an online platform of digital text versions of early Australian Indigenous language manuscripts with images of the original documents. There are over a thousand such documents that are foundational to understanding Australia's languages, and Nyingarn makes textual versions, accessions, and navigates such documents, with a means for adding more in future. Expected outcomes of this project are accessible sources useful for educational materials, and for understanding the local language, its history, and its relationship to other languages. Nyingarn will provide cutting-edge methods for ingesting, analysing, and presenting these historical materials, both for research and for the general public.
Recirculating Indigenous traveling songs
This project aims to develop new understandings of how unrestricted Indigenous traveling songs have spread across vast geographic and linguistic boundaries in Australia, investigating ways these songs can contribute to greater social connectedness today. It intends to energise collaborative networks across Indigenous communities, language centres, and holding institutions around the world.
Western Australia
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Statewide
The assessment and prevalence of dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Kimberley region
This landmark study involved in the development and validation of a culturally appropriate cognitive assessment tool, Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (KICA). It was designed to counter a shortage of appropriate screening tools for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly in remote areas.
Mammographic density as a predictor of breast cancer risk and mortality in Western Australian Aboriginal women
NDIS Remote Allied Health Services Delivery
Focusing on the key inhibitors and challenges in delivering allied health services and supports into remote communities in the Northern Territory, North West of Western Australia, North South Australia and Far North Queensland.
Regional and Remote Not-for-profit Success Stories
Five cases focusing on successful policy formulation and implementation in Indigenous communities in the areas of Employment, Disability Services, Aged Care, Child Protection and Women's Protection.
Partnership Grant: Enhancing Rehabilitation Services For Aboriginal Australians After Brain Injury
This project involved implementation of the first culturally secure intervention package for Aboriginal survivors of brain impairment in Australia. Stroke and traumatic brain injury occur significantly more frequently in Aboriginal populations, yet Aboriginal people are under-represented in rehabilitation programs. The project aims to improve accessibility to rehabilitation, improve health outcomes, and establish an economic model contributing to sustainability and planning of future services.
Dementia prevention and risk Management Program for Aboriginal Australians (DAMPAA)
The Dementia prevention and risk Management Program for Aboriginal Australians aims to produce a Aboriginal Health Practitioner coordinated program to reduce cognitive decline in Aboriginal people aged 45 years and over. It is being evaluated through a randomised controlled trial at three Western Australian Aboriginal community controlled health services and targets key dementia risk factors, including physical inactivity, falls, head injury, cardiovascular factors.
Defining and Defeating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Disadvantage In Breast Cancer Survival
Examining whether there is a higher proportion of more aggressive breast cancer types in Indigenous women compared to non-Indigenous women and whether less treatment is received despite this potentially higher risk.
Shakespeare on the Noongar Stage: Language Revival and Hecate
Impacted by colonialism and suppressed until the 1970s, the Noongar language of the southwest of Western Australia is endangered, yet it thrives here in this work, adapted by Kylie Bracknell, performed by a full Noongar cast, and presented at Perth Festival, 2020.
Making social cohesion ecocentric through Indigenous language and song
This project develops Indigenous language and song in ways that reframe and Indigenise social cohesion, expanding it from a human-centric policy goal to include connections with everything in Country.
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Gascoyne
Desert People: Australian Perspectives
This project will bring innovative science and Indigenous knowledge together to develop new understandings of the 60,000 year custodianship of Australian deserts. The archaeology will focus on the Ningaloo coast, Pilbara and Western Desert. This globally significant human record is poorly documented and at risk. The Desert People programme will work with Traditional Owners and use novel techniques to document places of the highest value for their management and protection. This will result in vastly improved planning outcomes.
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Goldfields-Esperance
Wanarn Painters
Collaborating with remote Aboriginal art centres to write art histories of artists working in remote Australia.
Ethnobotanical survey at West Angelas
Creating a new cultural understanding of the West Angelas landscape. Engaging Yinhawangka elders and young people in plant knowledge, and helping Rio Tinto address social impacts in its environmental assessments.
The Canning Stock Route Project
The recognition, interpretation and management of significant rock art and related dreaming (Jukurrpa) sites on the Canning Stock Route, Western Australia
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Great Southern
Aboriginal Landscape Transformations
Combining archaeological, palaeo-environmental, historical and oral records to investigate Aboriginal use and management of lands in south-western Australia in the recent past and to use this information for present day land management practices.
