Croakey Voices

First Nations people around the world – with strong and abiding connection to Country – increasingly are bearing the brunt of climate change. From rising sea levels, to ferocious bushfires, storms and drought, they often feel the impact first and hardest.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are part of a global First Nations movement demanding a seat at the table as decisions are made on climate change mitigation and abatement.

A recent virtual roundtable meeting hosted by the Lowitja Institute in partnership with the National Health Leadership Forum and the Climate and Health Alliance heard from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, researchers, scientists and leaders on the impact of climate change and solutions and actions in response to the UN’s COP26 summit.

CroakeyVOICES caught up with some of the participants as part of Croakey Conference News Service coverage of the event #IndigenousClimateJustice21.

Featuring in the podcast are:

This podcast is part of Croakey Conference News Service coverage of the event #IndigenousClimateJustice21

Contact CroakeyVoices via: Email: [email protected] Twitter: @croakeyvoices @CateeC

This article is part of the #HealthyCOP26 series, which is being published in partnership with the Climate and Health Alliance. This article is also part of Croakey’s contribution to the Covering Climate Now initiative, an unprecedented global media collaboration launched last year to put the spotlight on the climate crisis. Croakey Health Media is a member of the collaboration, which was co-founded by The Nation and the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), in partnership with The Guardian.

Contact CroakeyVoices via: Email: [email protected] Twitter: @croakeyvoices @CateeC

The impact of COVID-19 on palliative care, the need to address inequity of access for marginalised people such as the homeless, and ensuring palliative care is not an “eleventh hour” option, were just some of the themes at the 2021 Oceanic Palliative Care Conference.

One thousand delegates from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, Canada, Africa and the United Kingdom came together for the four-day virtual gathering, which included sessions covering clinical, paediatric, aged, and holistic care and the impact of the pandemic.

CroakeyVOICES Cate Carrigan took up some key themes with a range of speakers and presenters offering their innovative solutions and ideas for the future:

This podcast is part of Croakey Conference News Service coverage of the #21OPCC

Contact CroakeyVoices via: Email: [email protected] Twitter: @croakeyvoices @CateeC

Thirty years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody #RCIADIC, there’s growing anger that key recommendations for change are ‘gathering dust’ on the country’s political shelves.

Among the key issues highlighted by community leaders are the impact of racism throughout the criminal justice system, the need to improve health services in jails – including palliative care, a lack of support for families involved in coronial hearings, and the ongoing battle to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.

Croakey Voices explored the issues with Associate Professor Megan Williams, Wiradjuri justice health researcher and educator, and member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare National Prisoner Health Information Committee; Jeffery Amatto, founder of the ‘More Cultural Rehabs, Less Jails’ program; and Dr Peter Malouf, Wakka Wakka and Wuli Wuli executive director of operations at the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW.

This podcast is part of Croakey’s #RuralHealthJustice series, putting a sustained focus on issues being raised to mark the 30th anniversary of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

Powerful voices for change at the recent Consumer Health Forum Shifting Gears Summit called for full partnership with clinicians in designing health care into the future – laying the ground for a more patient reflexive system.

The Consumer Health Forum’s first Australasian Summit, with contributions from around Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada, focused on how health consumers, with their deeper knowledge of their own conditions, should play a vital role in improving the healthcare system.

CroakeyVoices’ Cate Carrigan explored the themes of health quality and care with a number of keynote speakers and delegates:

The Consumers Health Forum’s ShiftingGears Summit, saw over 800 delegates taking part in an energised discussion about the importance of consumer participation in transforming and improving health services. No longer content to just receive health care, consumers spoke up about the need for greater engagement at all levels of health service: from planning to delivery, research and management. They want a healthcare system where patient input isn’t just box-ticking a questionnaire but full partnership, with consumers engaged in every aspect of health delivery – with the conversation moving from what can medical science do to what do you want, why and will it make your life better?

The multi-national virtual gathering, with representatives from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada, sparked spirited debate on moving consumers to the very heart of health service planning, with co-design and the power of digital technology highlighted as two critical tools to empowering consumers.

But there were also concerns about access and lip-service that didn’t provide meaningful change, to the slowness of change, and to ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Maori and other First Nations people were given culturally appropriate care and access, and that the digital revolution didn’t further isolate people without the internet or digital devices.

CroakeyVoices spoke to a range of delegates about the opportunities and challenges ahead:

While people living in rural and remote parts of Australia have higher rates of heart disease, hospitalisations and poorer access to primary health care services than those in metropolitan areas, the new Rural Health Commissioner Associate Professor Ruth Stewart believes they also have the solutions, tapping into their own talent pool.

They spoke to CroakeyVOICES Cate Carrigan about their vision for rural health, the impact of COVID-19 and why becoming a rural or remote health worker could be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.

With COVID19 devastating lives and livelihoods around the globe, health experts are looking for lessons for a better, more equitable tomorrow, where food and job security, people-focused urban design and access to healthcare are not reliant on country of origin, cultural background or postcode.

Over five weeks, VICHealth’s “Life and Health ReImagined” webinar panels looked at the lessons from the pandemic, investigating urban design, healthier work environments, sustainable food systems and jobs, and how the social determinants of health: housing, income, and location are intrinsically linked to health outcomes.

Dr Rachel Carey: Lecturer in Food Systems, University of Melbourne

What are the chances of reform to the prison system in the wake of COVID19?
The pandemic has shone a light on overcrowded facilities and, in particular, on the high and growing rates of incarceration of First Nations peoples.

In the second of two #CroakeyVOICES podcasts funded by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas,Associate Professor Megan Williams, the Research Lead and Assistant Director of the National Centre for Cultural Competence at The University of Sydney, and Cate Carrigan look at calls for prison reform in the wake of COVID19.
Change the Record’s Cheryl Axleby says there’s been an 88 percent increase in incarceration rates for Indigenous Australians over ten years, and argues it’s time to repeal punitive bail laws, end the offence of public drunkenness, raise the criminal age to fourteen and implement the recommendations of the Black Deaths in Custody Royal Commission.

We also hear from Robert Houston, a former director of the Douglas Country Corrective facility in Omaha, USA, and lecturer at the School of Criminology at the University of Nebraska; Greg Barns from the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Debbie Kilroy from “Sisters Inside”; Thomas “Marksey” Marks, an artist and former inmate in the Victorian prison system; Ron Wilson, the President of Australasian Corrections Education Association; and Murray Cook, founder of the NSW Community Restorative Centre’s SongBirds program.

** Confined 11 – The Torch virtual exhibition, selling artworks from inmates and former inmates of Victoria corrective facilities, continues until June 7. https://thetorch.org.au/exhibition/confined-11/
** Songbirds https://www.songbirds.com.au/