A 100 per cent First Nations research team will lead a new $3 million national project examining how climate change is affecting Country and the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Led by Charles Darwin University, the Country is a Healing and Resilience Pathway Centre of Research Excellence (CHiRP-CRE) has received funding through the National Health and Medical Research Council's Centres of Research Excellence scheme.

The project will bring together First Nations researchers from across Australia and work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to strengthen work already happening on Country.

Leading the project is CDU Professorial Research Fellow Linda Payi Ford, a Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu Senior Elder from Kurrindju in the Northern Territory and researcher with CDU's Northern Institute.

Professor Ford said the Centre would be guided by what communities say matters when it comes to climate change, health and wellbeing.

"As an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led Centre of Research Excellence, we will be guided by community priorities in climate change, health and wellbeing to build resilience," she said.

The Centre will draw on First Nations values of listening to and caring for Country through lived experience, while making sure cultural knowledge is protected for future generations.

At the heart of the work is an understanding our people have always carried: what happens to Country has an impact on the people who belong to it. Climate change is not simply an environmental issue when changes to Country can also affect culture, connection and the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

What makes this project particularly important is that First Nations people are not only participating in the research but are leading it.

Our communities know what it is like to have researchers arrive wanting to learn from our people. Elders and community members give their time and share knowledge, but historically our people have not always had the same control over how that knowledge is interpreted, used or carried forward. There is a big difference between being consulted as part of somebody else's project and having our own people deciding what needs to be researched and how that work should happen.

People living on Country also see changes happening around them because they know those places intimately. That lived knowledge has an important place alongside scientific research when trying to understand what a changing climate means for communities.

CHiRP-CRE aims to support and grow community-level initiatives already working to reduce climate impacts while improving the health and wellbeing of Country and community.

The project builds on previous research through CRE-STRIDE, which ran from 2020 to 2025 and focused on Indigenous-led primary health care systems research, as well as the HEAL Network's work on health and climate resilience between 2022 and 2026.

Researchers involved in CHiRP-CRE come from institutions across Australia, including the University of Western Australia, Queensland University of Technology, Southern Cross University, the University of Sydney, Australian National University and Murdoch University. The collaboration also includes the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council and Indigenous health advocate Donna Burns.

CDU Deputy Vice-Chancellor First Nations Leadership Professor Ruth Wallace said the funding marked an important milestone for First Nations research.

"This collaboration will have important, far-reaching outcomes for First Nations people, particularly since the entire research team is made up of First Nations researchers and professionals," she said.

Professor Wallace said the knowledge and skills held across the national research team would play an important role in improving the wellbeing of Country and community as the impacts of climate change continue.

While the $3 million investment will support the work, there is also a bigger story about who gets to lead research involving our communities and whose knowledge is recognised.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are often spoken about when climate change is discussed, particularly when the conversation turns to the risks facing communities living on Country. What can sometimes be overlooked is the knowledge our people already hold and the contribution First Nations researchers can make to finding ways forward.

CHiRP-CRE puts our people in a position to help shape that work from the beginning.

When research is about our communities, draws on our knowledge and looks at changes happening on our Country, First Nations people should have a strong voice in deciding where that research goes and what comes from it.