ORCHID Study: Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators of Diabetes
Maternal hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) is a significant intergenerational issue. We established the Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators for Diabetes in pregnancy (ORCHID) study to improve predicting the development of and screening for HIP in regional, rural and remote communities in Western Australia (WA). A collaborative research project between the Rural Clinical School of WA and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, aimed at improving screening for hyperglycaemia (high blood-glucose levels) in pregnancy.
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Kimberly
Dating the Aboriginal rock art of the Kimberley region, Western Australia
Using the most advanced dating techniques available to determine a sequence of ages for this ancient cultural record, increasing its recognition as a heritage site of international significance.
Kimberley Empowerment Healing and Leadership evaluation
This project will use participatory action research methods to evaluate and enhance the Kimberley Empowerment, Healing and Leadership Program (KEHLP).
Kimberley Visions
Kimberley Visions is a 5-year multidisciplinary and collaborative archaeological project investigating 50,000 years of human life through the many rock art traditions of the East Kimberley. Working with Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Traditional Owners, Rangers, and partners the fieldwork has yielded the location and recording of >1400 sites covering rock painting, engravings, marking, stone quarries, occupation sites, burials, stone arrangements, standing stones, cached material culture, ochre sources, and sites of memory.
NDIS Equity in Access
Evaluating NDIA funded roles that are delivered in the Kimberley region to support Aboriginal people's access to NDIS.
Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing
Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing (TIMHWB) is a ground-breaking research program transforming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health care through Aboriginal leadership and authentic partnerships with Aboriginal organisations.
Defining and predicting Healthy Ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Populations (HATS)
Defining and predicting Healthy Ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Populations.
Promoting vitamin D sufficiency among Aboriginal people through dietary strategies and safe sun exposure
A quantum leap in our understanding of vitamin D which will be a critical, community-driven enabler of new public health nutrition strategies and sun safe messaging for Aboriginal people.
ORCHID Study: Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators of Diabetes
Maternal hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) is a significant intergenerational issue. We established the Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators for Diabetes in pregnancy (ORCHID) study to improve predicting the development of and screening for HIP in regional, rural and remote communities in Western Australia (WA). A collaborative research project between the Rural Clinical School of WA and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, aimed at improving screening for hyperglycaemia (high blood-glucose levels) in pregnancy.
The 'Clinical Guidelines for the Physical Care of Mental Health Consumers' Multi-site Service Evaluation Pilot Project
The assessment and monitoring package was provided to different mental health services in different contexts across WA to evaluate the effectiveness of the package. As poor physical health is a major issue for Indigenous Australians, there was enormous benefit in their inclusion in the evaluation to promote better physical and mental health.
KMMS Project: Enhancing mental health screening approaches for perinatal Aboriginal women
The Kimberley Mum's Mood Scale (KMMS) project emerged from the concerns of Kimberley healthcare professionals that the mainstream perinatal depression and anxiety screening tool, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), was inappropriate for Aboriginal women.
Be Healthy: Implementing culturally secure programs for obesity and chronic disease prevention with remote Aboriginal communities and families
Aboriginal people from several Kimberley communities have requested support for implementing culturally secure lifestyle modification programs that foster internal motivation, enhance health knowledge, and modify health beliefs and risk perception. We codesigned, piloted and refined the ‘Be Healthy’ program with Derby Aboriginal people. This community-led initiative will be adapted using a similar codesign process with other Aboriginal communities, implemented on a large scale over 5 years and evaluated. This project will empower Aboriginal people to increase exercise levels, improve nutrition and reduce obesity.
Investigating progression to type 2 diabetes among Kimberley Aboriginal people to improve screening and prevention
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a much higher burden of Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Around one third of Aboriginal adults in the Kimberley region have T2D, which is increasingly occurring at younger ages among Aboriginal people compared with non-Indigenous people. This quality improvement project aims to improve our understanding of the quality of screening for diabetes in the Kimberley region, and factors influencing progression to T2D.
The Canning Stock Route Project
The recognition, interpretation and management of significant rock art and related dreaming (Jukurrpa) sites on the Canning Stock Route, Western Australia
Desert People: Australian Perspectives
This project will bring innovative science and Indigenous knowledge together to develop new understandings of the 60,000 year custodianship of Australian deserts. The archaeology will focus on the Ningaloo coast, Pilbara and Western Desert. This globally significant human record is poorly documented and at risk. The Desert People programme will work with Traditional Owners and use novel techniques to document places of the highest value for their management and protection. This will result in vastly improved planning outcomes.
