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Session H4: Understanding health care in urban environments: innovative research and new methodologies

1. B. Fredericks & R. Mahoney: Undertaking Health Research in Urban Areas

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 2.2MB

Abstract

The research evidence base that highlights the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations living in urban areas and the issues that impact on Indigenous achievements in education, health status, housing needs, rates of incarceration and the struggle for cultural recognition is limited. This is despite over 70 % of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia now living in urban or regional urban areas (ABS 2008). The statistics demonstrate that living in urban localities is as much part of reality for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as living in remote discrete communities. Using the capital cities of Brisbane, Queensland and Melbourne, Victoria as case studies, this paper will explore why there has been limited research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in urban areas and highlight some of the innovative health research taking place which seeks to redress this gap. The research issues presented within this paper will resonate with examples from other urban localities and therefore some of the methodologies being drawn upon might also inform research with other urban based Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

Author bios:

Bronwyn Fredericks is a NHMRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University & the Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE), Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC – the peak agency for the Community Controlled Health Services Sector in Queensland). She is also a Visiting Fellow with the Indigenous Studies Research Network, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and a Research Fellow with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO- the peak agency for the Community Controlled Health Services Sector in Victoria). Bronwyn has been actively engaged with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations for over 25 years in paid, elected and volunteer roles.

2. M. Wright & B. McCoy: Who Can Speak? Identifying the research process that challenges ‘decolonization’

Full paper | Audio | Video | Slideshow pdf 305KB

Abstract

The position of the academy is for health research to be objective, detached and unbiased. This can place both Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers in a compromised position. The complexity of this situation is often not fully understood or appreciated by urban-based researchers trained in positivist and biomedical methodologies. The changing face of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research emphasises a new and challenging process of 'decolonization'. Within this process there are challenges for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers. Rarely, for example, do non-Indigenous researchers engage in the reflective practice of how they are being transformed in the process. This paper has arisen out of a number of conversations between an Indigenous and non-Indigenous researcher. They explore underlying tensions that are present in the process of research that have been influenced by western-based epistemology and Indigenous values. Indigenous people rightfully have expectations from the research community and they are demanding more meaningful outcomes from the research process. Health research, health delivery and health collaboration can and should be transformational for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. This is an invitation to participate in a discussion about the current research process and its connections for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Author bios

Michael is an Aboriginal man, from Western Australia. He is a Yuat Nyungar, his mother’s and grandmother’s Yuat booja (country )is located less than 100 kilometres north of Perth, in the area known as the Victoria Plains, which includes the townships of Mogumber and New Norcia. He is currently doing a PhD at the School of Public Health, Curtin University, and his study involves exploring the experiences of care giving for Aboriginal people living with a serious mental health illness.

Brian McCoy has lived and worked in a number of different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities within northern Australia over more than three decades. This has included a range of engagement with young men, particularly around Australian Rules football, prison, and petrol sniffing. In 2004, he completed a PhD at The University of Melbourne based on health research with men of the Kutjungka region of the Kimberley, Western Australia. In 2006, he was awarded an NHMRC Fellowship in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS), La Trobe University, to continue working with desert Aboriginal men and their health. His book, Holding Men: Kanyirninpa and the Health of Aboriginal Men, was published last year by Aboriginal Studies Press.