Melbourne School of Population and Global Health - Research Publications
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ItemIndigenous Data Governance in Australia: Towards A National Framework(University of Western Ontario, 2023-04)Australia's distinctive colonial administrative history has resulted in the generation and capture of large quantities of personal data about Indigenous Peoples in Australia, which is currently controlled and processed by government agencies and departments without coherent regulation. From an Indigenous standpoint, these data constitute stranded assets. Established legal frameworks for pursuing recovery of other classes of asset alienated by governments from Indigenous Peoples in Australia, including land, natural resources, and unpaid wages, have not yet been extended to the recovery of Indigenous data assets. This legacy scenario has created a disproportionate administrative burden for Indigenous organisations by sustaining their dependency on government for necessary data, while simultaneously suppressing the value of their own contemporary community-owned data assets. In this article, we outline leading international legal, economic, and scientific frameworks by which an equitable arrangement for the governance of Indigenous data might be restored to Indigenous Peoples in Australia.
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ItemSupporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Families to Stay Together from the Start (SAFeST Start): Urgent call to action to address crisis in infant removals COMMENT(WILEY, 2022-06)Reducing the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care (OOHC) is a key Closing the Gap target committed to by all Australian governments. Current strategies are failing. The "gap" is widening, with the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in OOHC at 30 June 2020 being 11 times that of non-Indigenous children. Approximately, one in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering OOHC each year are younger than one year. These figures represent compounding intergenerational trauma and institutional harm to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities. This article outlines systemic failures to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents during pregnancy and following birth, causing cumulative harm and trauma to families, communities and cultures. Major reform to child and family notification and service systems, and significant investment to address this crisis, is urgently needed. The Family Matters Building Blocks and five elements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (Prevention, Participation, Partnership, Placement and Connection) provide a transformative foundation to address historical, institutional, well-being and socioeconomic drivers of current catastrophic trajectories. The time for action is now.
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ItemThe Alcohol Management Plan at Pormpuraaw, Queensland, Australia: An ethnographic community-based study(Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, 2019)Alcohol is one of the leading causes of social, legal and health problems for Indigenous Australians. Since 2002, Alcohol Management Plans (AMPs) have been used in many Indigenous communities as a framework to reduce alcohol-related harms. (Smith et al., 2013) This report outlines the findings of an ethnographic research project which gathered and analysed the AMP in the remote Indigenous community of Pormpuraaw on the western coast of Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. The qualitative and quantitative evidence examined in this project shows a significant reduction in alcohol-related harms following the introduction of the AMP. We obtained data on hospital admissions which support the views of the majority of the Pormpuraaw community members who observed that violence and community disharmony reduced with the reductions in alcohol supply. The Queensland Health Department data showed a reduction in average annual hospital admissions rates for assault from 34.22 per 1,000 people to 5.7 per 1,000, which corresponded with a tightening of supply restrictions during the three phases of the AMP from 2002/3 to 2013/14 (figure 4). Notwithstanding the positive results, the qualitative research also identified several issues that impact on the performance of the AMP across the community. These are also discussed, including ‘problem deflation’ (or an underestimation of the problem), insufficient funding and resourcing, redirection of funding, and social consequences such as sly-grogging, gambling and criminalisation. This study contributes to the developing body of knowledge and evidence about AMPs in Indigenous Australian contexts. It offers nuanced understandings of how AMPs are understood, investigates their effectiveness in responding to alcohol-related harms and examines community engagement in their design, implementation and evaluation. This research increases knowledge about local residents’ experiences and understandings of AMPs. This can inform an appropriate policy framework that effectively responds to the harms associated with alcohol misuse.
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ItemWhen Magnets Collide: Digital Preservation and Access of At-Risk Audiovisual Archives in a Remote Aboriginal Community. ISBN13: 9780734051950(Melbourne Networked Society Institute, The University of Melbourne, 2016)Audiovisual materials have been produced and stored by remote Indigenous media and cultural organisations in Australia for over thirty years, representing a distributed national collection of high cultural, linguistic and national significance. However, technical obsolescence of analogue materials, harsh environmental conditions and limited access to technological and financial resources in many remote communities present serious risk of information and knowledge being lost forever. This report outlines a collaborative project undertaken by the Melbourne Networked Society Institute and researchers from the University of Melbourne’s Australian Indigenous Studies Unit, Research Unit for Indigenous Languages and the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation. In partnership with the Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum, Wadeye, NT, and the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the researchers investigated how culturally significant and endangered Indigenous audiovisual archives could be effectively preserved and transmitted to current and future generations using innovative digital technologies.
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ItemIndigenous climate change adaptation in the Kimberley region of North-western Australia(University of Melbourne, 2013)