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Mid West
Changing Conversations about Family and Domestic Violence
Healthways Conversations for Change has several elements to it including community surveys of attitudes, communication strategies to assist local orgnanisations to communicate their commitment to gender equity and a violence free society and analysis of media coverage of family and domestic violence in the Geraldton media.
Aboriginal English in the global city: Minorities and language change
Documenting patterns of variation and change in metropolitan Aboriginal English. The first quantitative study of how Aboriginal English storytelling functions cross-generationally.
Hearing the voices: Indigenous ways of knowing and Aboriginal English yarning
Understanding the cultural practice of Aboriginal English yarning - a form of storytelling/conversation. The findings will inform existing medical, educational and legal practice, ensuring a better future for Indigenous Australians.
ORCHID Study: Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators of Diabetes
Maternal hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) is a significant intergenerational issue. We established the Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators for Diabetes in pregnancy (ORCHID) study to improve predicting the development of and screening for HIP in regional, rural and remote communities in Western Australia (WA). A collaborative research project between the Rural Clinical School of WA and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, aimed at improving screening for hyperglycaemia (high blood-glucose levels) in pregnancy.
Desert People: Australian Perspectives
This project will bring innovative science and Indigenous knowledge together to develop new understandings of the 60,000 year custodianship of Australian deserts. The archaeology will focus on the Ningaloo coast, Pilbara and Western Desert. This globally significant human record is poorly documented and at risk. The Desert People programme will work with Traditional Owners and use novel techniques to document places of the highest value for their management and protection. This will result in vastly improved planning outcomes.
Prediction of First Nations women at high risk of preterm birth using vaginal bacterial biomarkers
Nationally, 14% of babies born to First Nations mothers are preterm, compared with 8% from non-First Nations mothers. One of the leading causes of early preterm birth is bacterial infection; this is also one of the hardest to predict. This team have developed a vaginal microbial DNA test which delivers more accurate prediction.
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Perth
Indigenous Business Contracting in the W.A Mining Sector
Examining the emergence of Indigenous business contracting in the Western Australian mining sector, with a particular focus on privately-owned firms identifying as Indigenous.
Ngulluk Koolunga Ngulluk Koort (Our Children, Our Heart) Project
Raising strong, healthy, confident and resilient children and informing service providers and policy makers on the development of culturally appropriate strategies to improve outcomes for young Aboriginal children and their families.
Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing
Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing (TIMHWB) is a ground-breaking research program transforming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health care through Aboriginal leadership and authentic partnerships with Aboriginal organisations.
Promoting vitamin D sufficiency among Aboriginal people through dietary strategies and safe sun exposure
A quantum leap in our understanding of vitamin D which will be a critical, community-driven enabler of new public health nutrition strategies and sun safe messaging for Aboriginal people.
Defining and predicting Healthy Ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Populations (HATS)
Defining and predicting Healthy Ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Populations.
Ngulluk Koolunga Ngulluk Koort Early Years Education Support (EYES) Project
The EYES Program represents a unique opportunity to work with Aboriginal children, parents, families, community and early years education providers to develop and implement an intervention/support program to increase attendance and education for Aboriginal children from pre-Kindergarten into Year 1.
In Their Own Voice
Evaluating the Heart Health program at Derbarl Yerrigan. The program is a culturally sensitive cardiac rehabilitation program run at the local Aboriginal Medical Service in Perth.
50 Lives 50 Homes
Aboriginal Australians are highly over-represented within homeless statistics, especially with regards to chronic rough sleeping.
This program aims to house and support the most vulnerable rough sleepers in Perth.
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Pilbara
Indigenous Business Contracting in the W.A Mining Sector
Examining the emergence of Indigenous business contracting in the Western Australian mining sector, with a particular focus on privately-owned firms identifying as Indigenous.
The Barrow Island Archaeology Project
The overall aim of the project was the investigation of coastal societies of north-west Australia and behavioural responses to changing sea levels, coastal productivity and isolation. ARC completed 2016.
Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming
The project aims to provide research support for the protection and understanding of the world’s largest rock art galleries of Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) and the Dampier Archipelago.
Ethnobotanical survey at West Angelas
Creating a new cultural understanding of the West Angelas landscape. Engaging Yinhawangka elders and young people in plant knowledge, and helping Rio Tinto address social impacts in its environmental assessments.
