ISU awarded grant to research experiences of families affected by family violence and child removals

A First Nations-led research project headed by Melbourne Laureate Professor Marcia Langton AO entitled Harm to Healing: Strength-Based Approaches to Family Violence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, will receive $5 million in funding as part of the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) Targeted Call for Research (TCR): Addressing Violence for Safer Families and Communities.

BACKGROUND

Melbourne Laureate Professor Marcia Langton AO (Lead investigator)

Leading national public intellectual and internationally recognised anthropologist and geographer Professor Langton is a Yiman and Bidjara woman, born and raised in Queensland. She has been the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne since 2000. Prof Langton has an extensive record in Aboriginal alcohol use and harms, alcohol management plans, family violence, Indigenous land use agreements, environmental management, native title, and Aboriginal culture, art, and performance and Indigenous data governance.

Her awards and honours include: Officer of the Order of Australia (2019), Member of the Order of Australia (1993), Macquarie University Alumni Award for Distinguished Service (2009), ANU Indigenous Alumna of the Year (2023), Victorian Premier’s Literary Award (2007), shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History (2009), Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, and honorary fellowships at Trinity College (University of Melbourne), Emmanuel College (University of Queensland), and the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

In 2016, she was named Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, University of Melbourne, and in 2017 became the inaugural Associate Provost, driving institutional reform and Indigenous leadership in higher education.

She is Director of the Indigenous Studies Unit in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and currently leads a large portfolio of research and grants, acting as Chief Investigator (CI) on 52 projects funded by competitive grants, research contracts, and internal grants.

Professor Catherine Chamberlain

Professor Catherine Chamberlain is a Trawlwoolway woman (Tasmania). She is a registered midwife and public health researcher. She is Head of the Indigenous Health Equity Unit, Onemda: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing and Wellbeing at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health; inaugural Editor-in-Chief for First Nations Health and Wellbeing – the Lowitja Journal (first community-controlled Indigenous international health journal_; and inaugural Chief Midwifery Officer for the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and midwives.

Professor Chamberlain's work addressing how intergenerational trauma drives health inequities has been at the forefront of a new field of research, co-designing community-led strategies to support Aboriginal parents experiencing complex trauma. One of the first NHMRC-funded studies led by a majority of Aboriginal researchers, this research incorporates Aboriginal ways, fostering social and emotional wellbeing; addresses systemic harms caused by the out-of-home-care system; and developed the first validated Aboriginal Complex Trauma and Strengths Questionnaire.

Professor Chamberlain's research includes publication of the first Cochrane Review of perinatal interventions to support parents experiencing complex trauma. She is an international leader in evidence synthesis and smoking cessation research, which has had extensive reach, influencing interventions that have become part of routine pregnancy care worldwide and contributing to reductions in smoking in pregnancy.

Professor Sandra Eades

Professor Sandra Eades is the Rowden White Chair in Indigenous Health, the Head of the Indigenous Epidemiology and Health Unit and the Deputy Dean Indigenous in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne (UOM).

Professor Eades has published extensively in relation to the epidemiology of child removals using total population and highlighted the health needs of children removed. Key papers also highlight the unmet mental health needs of mothers who experience child removals. With collaborators she has published a key paper showing the impact of assaults on mothers during and prior to pregnancy as a key driver of poor birth outcomes.

Prior to joining the UOM, Professor Eades served as the Dean of Medicine, Curtin University (2020-2022), the Domain Head Aboriginal Health (2014-2018) and Head Indigenous and Child Health Research Program (2008-2012), Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and Head of Aboriginal Health Research Program, The Sax Institute (2004-2008). She is a registered medical practitioner.

In 2003 Professor Eades became Australia's first Aboriginal medical doctor to be awarded a PhD and she was the first Indigenous Dean of a medical school in Australia or globally and is widely recognised for her contribution to training the next generation of Indigenous health research leaders with a focus on global Indigenous health and partnerships.

As a leader in Indigenous health research, Sandra was named the NSW Woman of the Year in 2006; listed as one of 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have achieved change in their communities by National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance in 2011; and awarded the 2012 Medical Journal of Australia prize for excellence in medical research.

Professor Sean Taylor

Professor Taylor is a descendant of the Dauareb Tribe, one of the eight tribes of Mer (Murray) Island in the Eastern Torres Strait region, Queensland, Australia. He holds dual appointment as the Director of Onemda: Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing, part of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and Professor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, at the Melbourne School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

With 30 years of experience across clinical practice, academic leadership, research, and health system reform, his work has focused on improving health outcomes and embedding culturally safe, community/ consumer-centred models of care across Australia. Professor Taylor has held senior leadership roles including Director of Health Services at the Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Health Service; Deputy Director of Indigenous Leadership and Engagement at the Menzies School of Health Research; Executive Director of Aboriginal Health and Diversity at NT Health; Principal Advisor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health at Torres and Cape Hospital Health Service; and Executive Director of Aboriginal Health and Diversity and Adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University. He currently holds senior academic leadership roles at the University of Melbourne, where he leads strategic initiatives in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, research translation, and workforce development. His work is distinguished by sustained leadership in translating research into policy and practice, particularly in strengthening consumer engagement as a central component of clinical governance and health system performance.

These initiatives strengthened cultural governance, improved patient experience, and enhanced organisational accountability to communities, particularly in remote and high-risk settings. His research spans chronic disease management, cultural governance, clinical safety, and public health systems reform. He has played a significant role in implementing Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care standards across Northern Territory hospitals and continues to influence national research translation through advisory roles, including previous membership of the NHMRC Principal Committee Indigenous Caucus and Consumer and Community Advisory Committee. His leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the application of research-informed, community-centred approaches in complex public health emergencies.

