Welcome to the Lowitja Institute Repository

This institutional research repository is for the work of the Lowitja Institute, Australia’s national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Research Institute. Our work focuses on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Indigenous peoples across the globe. This Repository tracks the research outputs of Lowitja Institute employees, funded researchers and scholars as well as showcases community-led Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research.

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Lowitja Institute Repository

Recent Submissions

Aboriginal community researchers: A short report on the research training program and research experience with the Virtual Rural Generalist Service evaluation.
(2025-12-30) Thompson A.; Carroll A. (Gamilaraay); Kenna D. OAM (Gamilaraay); Kennedy-Williams E. (Gamilaroi); Merritt S. (Wiradjuri); Skinner J.; Parter C. (Murri); Cross C. (Worimi and Biripai); Luscombea G.M.; Saurmana E.
Involving Aboriginal community researchers in health research within their own communities supports sovereignty, research experience and builds capacity to design and conduct research that strengthens the local health research agenda, decision-making and long-term impact. Experiential and targeted research training programs build research capacity with practical participation while recognising and building upon the existing skills of Aboriginal community researchers, such as storytelling and cultural knowledge. The opportunity for Aboriginal community researchers to share their experience of participating in research as an Aboriginal community researcher with colleagues and community is important and valuable.
Navigating care through connection: How patient navigators strengthen the care experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living with kidney failure.
(2025-12-30) D’Antoine M. (Paakantyi); Haklar I.; Cachagee M. (Mushkegowuk); Cundale K.; Bateman S.; McDonald S.; Kelly J.; O’Donnell K.(Malyangapa, Barkindji); Jesudason S.; Brown I. (Yuin); Temple K. (Ngarrindjeri, Narungga); Ross J.(Walpiri); Croker D. (Anmatjere, Walpiri, Jingili); Wilkshire N. (Warrumangu, Luritja); Henwood P. (Muk Muk Maranrunggu); Algy C. (Gurrindji); Lester R. (Adnyamathanha); Tyrell K.; Hall H.; Misener M.; Herman K.; Majoni S.W.; Gorham G.; Owen K . (Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri)
Purpose: Evidence suggests that patient navigators (PNs) can improve patient engagement, emotional wellbeing and clinical outcomes. This study explored how PNs influence the care experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living with kidney failure, from the perspectives of patients and health service staff. Methods: Qualitative data were collected through kidney journey mapping and yarning interviews across four kidney health services employing PNs in the Northern Territory and South Australia. Data were thematically analysed to understand patient care experiences with and without PN support. Main findings: Patients reported challenges around inadequate communication, difficulty accessing appropriate services and support, poor cultural safety, and the emotional toll of treatment. Support included family and patient networks, positive relationships with health staff, and holistic models of care. PNs played a supportive role by sharing their kidney journey experiences, providing cultural connection, peer support and bridging systemic gaps. Principle conclusions: PNs strengthened patient care experiences by addressing service gaps, improving cultural support and sharing from lived experience. Embedding PNs into standard kidney care is a critical step toward achieving culturally safe, equitable and responsive health systems.
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional well-being.
(2025-11-01) Dudgeon P.; Agung-Igusti R.; Derry K.; Gibson C.
Indigenous knowledges have sustained flourishing Indigenous communities for millennia. Colonization and its ongoing coloniality continue to cause a disruption to Indigenous peoples' flourishing, including health and well-being. Indigenous leaders, including psychologists, across the globe, participate in leadership roles to shift the colonial powers that exist within psychology and in health more broadly. That shift is essential, as it privileges Indigenous knowledges and praxis, and brings in truth-telling, practice-based evidence and Indigenous human rights. The colonial project, however, is centered on hegemonic Eurocentric knowledge systems, which continues to rationalize the dispossession of Indigenous lands, genocide of peoples, and the exploitation of the earth's resources. Psychology is complicit in perpetrating epistemic violence and practices, which continue ongoing transmissions of colonial oppression. Australian Indigenous psychologists drew on Indigenous leadership and knowledges to develop the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional well-being (SEWB) model. Since its development, the accumulating literature relating to SEWB is both prolific and illustrative of its positive outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The aim of this article is to provide a context of psychology's complicity and active participation in colonization and coloniality, in the Australian context; illustrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' leadership and advocacy, as an act of self-determination and epistemic justice; describe the foundations, development, and expansion of the SEWB model; and finally recommend strategies to support further expansion of SEWB and the decolonial turn in psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
Researching Adverse Childhood Experiences in the youth justice system: Reflections on methodology from a members of a non-Indigenous research team.
(2023-11-01) Day A.; Malvaso C.
Understanding the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has rapidly emerged as an important area of research that has implications for those who work in youth justice settings. This paper identifies a series of considerations facing those who work in jurisdictions where Indigenous or First Nations peoples have much higher levels of contact with both child protection and criminal justice systems than other population groups. It presents some reflections from members of a non-Indigenous research team about their efforts to engage with cultural perspectives on ACEs research in a way that facilitates further discussion within the research community about the methodological decisions that are made when investigating issues that are of importance to members of minority culture communities.
Developing novel smoking cessation resources for Aboriginal people who smoke tobacco and their healthcare providers: a mixed methods study.
(2025-11-28) Sharrad K.; Stewart S.; Marlow N.; Crozier A.J.; Gwilt I.; Esterman A.; Gould G.; Veale A.; Chong A.; Bromley H.; Carson-Chahhoud K.
Introduction: Many health professionals (HPs) are reluctant to offer smoking cessation advice to Aboriginal Australians who smoke; suggesting a need for better education to improve HP skills and knowledge to increase confidence. Previous studies exploring culturally relevant smoking cessation training for HPs have been effective among HPs working with Aboriginal Australians. Thus, identifying mechanisms to increase accessibility of these programs is an important public health issue. Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to enhance digital health interventions, and is effective and acceptable across a range of fields. Under the guidance of an Aboriginal advisory group, two sets of resources were developed; i) patient education and cessation resources for use by Aboriginal people who smoke, and ii) HP resources providing brief education to support Aboriginal patients who smoke. The aim of this study was to explore the acceptability of, and iteratively co-design these resources with HPs through qualitative interviews and questionnaires. Methods: HPs were recruited from two South Australian public hospitals between August 2020 and June 2021. One-on-one interviews were conducted with n=18 HPs, with transcripts coded using the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA). Results: Participants found that the AR-embedded patient resources provided engaging and relatable quit smoking support. The HP resources based on brief counselling techniques were considered a helpful reminder to prompt a smoking cessation conversation with Aboriginal patients. Conclusion: These resources were considered acceptable by HPs who treat Aboriginal Australians who smoke, and may serve as a useful adjunct to HP training sessions.