CQUniversity researchers have secured Federal Government support for a First Nations-led project aimed at using arts-based research to improve Indigenous health and wellbeing.
The project seeks to address ongoing issues in Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing, which have persisted despite 16 years of the government's Closing the Gap strategy.
The five-year project, Dandhigu Yimbana: Listening on Country for Social and Emotional Wellbeing, has received $867,741 from the Australian Research Council's Discovery Indigenous grant scheme for 2025.
The phrase "Dandhigu yimbana," in Gunggari language, highlights the significance of listening and its connection to wellbeing and Country.
Led by Dr Vicki Saunders, a proud Gunggari woman from Queensland's Maranoa region and Professor Janya McCalman, the initiative is part of CQUniversity's Jawun Research Centre.
"We know in Indigenous research that the wellbeing of Country and wellbeing of people is inextricably linked, and the project will use Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being in research, using arts and deep listening practice, on Country with community-led projects," Dr Saunders said.
The project will utilise a method called Arts-Informed Indigenous Research (AIIR), which the research team will evaluate over the five years.
This process aims to determine its effectiveness in creating positive changes for Indigenous health and wellbeing.
"The project will contribute to reforms at the cultural interface of Indigenous health and arts-based research, and hopefully extend the international evidence that the arts can, has and will promote good health and health equity on Country," Dr Saunders said.
"Our arts-informed methodologies promote listening and hence cultural safety, so can address many of the tensions created by more-traditional and dominant forms of research."
Dr Saunders is also a key contributor to the Stronger Together As Unified Nations for Community-led Health (STAUNCH) project, which focuses on enhancing self-governance capacity among Australian First Nations communities.
She is one of 10 chief investigators, alongside CQUniversity's Professor Adrian Miller, Deputy Vice-President Indigenous Engagement and Director of the Jawun Research Centre.
The project, led by the University of Sydney's Centre for Rural Health, received a $5 million National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Synergy Grant, with CQUniversity as a partner.
University of Sydney Associate Professor Veronica Matthews paid tribute to the transformative researchers involved in STAUNCH.
"We've got an incredible team of people working together on this, 9 out of the 10 chief investigators are Aboriginal leaders and 8 out of the 10 are women," the Quandamooka woman said.
"I know this will give us the blueprint for Closing the Gap, driving the change needed for community self-determined primary health care."
Based on 20 years of research, STAUNCH will provide evidence on Indigenous nation-building processes focused on holistic health and wellbeing solutions.
The vision of CQUniversity's Jawun Research Centre is to support First Nations self-determination through research that values and respects cultural knowledge, aiming to promote social and economic inclusion and cultural continuity by incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being.
