The Life Course Centre has played a central role in laying the foundations for a landmark new study that will use more than 40 years of data to pinpoint crucial turning points in child development that could help to close the gap in Aboriginal health and wellbeing outcomes.
The study, one of the most significant of its kind in Australia to examine the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal children under the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty, was awarded a prestigious Synergy Grant by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in November 2022.
This new five-year project, titled ‘Improving Aboriginal health by understanding the influence of early life environments and contacts with health and social service systems over time and across generations’, is the result of many years of work by Life Course Centre researchers on advancing data linkage infrastructure.
The multi-disciplinary project team is led by Associate Professor Francis Mitrou, Chief Investigator, TKI-UWA, and also includes colleague Emeritus Professor Steve Zubrick, former Chief Investigator and Deputy Director, and Professor Stefanie Schurer, Research Fellow, Sydney, along with several other collaborators and partners, including senior and junior Aboriginal researchers.
The new study will be conducted in close partnership with Aboriginal communities and will use data from the West Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) of more than 5,000 Aboriginal children and their families collected between 2000–2002 and linked to administrative datasets from the Western Australia government, some stretching back more than 40 years.
It will focus on improving Aboriginal health by understanding the influence of early life environments and contacts with health and social service systems over time and across generations. “We know that those early years are really crucial to the development of children, physically, cognitively and emotionally,” Francis said.
“We are in a unique position to use that rich data gathered through the WAACHS to pinpoint the areas that need the most focus and where policy changes could make a positive impact to Aboriginal life pathways and improve Closing the Gap indicators. We will do this work under the guidance and direction of strong Aboriginal governance and in partnership with Aboriginal communities.”
The NHMRC Synergy grant builds on the strong foundations of the WAACHS linked data study, led by Francis and Steve, that investigated disparities in Aboriginal child health across multiple domains, including physical health, social and emotional wellbeing and education, and identified the need for effective planning and delivery of culturally and geographically appropriate services.
The WAACHS study also highlighted the importance of consulting and including Aboriginal people in the leadership, direction, development, implementation and accountability of strategies to improve Aboriginal health outcomes. The NHMRC study represents the next chapter in creating a bigger impact on shaping effective solutions that enable selfdetermination and sustainable change.
“I want to thank the Life Course Centre for their support of this project in many ways over the years. In particular, an Infrastructure Grant from 2018 was instrumental in supporting this bid as it helped fund the critical data linkage component that underpins the work.” – Francis Mitrou
First Nations perspectives and partnerships
Partnering to advance First Nations perspectives was a key topic of discussion at the Life Course Centre National Research Retreat in 2022 and will be an important focus for the Centre moving forward in building and strengthening community collaborations and specialist capacities and skills.
There are a range of research projects across the Centre that have been designed, and are being undertaken, in close partnership with First Nations groups, from working with Tati Tati traditional owners in regional Victoria, including Research Fellows Brendan Kennedy and Melissa Kennedy, on Indigenous water rights, to partnerships on Indigenous literacy, early education and youth sleep health in regional Queensland communities.
Our sponsorship of the ‘Reconciliation, Opportunities, Wellbeing of First Nations Peoples’ workshop, organised by Professor Stefanie Schurer and held at the University of Sydney in February 2023, was an important initiative for bringing together researchers in this field. Researchers from three of our nodes attended and presented on the WAACHS and Tati Tati projects and other research, including youth wellbeing in the Northern Territory and truth telling on historical frontier violence.
This workshop featured keynotes from Indigenous academics Professor Pat Dudgeon, UWA, and Professor Gail Garvey, UQ, as well as sessions on Indigenous data access, use and sovereignty. We were also represented in panel discussions on data, evaluations and policymaking, alongside prominent Indigenous academic Professor Marcia Langton, University of Melbourne, at the 2022 Social and Economic Outlook conference.
An important paper published in our Life Course Centre Working Paper Series in 2022, ‘Exploring and researching the Indigenous life course’, was authored by Indigenous academic Professor Maggie Walter, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Aboriginal Research and Leadership, University of Tasmania, and highlights the need for new approaches to, and data on, Indigenous life course journeys.