Partner organisations
This project is funded through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and supported by the University of Sydney, Central Queensland University, University of Technology Sydney, University of Queensland, Jirrbal Aboriginal Corporation, Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Corporation, Jagun Alliance Aboriginal Corporation, Wilya Janta Housing Collaboration, Waminda South Coast Women’s Health and Welfare Aboriginal Corporation, University of Adelaide and Health Translation SA.
Status
STAUNCH is funded from 2025 to 2029.
What drives the investigator team?
First Nation communities have voiced frustration over governments’ slow progress on their commitments to Closing the Gap reforms. STAUNCH will address these policy shortcomings by collaboratively generating new evidence on INB processes, empowering Nations to strengthen their capacity for effective self-governance and self-determined health and wellbeing. STAUNCH is First Nations led and comprises a highly collaborative, diverse and multidisciplinary team of First Nation community members, researchers, policymakers and health service providers. Nine out of the ten Chief Investigators are Aboriginal leaders in INB, health services research, holistic approaches to health, Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and cultural safety in healthcare.
What does STAUNCH focus on?
Our research program is outlined against four themes:
- Theme #1. Preparing Nations for (re-)building and collective self-governance. Objective: To build place-based knowledge on INB processes across diverse Nations for sustained and effective self-governance centred on community health and wellbeing.
- Theme #2. Preparing external governments and NGOs for new relational ways of working. Objective: To adapt and test Health in All Policies in a First Nations context.
- Theme #3. Develop new safety and quality measures for the ATSICCH sector to provide the evidence for self-determined health and wellbeing. Objective: Create health care standards and measures for reporting and accreditation purposes that align with comprehensive and culturally appropriate care.
- Theme #4. Creative knowledge synthesis, evaluation and translation. Objective: Use Arts Informed Indigenous Research (AIIR) to document and evaluate STAUNCH processes and outcomes and with a particular focus on relationality between key project stakeholders (Themes 1, 2 and 3).
What do we hope to achieve?
STAUNCH will:
1) document processes/evidence for establishing sustainable local self-governance to enable healthy futures;
2) adapt and test HiAP approaches to drive local First Nation-led agendas;
3) develop new healthcare safety and quality care standards and indicators to enhance the evidence base for self-determined holistic healthcare models; and
4) translate knowledges for structural reform including actionable plans for CtG priority reforms.
