Indigenous Health Equity Unit
The Indigenous Health Equity Unit is a research and teaching unit at The University of Melbourne committed to partnering with and producing research for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
We undertake rigorous, innovative research and teaching, centred on the strength and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to promote wellbeing. Our work is underpinned by the principles of self-determination. We work in partnership with communities and appreciate the support of Community Elders.
Our academic program is based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values and principles, and respects the contribution and cultural background of all who work with us.
Current projects
We undertake research in health and wellbeing, that delivers tangible, useful outcomes with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This research is done in partnership with Koori Community, with the support of Elders. You can see our current projects below.
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Healing the past by nurturing the future
Promoting healing and change. Co-designing and implementing perinatal strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents experiencing complex trauma
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Culture, trauma and COVID-19
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Replanting the Birthing Trees to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and babies
Intergenerational trauma is a root cause of health inequities, and addressing this is essential for Closing the Gap. Trauma-integrated, culturally safe and skilful continuity-of-care for parents experiencing trauma and violence is a serious service gap and a national priority.
- Professor Cath Chamberlain
Midwife/Professor of Indigenous Health, The University of Melbourne
- Associate Professor Caroline Atkinson
Associate Professor in Indigenous Health
- Ms Debra Bowman
Research Assistant in Indigenous Health
- Ms Andrea Clarke
Lecturer/Teaching Coordinator in Indigenous Health
- Dr Elise Davis
Deputy Head of the Unit for Health Equity, Senior Research Fellow
- Dr Kimberley Jones
Research Fellow - Indigenous Health Equity Unit
- Dr Tess Bright
Lead on the Healing the past by nurturing the future project
- Dr Maedeh Aboutalebi Karkavandi
Research Fellow in Indigenous Public Health
- Ms Kate Lake
Research Assistant in Indigenous Public Health
- Ms Jill Donnelly
Site Implementation Coordinator Replanting the Birthing Trees Project
- Dr Pravina Shagar
Research Fellow in Indigenous Public Health
- Ms Maddy Lyon
Research Project Support
- Ms Emily Darnett
Research Assistant in Indigenous Public Health
- Ms Leanne Slade
Administrative Assistant, The University of Melbourne
- Mr Alan Radford
PhD Candidate
Professor Cath Chamberlain
Midwife/Professor of Indigenous Health, The University of Melbourne
Cath is a Palawa woman of the Trawlwoolway clan (Tasmania), registered midwife and public health researcher. Since graduating from her PhD in 2015, she has established a highly productive program of research to improve health for children and families, which has been recognised in prestigious awards. She has over 75 peer reviewed journal publications and secured over $32 million in competitive research funding. Her research has generated evidence on effective strategies to support women to stop smoking in pregnancy, which has informed international and national guidelines. She currently leads large multi-disciplinary multi-jurisdictional projects to develop, implement and evaluate perinatal strategies to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents experiencing complex trauma.
Associate Professsor Caroline Atkinson
Associate Professor in Indigenous Public Health
Carlie is an Aboriginal social worker and leader in the area of intergenerational trauma in Indigenous Australia. She developed the first culturally sensitive, reliable and valid psychometric measure in Australia that determines PTSD in Australian Aboriginal peoples.
Ms Debra Bowman
Research Assistant in Indigenous Public Health
Debra will be support the project with cultural leadership, resource development (including stories for parents) and more. Debra Bowman is a proud Ngemba woman from Brewarrina, NSW. She is currently studying her masters degree with the University of Melbourne and The Dulwich Centre in Adelaide in Narrative Therapy & Community Work, which she is very passionate about as storytelling and yarning comes natural to her cultural ways of being and keeps her grounded and connected to her cultural heritage.
Ms Andrea Clarke
Lecturer/Teaching Coordinator in Indigenous Health
Andrea is a proud Arabunna & Irrwanyere woman from Alice Springs, NT. She is currently studying her PhD with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Her research priority is diversity and the resulting educational impacts on equity. Andrea has worked across government, Aboriginal community-controlled health, non-government and educational sectors for the past 25 years and has a background in Education and Teaching. Andrea also is a volunteer committee member at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Dr Tess Bright
Lead on the Healing the past by nurturing the future project
Dr Tess Bright is a non-indigenous researcher living on Wurundjeri Country of the Kulin Nation. Tess is a Research Fellow with expertise in quantitative research and evidence synthesis. She is a clinical audiologist by background, holding a Masters of Clinical Audiology from the University of Melbourne. Tess completed a PhD in Epidemiology in 2020 at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and focused on building the evidence on epidemiology of hearing loss in low- and middle-income countries. Tess’ research to date has focused on improving access to health services for marginalised groups, in particular people with disabilities. Tess has extensive experience in systematic reviews, quantitative analysis and project design and implementation.
Dr Elise Davis
Deputy Head of the Unit for Health Equity, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Elise Davis is a public health researcher who is passionate about supporting child and parent mental health. She particularly enjoys evaluation and outcome measurement as well as qualitative interviewing and analysis. Elise has worked in university settings and non-government organisations for the past 20 years.
Dr Kimberley Jones
Research Fellow in the Indigenous Health Equity Unit
Dr Kimberley Jones is a non-indigenous researcher born on Awabakal Country, now living on Wurundjeri Country in the Kulin Nation. Kim is a Research Fellow with expertise in evidence synthesis and trauma research. Kim’s research interests are focused on health equity in marginalised populations. She is passionate about improving health and wellbeing outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. Kim completed undergraduate studies in biomedical science, a PhD in Neuroscience studying the effect of stress-related immune responses in the brain, and a Master of International Public Health at UNSW. Kim’s background includes work in health behaviour research, knowledge translation, clinical trials, chronic illness translational research, and trauma-related mental health research. Kim has extensive experience in guideline development, evidence synthesis, and research project design and implementation.