Enhancing mental health screening for perinatal Aboriginal women
Utilising Kimberley Mum?s Mood Scale (KMMS), this study aims to improve screening for, and contribute to addressing, mental health issues during pregnancy and the first 12 months after the birth of the baby.
KMMS Project: Enhancing mental health screening approaches for perinatal Aboriginal women
The Kimberley Mum's Mood Scale (KMMS) project emerged from the concerns of Kimberley healthcare professionals that the mainstream perinatal depression and anxiety screening tool, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), was inappropriate for Aboriginal women.
The Martu Native Title Determination
10 years of PT fieldwork, report writing and community consultations towards the successful granting of exclusive native title over 136,000 square square km by (then) Justice French of the Federal Court. 30 years of site documentation, ethnography on country and heritage reports.
Desert People: Australian Perspectives
This project will bring innovative science and Indigenous knowledge together to develop new understandings of the 60,000 year custodianship of Australian deserts. The archaeology will focus on the Ningaloo coast, Pilbara and Western Desert. This globally significant human record is poorly documented and at risk. The Desert People programme will work with Traditional Owners and use novel techniques to document places of the highest value for their management and protection. This will result in vastly improved planning outcomes.
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South West
Aboriginal Landscape Transformations
Combining archaeological, palaeo-environmental, historical and oral records to investigate Aboriginal use and management of lands in south-western Australia in the recent past and to use this information for present day land management practices.
Ancient DNA from cave sediments: a new horizon in the archaeology of Aboriginal Australia
Enhancing our knowledge of Aboriginal use of plants and animals, and a deeper understanding of past hunter-gatherer practices and traditional relationships with the land.
Wellbeing and Mental Health of Australian Indigenous youth
Better understanding Australian Indigenous youth perspectives on mental health and wellbeing. Health care providers and GPs will be better equipped to engage with and provide mental health care to indigenous youth.
How Indigenous burning changed Country
Investigating important claims that Indigenous burning influenced past Australian environments. The project aims to benefit conservation and land management and help identify the role of Indigenous contributions.
ORCHID Study: Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators of Diabetes
Maternal hyperglycaemia in pregnancy (HIP) is a significant intergenerational issue. We established the Optimisation of Rural Clinical and Haematological Indicators for Diabetes in pregnancy (ORCHID) study to improve predicting the development of and screening for HIP in regional, rural and remote communities in Western Australia (WA). A collaborative research project between the Rural Clinical School of WA and the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services, aimed at improving screening for hyperglycaemia (high blood-glucose levels) in pregnancy.
South Australia
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State-wide South Australia
NDIS Remote Allied Health Services Delivery
Focusing on the key inhibitors and challenges in delivering allied health services and supports into remote communities in the Northern Territory, North West of Western Australia, North South Australia and Far North Queensland.
Northern Territory
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State-wide Northern Territory
NDIS Readiness Northern Territory
Delivering timely, sustainable and efficient disability services across the Northern Territory.
NDIS Remote Allied Health Services Delivery
Focusing on the key inhibitors and challenges in delivering allied health services and supports into remote communities in the Northern Territory, North West of Western Australia, North South Australia and Far North Queensland.
Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia
The collection of new data in six endangered languages, with significant benefits for the maintenance of Indigenous languages and cultures.
Northern Territory State of the Sector Report 2020
Examining the sustainability of human services delivery of non-profit organisations in the Northern Territory.
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East Arnhem
Enhancing mental health screening for perinatal Aboriginal women
Utilising Kimberley Mum's Mood Scale (KMMS), this study aims to improve screening for, and contribute to addressing, mental health issues during pregnancy and the first 12 months after the birth of the baby.
KMMS Project: Enhancing mental health screening approaches for perinatal Aboriginal women
The Kimberley Mum's Mood Scale (KMMS) project emerged from the concerns of Kimberley healthcare professionals that the mainstream perinatal depression and anxiety screening tool, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), was inappropriate for Aboriginal women.
Prediction of First Nations women at high risk of preterm birth using vaginal bacterial biomarkers
Nationally, 14% of babies born to First Nations mothers are preterm, compared with 8% from non-First Nations mothers. One of the leading causes of early preterm birth is bacterial infection; this is also one of the hardest to predict. This team have developed a vaginal microbial DNA test which delivers more accurate prediction.
