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Time for a First Nations-led health and wellbeing research renaissance

Melbourne, Australia | 2024年8月7日

Catherine Chamberlain, PhD, Janine Mohamed, DNP

Editors of First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal spent a day at the Lowitja Institute office in Naarm, Australia.

Editors of The Lowitja Journal: Managing Editor Scott McLennan, Assoc Editor Prof Michelle Kennedy, Exec Publisher Diana Jones, EiC Prof Cath Chamberlain, Sr Editor Prof Kalinda Griffiths, Lowitja Institute CEO Paul Stewart (Photo: Lowitja Institute)

A new open access journal features research for and by Indigenous researchers about the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples worldwide

“Renaissance,” from the French word for “rebirth,” is typically used to refer to a period of European cultural and intellectual revitalisation during the 15th through 17th centuries. It’s often thought of as a time of positive change, with the emergence of humanism and an emphasis on reasoning, scientific thinking and human achievement — a major shift from reliance on religious teachings. Along with a resurgence in art, literature, philosophy and trade, there was an increase in western scientific discovery across astronomy, physics, mathematics, biology and the understanding of disease.

However, there was also increased European exploration of the globe and colonisation of Africa, the Americas, the Indian subcontinent and Pacific region — which proved disastrous for First Nations, or Indigenous, populations. The spread of disease, establishment of a trans-Atlantic slave trade and invasion of sovereign nations wrought widespread destruction of First Nations cultures that had been thriving for thousands of generations prior to European contact.

First Nations peoples held rich understandings of the natural world that had evolved through relationships and co-existence within it, including understandings of what was required for human health and wellbeing 打開新的分頁/視窗. Evidence suggests that prior to colonisation, the health and wellbeing of First Nations peoples in Australia was better than Europeans 打開新的分頁/視窗 of that time. This state of health and wellbeing was not achieved by accident. Rather, practices and social systems to foster the wellbeing among Indigenous (First Nations) peoples were often underpinned by knowledges 打開新的分頁/視窗 around which human, living and non-living elements related or “connected” to each other. Relationality 打開新的分頁/視窗 is inherent in this way of thinking. As Aileen Moreton Robinson 打開新的分頁/視窗 has noted, “relationality forms the conditions of possibility for coming to know and producing knowledge through research in a given time, place, and land.”

“Seeing in two worlds”

In recent decades, there has been belated but increasing awareness of how the impact of ongoing violence, dispossession, discrimination and human rights abuses as a consequence of colonisation has left a legacy of unaddressed entrenched disadvantage 打開新的分頁/視窗 and intergenerational trauma 打開新的分頁/視窗 among many First Nations communities that persists despite efforts to improve health equity 打開新的分頁/視窗. However, there has been less focus on the impact of the suppression, oppression and marginalisation of Indigenous knowledge, approaches and practices that underpinned the health and wellbeing of First Nations peoples prior to colonisation. Rather, evidence about First Nations people has been generated predominantly by non-Indigenous researchers through a lens distorted by privilege and racism, manifested in the assumptions that Western non-Indigenous knowledge is superior coupled with the systems that reinforce such beliefs. This distorted evidence is reflected in current societal policies and used to inform healthcare programs and education systems, compounding and reinforcing its legitimacy.

Across the globe, pioneer First Nations scholars who have been educated within their communities and western academic institutions have now begun to share knowledge that enables “seeing in two worlds 打開新的分頁/視窗.” Scientists, artists and others are referring to the term “renaissance” in relation to this in the United States 打開新的分頁/視窗, New Zealand 打開新的分頁/視窗, Canada 打開新的分頁/視窗 and Chile 打開新的分頁/視窗. First Nations scholars are now playing a critical role in decolonising and re-shaping thought, bringing new ways of relational thinking that offer new opportunities to understand ourselves and our relationship with our environment, and building cooperation to help overcome contemporary global challenges.

A new journal for and by First Nations researchers

Editors of The Lowitja Journal at the 3rd Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference (L-R): Assoc Prof Kalinda Griffiths, Prof Pat Dudgeon, Prof Bronwyn Fredericks (Senior Editors); Prof Cath Chamberlain (Editor-in-Chief)

Editors of The Lowitja Journal at the 3rd Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference, June 2023 (L-R): Assoc Prof Kalinda Griffiths, Senior Editor; Prof Pat Dudgeon, Senior Editor; Prof Bronwyn Fredericks, Senior Editor; Prof Cath Chamberlain, Editor-in-Chief (Photo: Lowitja Institute)

It is within this context that the Lowitja Institute 打開新的分頁/視窗 — Australia’s first community-controlled health research institute — and Elsevier launched First Nations Health and Wellbeing – The Lowitja Journal 打開新的分頁/視窗 in late 2023.

The journal is named in honour of the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue 打開新的分頁/視窗 AC CBE DSG, a powerful and unrelenting advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia and First Nations peoples globally. Building on the legacy of the Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal 打開新的分頁/視窗, published from 1991 to 2016, it is an international, community-governed, inter- and multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed open access journal dedicated to expanding access to First Nations health research and improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities around the world.

Lowitja Institute namesake and co-patron, the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG (Photo: Leanne King)

Lowitja Institute namesake and co-patron, the late Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG (Photo: Leanne King)

The Lowitja Journal recognises that structured knowledge systems of First Nations peoples, developed over millennia to underpin thriving and healthy communities, offer solutions to the survival, prosperity, and flourishing of First Nations peoples and for the world.

In The Lowitja Journal, we proudly present, high quality research about First Nations health and wellbeing by First Nations researchers. This is a voice for Indigenous communities worldwide to speak our truth informed by our worldviews — to achieve our dreams of a world where our children can also, and once again, live long, healthy lives on and with our Mother Earth.

Editor’s note: This article is based on the author’s editorial 打開新的分頁/視窗 published in the first issue of The Lowitja Journal.

What does “First Nations” mean?

The Aims and Scope of The Lowitja Journal has an asterisk after the first mention of the term First Nations with the following statement:

We use the term ‘First Nations’ to refer to any Indigenous or ‘First Peoples’ inhabiting or existing in a land from the earliest of times or before the arrival of colonists. This was chosen by consensus of the representative Australian National Health Leadership Forum Board, and is used with the deepest respect for the autonomy and diversity of nations represented within this broadly inclusive term.

貢獻者

Professor Catherine Chamberlain is Editor-in-Chief of The Lowitja Journal

CCP

Catherine Chamberlain, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

The Lowitja Journal

繼續閱讀 Catherine Chamberlain, PhD
Dr Janine Mohamed is an Adjust Professor at the University of Victoria, Australia.

JMD

Janine Mohamed, DNP

Adjunct Professor

University of Victoria

繼續閱讀 Janine Mohamed, DNP