Dr Maedeh Aboutalebi Karkavandi
Research Fellow in Indigenous Public Health
Dr Maedeh Aboutalebi Karkavandi is a non-indigenous researcher living on Wurundjeri Country of the Kulin Nation. Maedeh’s research focuses on understanding relationship among social entities (e.g. individuals, organisations) and social environment and how it effects individual and system outcomes using social network analysis and social network theories.
Ms Kate Lake
Research Assistant in Indigenous Public Health
Ms Kate Lake is a non-Indigenous woman working as a full-time research assistant with the Indigenous Health Equity Unit. Kate studied a Bachelor of Health Science and a Bachelor of Social Science at the University of Adelaide and completed her Honours in Public Health in 2021. Since 2021, Kate has gained experience in Indigenous health research as a research assistant with the Aboriginal Health Equity theme at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. Kate’s is interested in the intersections between social circumstances and health outcomes, with a focus on implementation science and systems thinking methodologies.
Ms Jill Donnelly
Site Implementation Coordinator Replanting the Birthing Trees Project
Ms Jill Donnelly was born in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and completed her nursing and midwifery training in Aotearoa. She has lived on the Boonwurrung land of the Kulin Nation for 20 years.Jill has worked in women’s and children’s health for 40 years and has extensive experience in the maternity sector as both a clinician and a manager across rural and metropolitan settings – the social determinants of health have been foundational to her work in this area.
Dr Pravina Shagar
Research Fellow in Indigenous Public Health
Dr Pravina Shagar is a non-Indigenous researcher and lecturer with an expertise in quantitative research. Pravina completed her PhD in Health Promotion and focused on building the evidence on health and wellbeing of young adults. Pravina also has an extensive teaching experience in public health (global health and health policy). She is particularly interested in psychosocial wellbeing and Indigenous health.
Ms Maddy Lyon
Research Project Support
Ms Maddy Lyon is a non-Indigenous woman from Noongar Country in South Western Australia. She is completing her final year of a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts at Monash University. Maddy’s interest is in improving health outcomes in regional, rural and remote Australia. She will be employing her academic interests with her hospitality experience to plan the Gathering the Seeds symposium.
Ms Emily Darnett
Research Assistant in Indigenous Public Health
Emily Darnett is a Research Assistant (0.4FTE). Emily is a Palawa women, provisionally registered psychologist and PhD candidate. Her research investigates how psychologists can adjust their practices to better meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experiencing psychological distress. She is particularly interested in taking strengths-based approach to working with mob that have experienced different types of traumas..
Ms Leanne Slade
Administrative Assistant, The University of Melbourne
Leanne is an administrative officer with experience working in administration at a cultural institution. Leanne has a background in early childhood education delivering nature-based programs to children.
Mr Alan Radford
PhD Candidate
Alan has over 20 years’ experience as a Senior Business Consultant with a specialised focus on supporting the development of Aboriginal community organisations within Tasmania and throughout Western Australia. Being a proud Northern Tasmanian Aboriginal (Pakana Palawa) man, Alan has worked and assisted his community through the delivery and design of specialised employment and business development and cultural awareness programs. He is also an emerging Aboriginal Artist. He has a Masters of Business Administration, a Graduate Diploma of Business, Diploma’s in Leadership, Management, Human Resources, Business and Employment Services. Alan’s driver is to see his community succeed and to assist them to realise their dreams and aspirations, for there is no truer picture of success than communities achieving their goals and planning for the future of their children’s, children.
Skye Stewart
Research Assistant, Registered Midwife
Skye Stewart is a Registered Midwife. First and foremost, Skye is a proud Wergaia and Wemba Wemba Custodian and Caretaker. Her cultural role and responsibility is to do what she can to ensure that Aboriginal parents and their babies stay safe, well, alive and together. Skye has worked with Aboriginal communities around Victoria since she was little, following her Mum around when she was a health worker at a local Aboriginal Co-Op. Over the years she has supported many Aboriginal families accessing and navigating the maternity care system. Many of these families experienced vulnerability with complex trauma backgrounds, however, they have shown incredible resilience and courage. The capacity as humans to ‘come home to oneself’ and begin to heal is a driving force of the work that she does.
Relationships sustain our work
Our partners include community controlled organisations like
- the Lowitja Institute
- the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, and
- the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
We also work with governments, health departments and universities at local, national and international levels. The efforts of our team have been recognised in awards, grants and fellowships.
Get involved
Research collaborations range from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities advising our researchers on how best to deliver health and wellbeing programs to government departments developing policy.
Research Fellow in Indigenous Public Health
'Come join our Onemda team and help to improve Indigenous Health'
The position involves exciting research opportunities in Indigenous-led projects with community partners and revitalising the Onemda Centre for Health and Wellbeing with a passionate and dedicated team. Please encourage early career researchers to apply (link here).
Job No: 0053389
Location: Parkville
Role Type: Full-time or Part-time 0.8 FTE, Fixed-term until October 2024
Faculty: Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Department/School: Indigenous Health Equity Unit, Centre for Health Equity
Salary: Level B - $110,236 - $130,900 p.a. plus 17% super
We are seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Fellow with a research background in qualitative and/or mixed methods research, particularly using action research approaches. The position will require PhD or equivalent qualifications/experience in one or more of epidemiology, health or allied health (e.g. psychology, medicine, nursing/midwifery), quantitative social science or related disciplines. The successful applicant will contribute to supporting, developing and managing a program of research, contribute to teaching and work as part of an Aboriginal-led interdisciplinary research team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers.
Applications close: Thursday 27 October, 2022
Please contact Professor Cath Chamberlain for further information.