15 March 2024

The NACCHO Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health News is a platform we use to showcase the important work being done in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, focusing on the work of NACCHO, NACCHO members and NACCHO affiliates.

We also share a curated selection of news stories that are of likely interest to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, broadly.

Millions pledged for remote NT water projects

The Federal and Northern Territory governments have announced a water security project worth tens of millions of dollars, designed to deliver clean, reliable water to more communities across the Top End. The $53.1 million investment will see water infrastructure upgrades in Maningrida, Numbulwar and Yirrkala and Gunyangara on the Grove Peninsula, part of the Federal government’s $150 million investment to ensure remote First Nations communities have access to clean drinking water.

Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek said in Australia, most people take safe drinking water for granted, however “for more than 25,000 people in remote Australia, that isn’t the case”.

“These Australians live in places without access to water that meets basic health guidelines. And another 600,000 people live in places without access to water that meets recognised standards – relying on water that’s murky, or contains unsafe levels of minerals, heavy metals and chemicals,” Ms Plibersek said.

“This is simply not ok. That’s why we’re investing in projects to deliver critical water infrastructure projects in First Nations remote communities.”

Ms Plibersek said there is still a lot of work to be done to Close the Gap on water security, and the federal government cannot do it alone.

“That’s why our government is working closely with our state and territory partners and First Nations organisations and representatives across the nation to identify, plan and deliver water security projects,” she said.

Read the full National Indigenous Times article here.

More than $50 million has been pledged by the federal and Northern Territory governments for remote NT water infrastructure. (Image: Isabella Higgins/ABC News).

OAMS employee helping children “navigate the forever changing health system”

Ebony Hay’s job is complex and full of moving pieces. The Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) employee’s role involves helping children “navigate the forever changing health system.” Towards the end of 2023, Ms Hay accepted the position of child health navigator at OAMS, making it her mission to help support the city’s youth.

“Education and health, they’re the two big determinants of our mob that’s always seemed to lag behind others,” she said.

“I just want to be able to reach everyone in the community and be able to assist children.

Ms Hay’s team at OAMS do health checks every six to nine months, with the goal of being proactive, rather than reactive.

“We want to ensure that children will have the best possible future and no be behind the rest of their peers just due to the fact they weren’t screened or had a hearing assessment that could have prevented that.”

Although she jumped from job to job prior to landing at OAMS, the child health navigator believes she’ll be there for the long haul. Nourished by the sense that she is making an important difference in young people’s lives.

“When you walk out the doors at 5pm you leave feeling satisfied knowing you’ve done the best you can. It’s a sweet feeling,” she said.

Read the full article here.

The Orange Aboriginal Medical Service (OAMS) child health navigator, Ebony Hay. Image source: Central Western Daily.

Sunrise Biginini MECSH program supporting mums and bubs

The Biginini MECSH program is open to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are pregnant or have had a baby discharged from the hospital less than 8 weeks ago. MECSH supports mums to care for themselves, ensures they have support from family and other services, provides immunisations, helps with breastfeeding and healthy eating, the program also assists mums with accessing Centrelink, Medicare, birth certificates, housing, and other external agencies.

A Barunga family in the Sunrise Biginini MECSH program is getting ready to go home with their new baby boy. As part of the Biginini MECSH program, they receive a baby bag full of essential items to support mum and baby. The bag includes nappies, baby wipes, swaddles, onesies, socks, toiletries, and a collapsible baby bath to help the family.

To learn more, visit the website.

Image source: Sunrise Health Service Aboriginal Corporation.

AIDA cultural program focused on closing healthcare gap

Healthcare professionals have rallied in response to February’s Closing the Gap report that highlighted significant target shortfalls related to institutional racism across the medical sector. The Productivity Commission’s February report brought to light the urgent need for health reform, with the inequity gap described as a “chasm”. The Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association has since expanded its cultural safety program for medical professionals to provide culturally-appropriate care, with great success. AIDA’s series of workshops include online cultural awareness courses and face-to-face cultural safety training, with 21 workshops already locked in this year with various organisations eager to drive change and help close the gap.

Each workshop was developed and is led by Indigenous doctors and enhances AIDA’s commitment to weave cultural safety principles into every aspect of medical education and clinical practice. Individual workshops will soon be held across Australia’s major cities too, enabling medical professionals and students to be armed with the tools and insights required to champion cultural safety in their own spheres of influence.

Indigenous medical student and recent participant Zamri Burns said the workshops fostered cultural competence and safety for attendees and provided her with new and practical lessons to implement in clinical practice.

“The workshop’s content was a treasure trove of knowledge, providing us with an extensive toolkit for practising clinical care with cultural awareness as a core component,” she told the National Indigenous Times.

“They also delve into the complexities of cultural and social determinants of health within Indigenous communities, shedding light on the unique challenges we face.

“It was a really transformative experience, building cultural competence and safety and empowering me to be more effective, empathetic and culturally-aware as a healthcare provider.”

More information on AIDA’s cultural safety program and individual workshops is online. You can also read the National Indigenous Times article here.

AIDA is putting extra emphasis on cultural awareness training in the wake of February’s Closing the Gap review. (Image: The Fred Hollows Foundation).

New study demonstrates yet more health benefits from cultural burning

Cultural burning brings many health benefits, and research recently undertaken on Murramarang Country on the Mid South Coast of NSW has provided further evidence of this. The practice of cultural burning – a traditional method of patch burning during cooler weather – is an important determinant of health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It plays an important role in passing on local knowledge and connection to land, as well as being beneficial for land management, according to the Lowitja Institute.

New research compared cultural burning to agency-led prescribed burning or no burning. Studying the effects on soil properties such as moisture content, density and nutrient levels. Both fire treatments increased soil moisture and organic matter, while reducing soil density. That means burning improved soil health overall. However, cultural burning had a more pronounced effect on reducing soil density and increasing organic matter content. Having more organic matter in the soil means more nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen are available to plants. Lower density improves soil structure. Both improve the capacity of ecosystems to withstand environmental stress such as drought and wildfire. These findings suggest cultural burning not only benefits soil health but also helps make ecosystems more resilient, by providing more water and nutrients that native plants need.

Read the full Croakey Health Media article here.

Image source: Cultural Burning.

Sector Jobs – you can see sector job listings on the NACCHO website here.

Advertising Jobs – to advertise a job vacancy click here to go to the NACCHO website current job listings webpage. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a Post A Job form. You can complete this form with your job vacancy details – it will then be approved for posting and go live on the NACCHO website.

Free, specialised governance workshops for ACCHOs will be delivered in multiple locations across the country during 2024 and 2025. 

Registrations are open now for Sydney and Perth:  

  • Sydney 19–20 March 2024
  • Perth 16–17 April 2024

The program is delivered by legal experts and covers:  

  • Delegation of powers 
  • Finance for Boards
  • Governance documents
  • Managing conflicts of interest 
  • Managing risk  
  • Principles of good governance  
  • Structure and role of boards and sub-committees 

To register, go here.

For more information, please contact NACCHO using this email link.