Associate Professor Kristen Smith

Associate Prof Smith is a Principal Research Fellow and Research Director of the Indigenous Studies Unit, Onemda: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing, University of Melbourne.

Associate Professor Smith specialises in medical anthropology, with interdisciplinary expertise spanning Indigenous studies, epidemiology, human geography, public health, data governance, and development studies. She has made significant contributions to research at the intersection of culture, health, and social inequities, with a strong emphasis on collaborative, community-based interventions and culturally appropriate academic practices.

Associate Professor Smith has been a named investigator on more than 30 research grants, securing over $20 million in funding, and has contributed to transformative national projects addressing alcohol-related family violence, Indigenous data governance, and health system reform.

Professor Rhonda Marriott AM

Professor Marriott is a highly recognised leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research, with a research focus on achieving translational difference on the ground for Aboriginal people, families, and communities.

Professor Marriott has published more than 60 journal articles, received 1500 citations and received more than $20m in competitive funding.

Currently the Inaugural Pro Vice Chancellor of the Ngangk Yira Institute for Change, Professor Marriott is also the Director of the Yorga, Maaman and Koolanga Research and Advocacy Centre, member of the WA Health Translation Network (WAHTN) Board; and member of the WA Health Close the Gap Partnership Planning Group 1 Committee and its sub-committee.

Professor Marriott was awarded the Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue Leadership Award from the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), recognising her exceptional leadership in advancing system changes within the health service and advocating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

She has also been appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division), in recognition of service and leadership in the nursing and midwifery professions. Her research, service, and impact have been recognised in esteemed awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards (2021), induction into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame (2019), and a CATSINaM Fellowship (2016).

Dr Jacynta Krakouer

Dr Krakouer is a Minang Noongar Early Career Researcher (ECR) with a strong track record of obtaining continuous competitive Category 1, 2, and 3 funding, including Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and Australian Research Council (ARC) funding, as well as funding from state governments for evaluation of child protection programs.

At just 3 years post-PhD, Dr Krakouer has published 35 scholarly publications (690 citations), with an h-index of 15, and received more than $18.5m in competitive funding. This is notable given Dr Krakouer’s work at 0.5 FTE alongside a 0.5 FTE doctoral candidature from 2018 to early 2022.

Dr Krakouer is currently an Aboriginal Enterprise Fellow and Aboriginal Strategy and Engagement Lead at the Australian Centre for Child Protection, University of South Australia (UniSA). Dr Krakouer is the first Aboriginal Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Australian Journal of Social Issues and holds an Honorary Senior Research Fellow appointment at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne.

An ECR with a growing national and international reputation in the field of child protection prevention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people during the perinatal period, Dr Krakouer’s research impact and leadership have been recognised in awards including the 2024 UniSA Unstoppable Research & Enterprise Awards and the 2023 UniSA Justice & Society Staff Champion Awards.

She currently leads an ARC Discovery Indigenous project on prenatal reporting and infant removal by child protection and leads one of the six workstreams comprising the $5 million MRFF Replanting the Birthing Trees project—the SAFeST Start workstream—which advances innovation in support for Indigenous families at risk of infant removal by child protection during pregnancy.

Dr Kimberley Jones

Dr Jones is a mid-career researcher and Senior Research Fellow at the Indigenous Health Equity Unit, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.

She has diverse expertise in research project design, coordination, implementation, evaluation and evidence synthesis. Dr Jones completed her PhD at University of Newcastle (2017). She previously held research positions at Hunter Medical Research Institute (2018-2019), and Phoenix Australia (2019-2021).

Her work focuses on health equity, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, translational research, implementation science, and improving health service systems.

Dr Jones has 27 peer-reviewed publications, with more than 1800 citations and 10 technical reports. She also secured over $11.5 million in Category 1 funding and $1.6 million in Category 2 research funding.

Associate Professor Amalia “Emily” Karahalios

Dr Karahalios is an Associate Professor in Biostatistics (teaching and research position) in the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne; Deputy Head of the Biostatistics Unit in the Centre (25 academic staff) and coordinator for the Master of Biostatistics courses at the University of Melbourne.

A/Prof Karahalios has worked in biostatistics teaching and research positions, including as chief investigator on large multi-centre randomised trials demonstrating her experience in trial design and statistical analysis, and has an international profile in statistical methods for evidence synthesis.

Dr Andrea Clarke

Dr Clarke is an Arabuna Aranda woman and Aboriginal Senior Research Fellow and early-career researcher in Indigenous Public Health at the Onemda Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Centre, Indigenous Studies Unit in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health (MSPGH).

She has over 30 years of experience working in community with government and non-government organisations, including roles in service organisations, policy, community engagement, teaching across tertiary, secondary, and primary schools, consultancy, and cultural safety programs.

A strong focus on the social determinants of health and health equity is evident in her work, which uses cultural and Western methodologies to quantify health inequalities, racism, and self-determination, and to identify groups who may benefit from interventions and supports to improve health outcomes.

She is currently advancing a core research area focusing on Indigenous health through the projects Improving understandings of and responses to alcohol-related family violence for Aboriginal people and the ARDC Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities: Building an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Commons.

Her expertise in diverse qualitative fieldwork with Indigenous populations in challenging research environments (e.g. organisational, community, and remote settings) has led to a strong and varied track record of translating research findings into teaching and learning, policy change, and resource development.