Abby-Rose Cox

“Mingoke”

Abstract: My PhD will explore the research question of “How might culturally secure Equine Assisted Learning change Kimberley Aboriginal youth engagement in education?” Explicitly, this study will examine the outcomes of Kimberley Aboriginal school aged children who have participated in the Yawardani Jan-ga program in Broome. Yawardani Jan-ga (“horses helping” in Yawuru language) is a culturally secure Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) intervention that aims to meet the social and emotional wellbeing needs of Aboriginal youth in the Kimberley. Yawardani Jan-ga is lead by Professor Juli Coffin, and is delivered on the ground by a team of Aboriginal front-line workers (EAL-practitioners).

Department: Melbourne School of Population & Global Health

Supervisors: Professor Sandra Eades, Professor Juli Coffin and Dr Lina Gubhaju

Joanne Luke

Constructing Aboriginal health

Abstract: This PhD focuses on the largely quantitative scientific disciplines of epidemiology, evidence-based practice and evaluation and their longstanding histories with Aboriginal people. It will examine how the centering of Western knowledge and values in these disciplines is scientifically flawed and that more robust quantitative sciences can and do come about through the leadership and full inclusion of Aboriginal people and organisations.

Department:  Centre for Health Equity, School of Population  and Global Health,  MDHS

Principle Supervisors:  Prof Sandra Eades Co-supervisors: Prof Margaret Kelaher (Centre for Health Policy, The University of Melbourne) and Prof David Thomas (Menzies School of Health Research)

Alister Thorpe

Decolonising ethics? A critical analysis of researchers intended ethical research practices and the role of Indigenous communities in ensuring ethical research

Abstract: From an Indigenous standpoint, how do researchers demonstrate the values of reciprocity, respect, equality, responsibility, survival and protection, and spirit and integrity? The purpose of this study was to explore how researchers operationalise the NHMRC’s ethical guidelines. Three distinct groups, Indigenous participants, Indigenous community coordinators, and researchers, that have participated in or conducted Indigenous health research (since 2003) were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews explored their experiences of ethical conduct in Indigenous health research. A decolonising approach was adopted applying a critical race-grounded methodology to privilege Indigenous voices in the research and to allow broader examination of dominant social structures in the Australian context.

Department: Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Supervisors: Assoc Professor Jane Freemantle, Prof Rachel Nordlinger, Prof Ian Anderson

Chris McKay

Cardiometabolic health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents and the social, cultural and environmental context

Abstract: Urgent action is required to understand factors influencing health trajectories for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents in Australia to improve long-term cardiometabolic disease outcomes. This PhD aims to describe the cardiometabolic disease risk profile of a cohort of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescents and the health, social, cultural and environmental factors associated with increased risk and maintenance of good health.

Department: School of Population and Global Health

Supervisors: Sandra Eades, Lina Gubhaju, Bridgette McNamara

Emily Munro Harrison

Urban invisibility: identities of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in urban Victoria

Abstract: Using qualitative, ethnographic methods, this thesis explores the ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are adaptive, dynamic and active in contributing to and making culture and belonging in communities across Narrm (Melbourne, Australia). Young people continue to resist deficit narratives portrayed through public discourse of what it is to be Indigenous, whilst living, restoring and re-creating their connections to culture, identity and place. In the place of Narrm, Aboriginal communities have always been active in political, health and social justice movements, and young people continue to build on, reinvent and reinterpret what it is to be part of this place, with respect to its histories, stories and futures.

Department: School of Population and Global Health

Supervisors: A/Prof Cathy Vaughan, Prof Richard Chenhall, Prof Shaun Ewen

Scholarship: Lowitja Institute