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Roper Gulf
A Culturally Informed Corpus of Dalabon: Descriptions of the Person as a Body and as Kin
Contributing to the documentation of a language that has less than three speakers left.
The language of emotions in barunga kriol: towards an australian typology
Comparing the language of emotions in Dalabon, an Australian non-Pama-Nyungan language (Gunwinyguan family) and Barunga Kriol, the variety of Australian creole spoken by the descendants of Dalabon speakers.
Can the language we speak change the way we feel? Emotions, language and culture in Arnhem Land (Australia, Katherine region)
Improving maternal child health systems in the Kimberley.
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West Arnhem
History Places: Wellington Range rock art in global context
The project aims to investigate one of Australia's most extraordinary bodies of rock art, spread across Arnhem Land's Wellington Range, in order to answer important archaeological research questions, provide Traditional Owners with a comprehensive digital record of their rock art heritage and develop a long term management plan.
Can the language we speak change the way we feel? Emotions, language and culture in Arnhem Land (Australia, Katherine region)
Improving maternal child health systems in the Kimberley.
Pathways Rock Art Project
Pathways Rock Art Project focuses on rock art in today?s Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Art at a crossroads: Aboriginal responses to contact in northern Australia
Investigating historical Aboriginal responses to `contact? with newcomers to their land.
Queensland
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State-wide Queensland
NDIS Remote Allied Health Services Delivery
Focusing on the key inhibitors and challenges in delivering allied health services and supports into remote communities in the Northern Territory, North West of Western Australia, North South Australia and Far North Queensland.
Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia
The collection of new data in six endangered languages, with significant benefits for the maintenance of Indigenous languages and cultures.
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Queensland (North)
Enhancing mental health screening for perinatal Aboriginal women
Utilising Kimberley Mum's Mood Scale (KMMS), this study aims to improve screening for, and contribute to addressing, mental health issues during pregnancy and the first 12 months after the birth of the baby.
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Queensland (South)
Wanarn Painters
Collaborating with remote Aboriginal art centres to write art histories of artists working in remote Australia.
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Torres Strait
Wanarn Painters
Collaborating with remote Aboriginal art centres to write art histories of artists working in remote Australia.
Victoria
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Melbourne
Defining and predicting Healthy Ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Populations (HATS)
Defining and predicting Healthy Ageing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Populations.
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Yarra Ranges
Wanarn Painters
Collaborating with remote Aboriginal art centres to write art histories of artists working in remote Australia.
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Across Australia
Indigenous Memoir and Cultural Memory
Examining the role of Indigenous memoir in re-negoitating cultural identities and increasing solidarity during the 1980s when Aboriginal Australians experienced setbacks in their quest for the restoration of their land rights.
Indigenous Australians and the Media
This research focused upon the role of the media in the production and circulation of stereotypes that holds racism in place.
Assessment of quality in specialist palliative care service delivery for Indigenous Australians
Investigating equity of quality-of-care indicators among Indigenous compared with non-Indigenous patients with a life-limiting illness, who were provided care by palliative care services participating in the national Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC).
Corporate Reconciliation Action Plan Use
Examining the use of Reconciliation Action Plans within the Australian resources sector over the past decade.
Let's CHAT: Community Health Approaches to Dementia in Indigenous Communities
This co-designed project looks to improve community health approaches to dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The project is working with 12 Aboriginal community controlled health services across Australia to improve the detection of cognitive impairment and dementia, dementia care and brain health in primary care.
Human Services Data Project
Developing key data to assist in the evaluation of demand, delivery and outcomes in the areas of aged care, disability services and general human services at all levels.
Nyingarn: a platform for primary sources in Australian Indigenous languages
This project aims to build Nyingarn, an online platform of digital text versions of early Australian Indigenous language manuscripts with images of the original documents. There are over a thousand such documents that are foundational to understanding Australia's languages, and Nyingarn makes textual versions, accessions, and navigates such documents, with a means for adding more in future. Expected outcomes of this project are accessible sources useful for educational materials, and for understanding the local language, its history, and its relationship to other languages. Nyingarn will provide cutting-edge methods for ingesting, analysing, and presenting these historical materials, both for research and for the general public.
Recirculating Indigenous traveling songs
This project aims to develop new understandings of how unrestricted Indigenous traveling songs have spread across vast geographic and linguistic boundaries in Australia, investigating ways these songs can contribute to greater social connectedness today. It intends to energise collaborative networks across Indigenous communities, language centres, and holding institutions around the world.